An Indiana teen went missing in 1978. Decades later, her remains are identified in Tennessee

Skeletal remains found in Tennessee’s Cumberland Mountains have been identified, more than three decades later, as those of a 15-year-old girl who disappeared from her home in 1978.

Investigators now know “Baby Girl” is Tracy Sue Walker, who went missing from the area near Lafayette, Indiana. But the circumstances that brought Walker to Tennessee and led to her death are unknown, and agents from the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are asking the public for help determining how she ended up in Campbell County, near the Kentucky border north of Knoxville. 

Walker’s remains were found on April 3, 1985, according to the press release from TBI. Forensic anthropologists determined the skeletal remains were those of a white female, likely between the age of 10 and 15, but investigators could not determine her identity.

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In 2007, a sample of her remains was submitted to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification and a DNA profile was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System as well as the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, the release stated.

Although the case was revisited by a TBI agent and intelligence analyst in 2013, it would be nine more years before investigators got the break they needed. Earlier this year, a sample was sent to a private lab, with the help of the University of Tennessee Anthropology Department.

After forensic genetic genealogy testing, a possible match was found and potential family members in the Lafayette area were contacted.