Identified! TN - Jellico, Big Wheel Gap Rd, WhtFem 9-15, 482UFTN, button necklace, bracelet, shoes, Apr'85 - Tracy Sue Walker

[chaddylex]

After 37 years, Elk Valley Jane Doe is Identified

Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Teams with Othram to Identify Elk Valley Jane Doe

dnasolves.com

I just commented on your Facebook page. I have been trying to figure out who she was for the last 18 years or so. (since I started this hobby) Thank you so much for giving her name back and all you do for the missing and unidentified.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Lafayette is pretty far from Big Wheel Gap - I wonder how she ended up there.

 

[Sweetluv]

One of the cases I have followed as well. Thank you othram!!
RIP Tracy!

 

[chaddylex]

View attachment 362639
Lafayette is pretty far from Big Wheel Gap - I wonder how she ended up there.

I would love to know more about her disappearance. She was only 15 - was she ever reported missing? This Jane Doe holds close to my heart.

 

[Beekarina]

Wow! Great work @othram

The bust actually does resemble Tracy a bit. That so rarely happens.

Looks like a pretty straight path on a highway. I hope they learn what happened to her, and some justice.

 

[HmmMysterious]

RIP Tracy. She went missing in 1978 seven years before she was found. That was longer than the estimated post-mortem interval. I also noticed that the first post about her ID was made on Page 15- Tracy was 15 when she vanished.

 

[othram]

So many of these cases can be solved if we have funding + good quality lab work.

 

[Earth]

View attachment 362639
Lafayette is pretty far from Big Wheel Gap - I wonder how she ended up there.

Lafeyette is an hour away from where Tina Farmer was last seen. I think that their killer (identified as Jerry Leon Johns) might have been the same. The bodies were found quite close together.

 

[MadMcGoo]

I wonder if something happened to her shortly after her disappearance or closer to the 1-4 year PMI. After identifications I know we all would like to see justice served for their murders. Like so many, she was just a baby. ETA: As always, hats off to your team @othram !!

Rest peacefully now Tracy Sue.

 

[Awsi Dooger]

View attachment 362639
Lafayette is pretty far from Big Wheel Gap - I wonder how she ended up there.

Maybe she was enticed up there to get caught up in the sudden hoopla over Purdue football. Just a guess. Probably not. We don't know what time of the year she went missing. But as soon as I hear Lafayette and 1978 I associate it with adjacent West Lafayette, home of the sudden resurgence of Purdue football. It would have been big news across the state and region, with people wanting to be a part of it and attend a game.

Purdue had been mediocre to lousy for a full decade until the unexpected surge in 1978, including an early season upset of Ohio State. They became nationally ranked and played several high profile games televised by ABC. Attendance went way up. It was one of the best seasons in school history including a lopsided bowl victory.

That's all I've got. I don't try to identify Does but I do have the ability to look at a date and location and immediately associate it with situational influence of the time frame.

 

[Vern]

View attachment 362639
Lafayette is pretty far from Big Wheel Gap - I wonder how she ended up there.

It is a bit of a drive; I'm thinking that Big Wheel Gap only served as the site where she was placed after death and that she was killed closer to home. It was a great way to delay/prohibit identification of victims and solving of crimes/linkage to a speciic individual way back then. We are talking 1970s here so agencies even within a state didn't communicate well with each other, let alone a couple of states away. Picked up near home while hitchhiking (common back then) by someone travelling south east, murdered then dumped further along the killer's route? Trucker?? Red Head murder series seems to line up ... especially now that we see the map. First known in serial was 1975, then a series gap until 1981 ... Jerry Johns suspected and now-DNA proven in at least one of those cases (now deceased).

 

[sunnynz]

This article has a little more info, including Tracy’s DOB which made her 15 at the time of her disappearance. Tennessee Investigators Identify 'Baby Girl' as Teenager Who Went Missing from Indiana in 1978

 

[dotr]

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[Beekarina]

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So pretty there, but even more remote than I imagined. I would also think she was killed elsewhere, then her remains dumped after.

Thank you for sharing!

 

[JP-Wrath]

Truly one of the most beautiful girls I've ever seen. Might you finally rest in peace, Tracy.

@othram is a blessing.

 

[branmuffin]

Here's an article that fleshes out some details. It was a strip mine site at the estimated time of her death. I wonder if she was abducted by someone who may have worked the strip mine. She looks like how I would envision a young Elizabeth Moss.

DNA helps ID remains of Lafayette teen, missing since 1978

Next up, police say: How did Tracy Sue Walker wind up dead on a remote Tennessee mountain? Local police stand ready to help investigate

davebangert.substack.com

 

[MajorHoople]

And a brief conversation with Dr. William Bass

Skeletal remains found almost 40 years ago in TN identified as missing Indiana child

WBIR - Aug 30, 2022

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[HmmMysterious]

Here's an article that fleshes out some details. It was a strip mine site at the estimated time of her death. I wonder if she was abducted by someone who may have worked the strip mine. She looks like how I would envision a young Elizabeth Moss.

DNA helps ID remains of Lafayette teen, missing since 1978

Next up, police say: How did Tracy Sue Walker wind up dead on a remote Tennessee mountain? Local police stand ready to help investigate

davebangert.substack.com

And some details about her disappearance too. Tracy was reported missing as a runaway by her family who were living in Eisenhower Court. She was last seen at Tippecanoe Mall. Lafayette newspapers from 1978-1980 don't mention anything about her though.

 

[bflocket]

Here's an article that fleshes out some details. It was a strip mine site at the estimated time of her death. I wonder if she was abducted by someone who may have worked the strip mine. She looks like how I would envision a young Elizabeth Moss.

DNA helps ID remains of Lafayette teen, missing since 1978

Next up, police say: How did Tracy Sue Walker wind up dead on a remote Tennessee mountain? Local police stand ready to help investigate

davebangert.substack.com

It may be the case that it was a miner that killed her, though it seems strange that they would have gone to such a faraway place to find her. Maybe she had traveled around after going missing and wound up somewhere closer to the mountains.

I looked at various old aerial pictures of Big Wheel Gap and it looks like the area would have been (much) more accessible from the actual strip mines than any main road, so it would have been a lot of work for someone traveling through to use it as a dump site. The only time it looked like what one would consider an true "road" was around the time she was found (late 1970's and early 1980's). I assume that to be when the area was actively being mined. Before and after then, it looks to be more of a trail that you would need a 4-wheeler to travel down.

 

[Appie]

So thankful that she has her name back! Thank you Jesus! And thank you to all of you who helped make that happen! May you rest peacefully beautiful Tracy.