The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) Wednesday announced that it identified human remains from a cold case murder from 1986.
“On August 24, 1986, skeletal remains were discovered by hunters along an isolated and abandoned trail in the Caney Valley area of Claiborne County. TBI agents began working alongside the Claiborne County Sheriff’s Office in investigating the death,” TBI said. “Forensic anthropologists determined that the skeletal remains were those of a white male, likely between the age of 30 and 40. The victim had been shot, and his death was ruled a homicide.”
At the time, the University of Tennessee Anthropology Department determined that the man had been deceased for six months before his remains were found. But with no suspect in the case and no way to identify the man, he was put into the system as a John Doe.
After a lengthy process that involved new technology, the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI) identified the man as Jerry Harrison, born in 1957 in Little Rock, Arkansas. Harrison lost contact with his family in 1982, four years before his death.
In 2015, the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center sent a sample of Harrison’s remains to UNTCHI, according to TBI.
“A DNA profile was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in hopes that the man would eventually be identified,” the release said.
More than six years later, a combination of experts, including those from TBI, identified Harrison.
TBI explained:
In December, as part of the Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative, TBI agents submitted a sample of the man’s remains to Othram Inc., a private lab based in Texas, for forensic genetic genealogical DNA testing. Scientists provided information about possible relatives connected to the man. A TBI intelligence analyst used that information to locate potential family members in Arkansas. Agents made contact with two of those individuals and confirmed they had a brother they had not heard from in more than four decades. With the assistance of the Hot Springs Police Department and Pine Bluff Police Department in Arkansas, agents were able to obtain familial DNA standards for possible siblings of the man, which were submitted to the TBI Crime Lab in Nashville for entry into CODIS.
Though the mystery of Harrison’s identity has been solved, the cold case is only half-solved.
Now, TBI wants to identify Harrison’s killer and the agency is asking for help from the public.
“If you have information about this homicide, specifically any knowledge about individuals Mr. Harrison may have been with before his death, please call 1-800-TBI-FIND,” TBI said.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Building” by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
