Skeletal remains found in Tennessee identified as missing Indiana girl

Posted at 8:43 AM, September 1, 2022 and last updated 1:42 AM, December 13, 2022

JACKSBORO, Tenn. (Scripps News Nashville) — Thirty-seven years ago, the skeletal remains of a child were found in the Big Wheel Gap area of Elk Valley in Campbell County, Tenn.

Now, nearly four decades later, the child has been identified and the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is hoping to find out what happened to her.

Tracy Sue Walker (TBI)

In 2007, a sample of her remains was submitted to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification and a DNA profile was developed in hopes of identifying her.

It would be six years before the case would be revisited again, and nine more years before a break in the case.

In June, a private laboratory was able to provide a possible relative connection to the child who was living in Indiana. After locating these potential family members, a TBI agent made contact with them in Lafayette, Indiana.

The family confirmed that they had a family member go missing from that area in 1978, and with the help of DNA, the child was positively identified as Tracy Sue Walker.

TBI Special Agents are hoping the public can help provide information that may help determine the circumstances leading to her death and how she ended up in Campbell County.

If you have information about this case or any knowledge about individuals Tracy may have been with before her death, please call 1-800-TBI-FIND.

This story was originally published Aug. 30 by WTVF in Nashville, an E.W. Scripps Company.

 

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