NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Detectives with the Metro Nashville Police Department announced that a suspect has been positively identified in connection with a 1998 cold case.
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According to a Wednesday press release from the MNPD, 41-year-old Carolyn Fisher’s body had been found alongside Interstate 40 East near the Jefferson Street exit on May 22, 1998. An investigation revealed she was sexually assaulted prior to her death. While DNA evidence collected from the scene was determined to be from the same man, no matches were reported for more than two decades.
In 2020, an MNPD detective submitted the DNA to ancestry research databases; the department said a private genealogy research company discovered a potential match in 2023. The suspect, 39-year-old Michael Anthony Bean, was murdered on June 23, 1998. Bean’s murder was unrelated to Fisher’s death, police added.
The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation tested Bean’s DNA, which was collected by the Medical Examiner’s Office, against the evidence from Fisher’s homicide scene and found it was a positive match.
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Metro police said based on DNA results, it’s thought no one else other than Bean was involved in Fisher’s murder. No further details were immediately released…