The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), in conjunction with the Knox County Forensic Center, identified a man who was killed in a hit-and-run crash more than three decades ago.
“On May 24, 1993, the Knox County Sheriff’s Office responded to a report of a pedestrian being struck by a vehicle along Cedar Bluff Road in Knoxville,” TBI said in a press release. “The adult male, who had no identification on him, was pronounced deceased at the scene, and his body was sent for an autopsy.”
At the time, forensic pathologists concluded that the deceased man was between the ages of 51 and 60 but could not identify him with the technology available at the time.
The University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center sent a sample of his remains to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the man’s DNA profile was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS).
But no progress was made until 2022 when Knox County Regional Forensic Center (RFC) submitted a sample of the man’s remains to Othram Inc., a private lab in Texas, which used forensic genetic genealogical (FGG) DNA testing to identify possible relatives of the man.
“TBI agents used the information provided by Othram to locate and make contact with one of the potential family members and obtain a familial DNA standard,” according to the release. “That standard was then submitted to Othram for comparison against the DNA of the unidentified man.”
The man was determined to be Elbert Louis Brown, born in the York, South Carolina area in 1940. He was homeless and lost contact with his family in 1992, a year before his death.
TBI did not say whether it was looking into suspects in Brown’s death.
The law enforcement agency has been identifying cold case victims through its Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative.
In a December 2023 case, it identified Betty Lou Wisley, whose body was found discarded in a dumpster in 1987 after more than 30 years.
Before that, it identified Kenneth Levall Thompson of Detroit, who died in 1983.
The General Assembly made the initiative possible.
“In 2022, the Tennessee General Assembly recognized the need for specialized testing to fund a DNA cold case initiative, and approved one-time funding of $100,000,” according to TBI. “The funding is specifically being used for specialized forensic genetic genealogy testing in TBI cold cases in which the skeletal remains of a victim have not been identified.”
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
Photo “TBI Building” by Tennessee Bureau of Investigation.
