A John Doe has been determined almost 4 years after his skeletal remains were found along an abandoned path in Tennessee.
In a statement on June 7, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation revealed that genealogical DNA testing has actually verified the identity of the previously unknown murder victim as Jerry Harrison, of Little Rock, Ark., who last contacted his household in 1982– when he was around the age of 25– after he began taking a trip across the country..
On Aug. 24, 1986, Harrison’s skeletal remains were found by hunters along an isolated and deserted path in the Caney Valley area of Claiborne County, according to the declaration. At the time, detectives were unable to identify his identity, but did learn the victim was a white male, most likely between the ages of 30 and 40.
Authorities said the victim had actually been shot and his death was ruled a murder. Forensic anthropologists revealed the male had actually been dead for six months to a year prior to the discovery of his remains.
” After tiring all leads, detectives could not identify the victim’s identity, and he was classified as a John Doe,” the statement checks out. The case soon went cold.
In Sept. 2015, the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center submitted a sample of the guy’s remains to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification for DNA testing in an effort to recognize him, according to the declaration. His DNA profile was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Almost 7 years later on, in December 2022, private investigators had the ability to recognize possible family members connected to the victim after agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation sent a sample of the guy’s stays to a personal laboratory based in Texas for forensic hereditary genealogical DNA screening.
” A TBI intelligence analyst utilized that info to locate potential relative in Arkansas,” the declaration checks out. “Agents made contact with two of those individuals and validated they had a brother they had not heard from in more than four years.”.
” With the help of the Hot Springs Police Department and Pine Bluff Police Department in Arkansas, agents were able to obtain familial DNA requirements for possible brother or sisters of the male, which were submitted to the TBI Crime Lab in Knoxville for entry into CODIS,” the statement continues.
Now, representatives with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are asking for the public’s aid in offering info that might assist discover Harrison’s killer, and crack this cold case at last.
Anyone with information about the murder case, specifically any understanding about people Harrison might have been with before his death, is asked to call 1-800-TBI-FIND.
