The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) identified the remains of another cold case victim, according to a Thursday press release from the organization.
Betty Lou Wisley, born on December 30, 1935 and originally from Clinton, Missouri, was identified as the Jane Doe whose body was discovered on August 29, 1987, in Roane County. Wisley (pictured above) had been placed behind a dumpster.
“Forensic anthropologists determined that the remains were those of a white female, likely between the ages of 35 and 50,” according to the release. “The victim had been burned after her death and discarded beside the dumpster. Investigators with the Roane County Sheriff’s Office worked to determine the identity of the victim through the use of technology available in 1987, but their efforts were not successful.”
Wisley was eventually classified as a Jane Doe, and her identity remained a mystery for decades.
As technology progressed, Wisley’s remains were sent to the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center in 2009, where a DNA profile was built and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS). Authorities hoped for a DNA match from the database, but none was ever found.
But as technology has progressed even further, Tennessee has worked to continue identifying cold case victims.
Wisley’s identification efforts are part of Tennessee’s Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative, in which law enforcement agencies have partnered with Othram Inc., a private forensics lab based in Texas, to conduct forensic genetic genealogical (FGG) DNA testing on cold case victims.
It was through that process that Wisely was identified.
Wisley’s killer has never been identified, but TBI and the Roane County Sheriff’s Office are asking for tips now that Wisley’s identity is known in hopes of solving the case.
Many other victims have been identified through the state initiative, whose mission is to “determine the identities of the victims so that we can develop information and potential leads about the circumstances leading to each person’s disappearance and death.”
As reported by The Tennessee Star in July, TBI worked with Othram to identify the remains of Michelle Lavone Inman of Nashville, born April 17, 1961, who was the victim of a 1985 homicide.
A month earlier, TBI announced that it had identified the remains of Jerry Harrison, of Little Rock, Arkansas, who was born in 1957 and lost contact with his family in 1982. His remains were discovered four years later, in 1986, after he was shot to death.
At least three more sets of unidentified human remains have been identified through the initiative.
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Pete D’Abrosca is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Pete on Twitter/X.
