CHEATHAM COUNTY, Tenn. (WTVF) — The skeletal remains of a Tennessee teen were finally publicly identified Wednesday as part of the United Human Remains DNA Initiative.
Linda Sue Karnes, 16, remains were found in Ashland City's former old landfill for Cheatham County in 1981. At the time, the University of Tennessee Anthropology Department configured the remains belonged to a young, white female around 14 to 17 years old. They also estimated her body had been there between three to nine months before she was found. Prior to her death, she had lived in the Montgomery County Girls Home in Clarksville. She previously grew up in Cunningham.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said authorities at the time couldn't identify her and had to classify her remains as Jane Doe.
Her case was nudged forward in 2007, the UT Forensic Anthropology Center submitted a sample of her remains to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification. They created a DNA profile for her and entered it into the CODIS system and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System in hopes of figuring out who she was.
The case moved forward in December as part of the Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative when TBI agents submitted a sample of her remains to a private lab for genetic genealogical testing. It was then scientists provided information about possible relatives connected to Karnes.
The TBI said one of its analysts was able to connect with some of her family in Middle Tennessee and Florida. They were able to confirm with those family members they had not seen or heard from Karnes in more than four decades.
TBI special agents are hoping the public can help provide information that may help solve the murder of Karnes. If you have information about this homicide, specifically any knowledge about individuals Linda may have been with before her death, please call 1-800-TBI-FIND.
