Woman's Skeletal Remains found La Vergne, TN Nov.2007

[Nut44x4]

Skeletal Remains That Of Shooting Victim
Officials Say Remains Not Of Nikki Sisounong (NIKKI was found later on)

UPDATED: 11:44 am CST November 20, 2007

LaVERGNE, Tenn. -- Officials said some remains found in LaVergne last week are those of a shooting victim.

Police said they aren't sure who she is, but said she was shot in the head.

A police officer found the remains off Hollandale Road. Officials said her body had apparently been there for close to five months.

Investigators said they hope personal items found at the scene will help them figure out who she is. Police had been patrolling the area during recent nights amid reports about activity involving teens. An officer first spotted the bones during a patrol.

On Thursday, they found more bones along with a bullet, human hair, a ring and a charm bracelet.

They hoped those new items will help identify the body.

The remains were sent to a forensic lab where they underwent DNA testing in hopes of making an identification.

Investigators last week said that the bones were not those of Nikki Sisounong, a local mother who has been missing since Halloween.

“It is not a child or a teenager. To my best estimate right now, it would be an adult female,” Thompson said. “I don't want to go into too many details, but it is evident that this was a result of criminal activity."

http://www.wsmv.com/news/14599003/detail.html

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Reconstructed Skull
Investigators Hope To Solve Mystery

POSTED: 11:18 am CST February 27, 2008
UPDATED: 11:48 am CST February 27, 2008


LaVERGNE, Tenn. -- Police said they hope what's waiting for them in Knoxville will help them solve a slaying mystery.

LaVergne Police Chief Ted Boyd left Wednesday morning to pick up a reconstructed skull from the University of Tennessee’s forensic scientist.

Investigators said they hope the facial reconstruction will help them identify the woman whose remains were found in a wooded area last fall.

Her bones were found along with a bullet, human hair and jewelry. Police said the woman was likely killed and dumped late last spring or early summer.
http://www.wsmv.com/news/15426038/detail.html

[Nut44x4]

Facial reconstruction made on skull found in La Vergne
Originally published February 28, 2008
LA VERGNE — Using facial reconstruction to identify a murder victim has only happened twice in Rutherford County.

The most recent case involves the remains of a woman found in a wooded area along Hollandale Road in November. Investigators took the remains to Joanna Hughes, a forensic artist, at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville last month in order for her to reconstruct facial features.

 Hughes finished up her work Tuesday.

"(District Attorney) Bill Whitesell told us during a meeting that there was only one other time it had been used in Rutherford County and that it worked. That's why he was on board with us doing it," said Chief Ted Boyd. "Until we find out who this person is, we don't know which way to go."

Boyd did not know details about the first case and Whitesell did not return a phone call seeking the answer.

The woman's remains, along with several pieces of jewelry, were found as police searched for clues related to the disappearance of Nikki Sisounong, whose body was eventually recovered near Clarksville.

According to reports from the state medical examiner's office, the remains belonged to an African-American female between the ages of 25 and 47 and approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall. In addition to the skull, a nearly completed skeleton was found. The woman had been shot in the top of the head with a 9 mm gun.

Detective Sgt. Mike Mullen said the gunshot wound wasn't the only injury the woman sustained.

"We believe she was stabbed in the top of the head, near the forehead. We're speculating anything from a double-edged knife to a screwdriver. We can kind of see some scrapings on the skull and the (object used) had two sides. She was stabbed approximately four times," he said.

The woman's wrists and feet were also bound with a green cord, similar to that used on a yard trimmer. Some bones still had ligaments attached to them when they were located.

Several pieces of jewelry were found nearby, including a bracelet with at least eight feline photos in it manufactured by Avon, a bracelet with ceramic beads bound with a dark cord, and a ring believed to be gold-plated with light blue and amber-colored stones.

Murfreesboro resident Darla Molloy said she saw two pieces of the jewelry at least two years ago.

She said she can't remember how exactly where she was that day, but said it was likely at an antique shop in downtown Murfreesboro.

"The cat bracelet stands out to me ... I thought they were jewels and my daughter told me they were cat heads. I remember asking (the clerk) about the ring, if it was real. She kind of looked at me like, 'You tell me,'" Molloy said. "I don't think she ever said a word to me, but I don't remember her being black."

After seeing the items in the newspaper, Molloy said she spent several days pulling the memory together and driving around the area looking for the shop she may have been in.

"I never could find it," she said.

Mullen said many of the reconstructions Hughes does are from cold cases, but this one was bumped to the top of her list because it is an active investigation. According to her Web site, longpauses.com/hughes, she spends about 40 hours on a facial recreation. She took two courses in the subject before becoming the University of Tennessee's first forensic art graduate in 2002.

Skulls are cleaned and fixed to a base before Hughes uses clay to develop the facial features. Natural markers on the skull show her where muscles and other tissue were attached to the bone and other details about the facial features.

Her first project involved two women found together in a wooded area in Virginia. A woman saw Hughes' work and identified one as her sister.

Mullen said reconstructions are not supposed to be an exact replication of a person's face, but close enough to generate a possible identity.

"Some can be dead-on, they're definitely in close proximity. We're not using this to say this is what she definitely looked like, but it gives the public a description," Mullen said.

"We were lucky and blessed we found the remains in the same year. The area she was found in is remote," he added.

Mullen was to pick the skull up Wednesday, but did not due to the weather. It is possible he will get it later this week or early next week.

http://www.dnj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080228/NEWS01/802280322

[Nut44x4]

Detectives hope someone recognizes her and helps solve the crime.

"Without the identity of this person, we're pretty much at a dead end because we don't have anybody to work with," said La Vergne Police Chief Ted Boyd. "We don't know where this person comes from, who to talk to, who they're associated with."

 http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?S=7930391
 
 
 


 

[Nut44x4]

Police Hope Facial Reconstruction IDs Victim

Posted: Feb 28, 2008 07:06 PM EST

LA VERGNE, Tenn. - A new facial reconstruction made of a skull found in La Vergne has yielded a possible lead for police.

A forensic artist in Knoxville sculpted a woman's face based on a skull sent from the La Vergne Police Department.

A Midstate woman thinks she knows the victim's identity.

Police hope the reconstructed face will identify the woman. The victim is identified as an African-American woman in her mid-30s to 40s. She was about 5 feet 6 inches tall.

Police said someone called them after pictures of the sculpted face appeared in local media. The caller said there was a striking resemblance to a woman she knew.

For about two months, Evelyn Tate Spaulding lived in Cookeville.

"We were almost like family for a month and a half," said the woman, who took the woman in briefly. "We got close. She got to liking the dogs."

But Spaulding and her boyfriend left in November 2006.

"Last I heard they moved to Nashville," said the woman, who didn't want her name disclosed to the public.

The woman said she hasn't seen her in years, but remembered her when she saw pictures created from a skull reconstruction. La Vergne police found the skull in a remote part of Rutherford County.

"The eyes kind of stand out," the friend said. "The nose kind of stands out. The hair definitely. It's kind of spooky, actually.

"There's enough look alike there for us to proceed to find this lady," said La Vergne Police Chief Ted Boyd.

Spaulding fits many of the descriptions of the unknown murder victim- height, weight, when she was last seen. And Boyd said Spaulding may have been in danger.

"There had been some violence and it's possible the lady has been in a shelter at one time," he said.

This is only a tip, but it's just the kind of tip police hoped the skull reconstruction would generate.

"Leads like this are what we need and hopefully we can come to some closure to find out who this person is," Boyd said.

Police plan to look into the whereabouts of Evelyn Tate Spaulding. 

"There are some similarities, but I'm hoping to God it's not her," said the friend.

Investigators said their first goal is to find out if Spaulding is alive and well. If anyone knows her whereabouts, they should call police.

Police still hope they receive other tips.

http://www.newschannel5.com/Global/story.asp?s=7942831

[pdh3]

Thanks Nut44!
This case is just very fascinating. Forensic artists must surely be led by a Higher Power, because what they do is truly amazing.  I also think God must have led that guy to find this poor woman's remains. Maybe her family will recognize her and give her peace and dignity at last.

[Nut44x4]

NEW VIDEO...still no identity, but Evelyn Tate was ruled out. Seems others were ruled out, as well. AMW plans to go there and do a segment on this.
http://www.wsmv.com/video/18735859/index.html

Homicide Investigation Solves Other Cases
Found Bones Reopen, Solve Missing Persons Cases
Reported By Jonathan Martin

POSTED: 3:59 pm CST February 17, 2009
UPDATED: 6:47 pm CST February 17, 2009
LAVERGNE, Tenn. -- There's a face reconstructed with clay, a bracelet and ring -- all big clues, but there are no solid answers more than a year later.
Still, every day, even when they're off, LaVergne police detectives keep at it, refusing to let this homicide go unsolved.

"This female has a mother, has a family, has a father, and we're trying to bring closure to a family that might not even know that their daughter is harmed," said Sgt. Mike Mullen.

It was November 2007. Detectives were searching for one woman and stumbled upon another woman in a wooded area in LaVergne. Police said they woman had been stabbed, shot in the head and tied up and that there was jewelry on her body.

Police said the woman was black, between 35 and 49 years old and had been dumped there sometime in summer 2007.

The question remains: Who is she?

"It's very important that we get this case closed," said Mullen.

The mystery surrounding the unidentified woman has recently brought closure to several middle Tennessee families.

For example, Evelyn Tate's loved ones thought she was the slain woman. A search by the LaVergne police found Tate was living in Atlanta.

Police said they've been able to solve several local missing person cases while investigating this homicide.

"It did make us feel good we was able to help those citizens that thought it was a family member, which we actually found live and well just in different parts of other states," said Mullen.

Still, the mystery of Jane Doe remains, and until a name is put with her face, justice is unlikely.

LaVergne police said "America's Most Wanted" is planning to do a segment on this case. Police hope that national exposure will provide a break in the case.
http://www.wsmv.com/news/18734497/detail.html

[Nut44x4]

Listed now at Doe Network
Good photos
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/94uftn.html