The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) has partially cracked another cold case, this time identifying a woman whose remains were found in Cheatham County in 1985.
Michelle Lavone Inman of Nashville, born April 17, 1961, was identified by a private lab called Othram, Inc., according to a TBI release.
In 1985, when Inman’s body was found, TBI worked with the Cheatham County Sheriff’s Office to investigate. With the technology at the time, forensic anthropologists at the University of Tennessee could only say that the remains were those of a white female, and that she had been dead for some months prior to her discovery.
But thanks to a General Assembly measure that allocated funding for TBI to help crack cold cases, a DNA sample from Inman’s remains was sent in 2018 to University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI). A DNA profile was then entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), a national registry for missing and unidentified persons.
DNA profile in hand, TBI then went in search of potential relatives whose DNA they could test against Inman’s in hopes of gaining a positive identification:
In December, as part of the Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative, TBI agents submitted a sample of the woman’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 woman. A TBI intelligence analyst used that information to locate potential family members in Virginia. Agents made contact with a family member and confirmed that he had a sister he had not heard from in more than four decades. Agents obtained a DNA standard from the man to be compared against the victim’s DNA utilizing forensic genetic genealogy.
The DNA profile from the family member matched Inman’s and she was positively identified.
TBI is now asking the public to come forward with any information they may know about the circumstances surrounding Inman’s death, which was ruled a homicide when her remains were initially found in 1985.
As reported by The Tennessee Star, TBI cracked a similar case, identifying a man named Jerry Harrison of Little Rock, Arkansas, who had been missing since 1986. Harrison’s family had lost contact with him years before his death, which was also ruled a homicide.
TBI is also asking the public for any information they can provide in that case.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter.
Photo “Michelle Inman” by TBI and “Indian Camp Creek” is by Brian Stansberry CC3.0.
