Skeletal bones discovered nearly 40 years ago in Tennessee have been definitively identified as those of a missing Indiana adolescent. They are still trying to determine how the girl got so far away from home.

According to a press statement issued by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation on April 3, 1985, the remains of a White female, estimated to be between the ages of 10 and 15, were located in Campbell County. Authorities lovingly referred to her as “Baby Girl” when they were unable to positively identify her.

This week, the skeletal remains of Tracy Sue Walker, who disappeared in 1978 from Lafayette, Indiana, were positively identified by experts at the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification (UNTCHI).

TBI Special Agents are “hoping the public may help contribute information that may help determine the circumstances leading to Tracy Sue Walker’s death and how she wound up in Campbell County,” as they put it.

The remains were identified via forensic genetic genealogy testing, which has been important in solving several cold cases in recent years.

The DNA profile was created and entered into the Combined DNA Index System and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in 2007, more than 20 years after the remains were discovered, according to investigators.

The remains were transferred to Othram, a specialized laboratory that specializes in forensic genetic genealogy testing, in 2013 and again earlier this year. According to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, in June the lab identified an Indiana resident as a possible relative of the missing child.

Families were contacted by investigators, and it was established that a member of the family had vanished in 1978. This week, the UNTCHI was able to positively identify the girls thanks to DNA samples provided by relatives who are believed to be the children’ siblings.

Anyone with information concerning Walker’s death or who she was with just prior to her death is asked to call authorities at 1-800-TBI-FIND.

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