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TBI asking for help identifying decades-old remains of East Tennessee girl Save Email Print
Posted: 1:58 PM Jul 16, 2008
Last Updated: 8:46 AM Jul 17, 2008

Investigators believe this is what the face of a girl may have looked like whose remains were found in Campbell County in 1985. (Photo Courtesy: Tennessee Bureau of Investigation)

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Sand Gap, Tenn (WVLT) - The remains of a young girl are found on an East Tennessee hillside and now more than 20 years later, with modern day techniques, investigators hope someone can help identify her.

Volunteer TV's Heather Haley has more on this cold case where a child remains un-named.

The skeletal remains of the little girl was found in 1985 in Campbell County, but after all of these years investigators hope today's technology will help to figure out who she is.

What Caryville Police Chief Bill Widener sees, and what you see on this hill side in the Sand Gap area are two different things.

"It flashes back the body out here that needs to be identified," Widener said.

Back in 1985, Widener was a special investigator for the sheriff's department, called to the scene where a skull was found.

"We talked to an individual, showed us the skill and we looked around as much as we could and found a couple more small bones," Widener said.

Crime scene investigators then called in forensic anthropologist Doctor William Bass, who still has the crime scene photos hoping to close the case. Parts of the small skeleton where spread out over the side of the mountain on an old strip mine site.

"So it was somebody that knew the area, that knew that not that many people get back here," Bass said.

A small necklace, some buttons and scraps of clothing were all that was left with the small bones, but with the recovery of the girl's jaw bone and bottom teeth, Dr. Bass was able to determine her age to be somewhere around 11 and 13 years old when she died.

"This is the second molar that comes in at 12 years of age," Bass said.

And the filling in her other molars revealed something else to Bass...

"Here's somebody who grew up in a family that valued dental care," Bass said.

With two years worth of leaves covering the young girl's bones Dr. Bass believes she actually died in 1983.

"And so here we have a year and a half, 2 year old tree growing up through the vertebrae," Bass said.

Now 23 years later, Bass and Widener want to put a name with a case.

"The family needs closure, that kids needs to be buried," Widener said.

Only 32 bones of the hundreds in the child's body were found, but using the skull and facial bones investigators have put together this mold of what the young girl looked like. They also have DNA and dental records for her.

If you have any information on the identity of the girl you are urged to contact the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-TBI-FIND (824-3463).

Investigators hope today's technology that allows them to now have the mold will also bring them the young girl's name.

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JELLICO, Tenn. (WVLT) -- The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is asking for the public's help in identifying a young girl whose skeletal remains were found in Campbell County in 1985.

The bones were found on April 3 by a passerby about four miles from Jellico on Big Wheel Gap Road. The child is believed to have been between 11 and 13 years old.

The TBI says her "her body had been in the elements for more than a year."

Investigators only found 32 bones, but there was enough of the girl's skull intact to allow for face reconstruction.

Pieces of a bracelet, plastic buttons, and scraps of clothing were also found at the the scene.

The TBI has the girls dental records and DNA on file.

Anyone with information is asked to call 1-800-TBI-FIND.

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