Description
On February 14, 1975 two hunters found human skeletal remains in a wooded area 2 miles from Joe Brown Rd off Highway 99 East near I-65 in Maury County, Tennessee. Also found near the body were bones from a puppy. A red shell blouse, flowered blue slacks, female undergarments, and black Italian-made wedge shoes were found with her remains. A forensic anthropologist concluded the deceased was a Black/African American female about 5’ 4″ tall, weighing approximately 132 pounds, with black hair. Authorities speculate she had been in an automobile accident or run over by a car during the autumn of 1974, 6-9 months prior to being found.
NamUs ID: UP1588
NCMEC ID: 1184255
Date Body Found: February 14, 1975
Race: Black / African American
Gender: Female
Estimated Age: 15-25
Estimated PMI: Months
Location: Maury County, TN
Agency of Jurisdiction
Maury County Sheriff’s Department
Keith Wrather, Detective Sargent
931-375-8689 or 931-388-5151
[email protected]
Link to More Information
https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/1588/
http://www.missingkids.com/poster/NCMU/1184255/1
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/907uftn.html
https://crimewatchers.net/forum/index.php?threads/maury-county-jane-doe-bf-15-25-found-in-wooded-area-with-puppy-feb-1975.6699/
Image Credit: NCMEC
Status: Identified
Maury County, TN – The Maury County Sheriff’s Office and the DNA Doe Project have successfully identified the remains of a woman found in 1975 as Annie Carolyn Jenkins.
On Valentine’s Day in 1975, hunters discovered the skeletal remains of an unidentified black woman off Highway 99 East in Maury County. The woman, who came to be known as “Maury County Jane Doe”, appeared to be in her late teens or early 20s and showed signs of trauma. Despite an extensive investigation by local authorities at the time, her identity remained a mystery for more than 48 years.
In 2019, the Maury County Sheriff’s Office brought the case to the DNA Doe Project to try investigative genetic genealogy, a new technique using DNA relative matches to Jane Doe to build a family tree and find her name. Donors to the nonprofit organization funded the expensive lab work needed to produce a DNA profile from the Jane Doe’s severely degraded remains. It would take the efforts of four forensic labs over three years, but by the summer of 2022, Astrea Forensics and Kevin Lord had successfully created the profile and it was uploaded to GEDmatch.com, an online database used by law enforcement.
“It was particularly difficult to extract enough DNA to build a workable profile for this case,” said Kevin Lord, Director of Lab Logistics, “We worked through three samples over two years to get enough data to build a profile. Astrea Forensics really came through for us on this case.”
When the expert volunteer investigative genetic genealogists with DNA Doe Project started their work, they quickly pieced together one side of the Jane Doe’s family. But their research stalled when they tried to find the other half of the “union couple”, the parents of Jane Doe.
“We were working with too few, too distant matches – sort of like trying to do a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle with only 20 of the pieces,” said Lorrie Burns, a volunteer who worked on the case since its beginning. “The picture was incomplete, and we couldn’t tell how they connected.”
But, the team didn’t give up, committing more than 530 hours to the genealogical research. They narrowed the search to a handful of the closest family members, and Detective Keith Wrather of the Maury County Sheriff’s Department made contact, confirming that the family had been searching for Annie Jenkins since she boarded a plane in 1974 and disappeared.
“It’s an honor and a privilege to be a small part of this incredible team effort to return the identity of Annie Carolyn Jenkins, and to ensure that her family has some answers,” said team leader Traci Onders. “The pain of the ambiguity of a missing sister or daughter is hard to even imagine, and our hearts are with the Lipscomb family as they absorb the news of Annie’s loss.”
The DNA Doe Project is grateful to the groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Maury County Sheriff’s Office, who entrusted the case to the DNA Doe Project; Astrea Forensics for extraction of DNA and sample prep for whole-genome sequencing; HudsonAlpha Discovery, Lakehead University’s Paleo-DNA Lab, and The University of North Texas Center for Human Identification for additional lab work; Kevin Lord for bioinformatics; GEDmatch Pro and FTDNA for providing their databases; our generous donors who joined our mission and contributed to this case; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists who work tirelessly to bring all our Jane and John Does home.
Doe-Nate Fund Goal: $4,300.
This was a Doe-Nate Funded case. This goal of $4,300 to pay for required lab testing and DNA extraction was fully raised from targeted and general public donations. Thank you to our generous donors who contributed to this important project.
Partial funding by a generous donation from audiochuck
Last Updated: September 6, 2024
