Lab to analyze bones found in 1980s

Submitted photo These clothes were found with skeletal remains in 1981. [Click to enlarge]

The Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department recently unearthed an unsolved homicide from 1981 in the hopes that newer forensic methods may shed some light on the identity and the death of the victim, chief deputy David James said.

Investigators were never able to link either the skeletal remains of the body, or the skull, which was found seven years later, to any missing people. The bones, along with some clothing and shoes, were housed in a basement closet at Southeast Missouri State University, the case file shelved in an archive.

The sheriff at the time the skull was found hadn't been aware that the rest of the body had already been discovered and thought the skull may date back to an American Indian burial ground, James said.

Several sheriffs went in and out of office, and employees came and left, and no one passed along information about the case.

When a former sheriff's deputy recently called the department inquiring about the bones, James said his initial reaction was "What bones?"

The deputy, who worked during the 1980s, remembered the case and wondered if serial killer Tommy Lynn Sells could have committed the crime.

His inquiry prompted investigators to begin digging through files and photographs in the archive center.

These socks and shoes were found with skeletal remains found near Oak Ridge in 1981. [Click to enlarge]

The remains were discovered April 6, 1981, in a wooded area just east of Oak Ridge. According to an anthropologist, they belonged to a white male between the ages of 20 and 40 and between 5-feet-9 and 5-feet-11 in height.

A mushroom hunter found the skull April 13, 1988, in a nearby creek. The skull was sent to the crime lab and transported to the Southeast Anthropology Department for analysis.

Investigators plan to send the remains to the crime lab to see if a DNA profile can be extracted from the bones and teeth, James said.

That evidence can possibly be entered into a missing persons database.

Only three missing adults from the area who are still unaccounted for today surfaced in reports dating back that far, but the dental records did not match any of those, James said.

The remains indicate a shooting death, but James said dating the skeleton could prove extremely difficult, and there's no telling exactly how long the remains had been in the woods.

"For all we know, it could be Jimmy Hoffa," he said.

The clothing found with the remains -- green pants, a khaki-colored shirt with short sleeves, and black loafers adorned with a metal buckle across the instep -- could help identify the victim if recognized by family members, James said.

Putting a name and face to the victim is the first priority right now, James said.

bdicosmo@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 245

Site where police found skeletal remains

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