Appalachian Unsolved: The girl in the woods

[Brandon] All homicides are bad; they're awful No matter situation, someone's affected But when you have a child that's innocent, that doesn't deserve to be murdered or discarded in this fashion You know, it changes everything about it [John] A young girl without a name Her body found at a backwoods dump site Almost 35 years later, it is a mystery investigators have yet to solve [Robin] In tonight's Appalachian Unsolved Leslie Ackerson revisits the questions surrounding this 1985 Jane Doe [Brandon] So this would have been a road then that was used for the transportation of logs so there were a lot of logging trucks in this area, also surface mining, coal mining [Leslie] Deep in the woods of Campbell County, it's a story far from the beauty of the scenic mountains that surround it [Brandon] Back then, this would have been somewhere  somebody would have just dumped a lot of stuff   just brought their trash, couches, you know, whatever  it was they wanted to get rid of and thrown it off [Leslie] And in April of 1985, lying among the debris  was a human skull, the skull of a young girl [Brandon] Her remains were scattered down the hillside [Leslie] Recovery teams found limited skeletal remains and other fragments of who she was [Brandon] There's actually a pair of shoes found They were high top sneakers and some buckles, it's my belief that that buckle is consistent with a pair of overalls They also discovered a small beaded necklace that was beaded with plastic buttons [Leslie] Small pieces of evidence but still critical clues [Bill] You normally don't find young females just lying around dead in the woods, you know [Leslie] Leading the forensic team was renowned anthropologist Dr. Bill Bass [Bill] That tells me she's a teenager right there that she is not over 16 [Leslie] Bass believes the key lies in her forgotten smile [Bill] That is dental work and it is good dental work So she grew up in a family that valued dental care We wrote about 60 to 80 dentists in the Kentucky, Tennessee, North Carolina area We didn't hear from any of them If a dentist could see that dental work, I think they would know whether it was their work or not [Leslie] Nature tells Bass the remains had been there before their first discovery [Bill] I think she's been dead at least two years, could be more [Leslie] But there were no matches for a missing child anywhere close to the time frame or the area [Brandon] Elk Valley in itself is a very tight-knit, close community No one with a kid missing, no kids that didn't show up for school the next day [Leslie] It's a case Special Agent Brandon Elkins has worked for 13 years First with the Campbell County Sheriff's Office Now with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation [Brandon] The folks of us that have worked on this case for years have affectionately called her Baby Girl I feel like that keeps the humanity alive and the fact that this is a young girl with a story that's still untold [Leslie] It's a two-fold mystery Who was she and who killed her? [Brandon] Someone somewhere has to know something about this girl A child just does not disappear without someone knowing [Leslie] As for a suspect, both believe her final resting spot was familiar [Brandon] It would have been very well known to the locals Probably not a road that someone would happen upon [Bill] This is not the typical body that you find thrown off the interstate [Leslie] 35 years waiting for an answer and hoping one will be discovered soon [Brandon] You know, I have three children Having children, I think you look from a different perspective because of that The cases with kids as victims, they're the worst for law enforcement I think those are the ones you never really forget [Leslie] Reporting in Campbell County, I'm Leslie Ackerson [Robin] You can find all the information on this case   on the National Unidentified and Missing Persons Database If you have a missing family member, NAMUS offers family DNA collection kits at no cost And for this case, you can also reach out to the TBI with any information you have The number right there on your screen

Channel: WBIR Channel 10

Views: 72,494

Keywords: appalachian unsolved, news, local, investigations, true crime, east tennessee, cold case, missing person, great smoky mountains national park, jane doe, unsolved mystery, great smoky mountains, missing 411, true crime stories, jane doe mystery, jane doe case, the girl in the woods, appalachian unsolved podcast, appalachian unsolved mysteries, unsolved mysteries, missing persons cases, appalachian unsolved wbir, local news

Id: _QgYsKEHOkY

Length: 4min 27sec (267 seconds)

Published: Fri Nov 13 2020