KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A 35-year-old Knoxville man’s remains were unidentified for longer than he was alive, but now that DNA technology has helped identify him, one investigator says the case is really “just starting to take off.”
Earlier this year, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation announced that skeletal remains discovered in the East Miller’s Cove Area of Blount County near Walland on April 4, 1981, had been identified as William Thomas “Tommy” Green. Through Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG), Othram, a private laboratory in Texas that specializes in the technique, helped the TBI and Blount County Sheriff’s Office identify a member of Green’s family and confirm his identity.
While that explanation is highly simplified, on Thursday, Othram released a video featuring several individuals who have worked on Green’s case detailing how the investigation progressed from a bone fragment found in an isolated, wooded area at the base of a mountain, to where the investigation stands today.
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According to BCSO Captain James Trentham, part of Green’s bones were initially found by a pair of hunters in an isolated area near Walland, and those hunters called the sheriff’s office. The remains were taken to the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center, where an anthologist confirmed that the bones belonged to a human…