Source: Metropolitan Government of Nashville & Davidson County
After decades of remaining unidentified, one of the victims of a gruesome double homicide from the 1980s has been named. According to a report by the Nashville Metro Police, Sheila Cummings, originally from Elgin, Illinois, was identified through DNA analysis as one of the two women found buried in a Charlotte Avenue home’s basement.
The case, which had gone cold, saw a breakthrough when a woman contacted the Cold Case Unit after a chance encounter with information online led her to believe her mother, who had been missing since 1984, might be one of the victims. The DNA collected from Cummings’ daughters matched, confirming her identity as one of the women James Shaffer confessed to having murdered. Shaffer, made the confession years after the bodies were discovered in shallow graves…