Teen’s remains now identified four decades later. Search for her killer continues

Human remains found in an old landfill have been identified four decades later as a teenage girl — but a search for her killer continues, officials said.

The mystery dates to October 1981, when skeletal remains were found in Ashland City. The remains were believed to have belonged to a girl who had died three to nine months earlier, according to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI).

“After exhausting all leads, investigators could not determine the victim’s identity, and she was classified as a Jane Doe,” state officials wrote in a news release. “It would be many years later before DNA technology would catch up and aid in providing information in this case.”

Then on Aug. 16, investigators announced a development in the cold case. DNA testing helped to identify the girl as Linda Sue Karnes, who would have been 16 years old at the time her remains were discovered.

Mystery lingered for 42 years after Linda was found dead off Tennessee Highway 249. DNA first helped the case pick up steam in 2007, when a sample of her remains was submitted for profiling. Then in 2022, a sample also went to the Othram lab, which does genetic analyses to help determine family relationships, officials said.

“A TBI intelligence analyst used that information to locate potential family members in Middle Tennessee and Florida,” investigators wrote. “Agents made contact with several of those family members and confirmed they had a family member they had not heard from in more than four decades.”

Relatives’ DNA confirmed the girl was Linda, who was from Cleveland, Ohio, and later lived in Cunningham, Tennessee. She had “spent time in the Montgomery County Girls Home in Clarksville,” officials said.

Though the TBI in an email to McClatchy News didn’t reveal how Linda was killed, it continues to search for clues. People with information about how Linda died or those she may have spent time with in her final days are asked to call 800-824-3463.

Ashland City is in Cheatham County, roughly 20 miles northwest of downtown Nashville.

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