Skeletal remains found in Tennessee identified nearly 40 years later as Indiana teen
The remains of a teen girl have been identified nearly 40 years after they were discovered in Tennessee, authorities said.
The skeletal remains were found on April 3, 1985, in Campbell County, but detectives for decades struggled to uncover her identity. At the time, they speculated that she was likely between the ages and 10 and 15 years old, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said in a news release.
The victim was known only as “Baby Girl” until earlier this week, when the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification was able to positively identify the remains as belonging to Tracy Sue Walker. She vanished from the Lafayette, Ind., area in 1978, when she was about 15.
Despite the major breakthrough in the case, authorities still know very little about the circumstances leading up to Walker’s death.
“Now, TBI Special Agents hope the public can help provide information that may help determine the circumstances leading to Tracy Sue Walker’s death and how she ended up in Campbell County,” investigators said.
Authorities credited advances in the development of DNA technology in recent years with their break in the case.
In 2007, investigators submitted the teen’s DNA to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, and a DNA profile was created for her in the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System — often called CODIS — as well as the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Authorities revisited the case in 2013, but they did not learn anything new until last year, when a sample of the child’s remains was sent to Othram, a private lab in Texas that has assisted law enforcement in several cold cases.
Scientists there uncovered a possible relative of Walker in Indiana, who later confirmed to authorities that the child disappeared years ago.
Authorities have asked anyone with information about Walker’s death, or anyone who may know who she was with prior to her death, to contact 1-800-TBI-FIND.
