Mississippi investigators have identified the body found wrapped in a blanket as that of a white female homicide victim between the ages of 20 and 25.
In September 1978, an illegal dump was discovered in Rankin County, approximately one mile south of the historic Byram Swinging Bridge.
Mississippi Mother Found Dead
DNA testing of the “Jane Doe” victim’s bones in April 2022 confirmed the female homicide victim as Tonya Lea Wills Mullins by the Rankin County Coroner’s Office. Mullins, born in Potter, Texas, on May 12, 1956, disappeared at 22.
According to a news release, she was married and had two children. In the press announcement, Investigators explored multiple leads across the United States and Canada for more than four decades in an effort to determine her identity.
The case was submitted as UP79780 into the National Missing and Unidentified People System (NamUs) in April 2021. The case did not correspond to any known missing persons.
Once Ohio authorities approached them about a similar unsolved case, Rankin County Coroner David Ruth and his deputy, Heather Smith, regained interest in the Jane Doe case from 1978.
The statement reads, Thus, Ruth petitioned the courts to exhume the victim’s body. The exhumation was approved by Judge Dewey Arthur after he evaluated the circumstances.
Ruth collected, processed, and provided the forensic evidence with the hope that a DNA extraction would lead to the identification of the female homicide victim. Carla Davis, a native of Mississippi and philanthropist dedicated to helping the state address its backlog of unsolved cases, paid the exhumation and pledged to fund the casework required to identify the victim.
DNA Testing Failed Twice
Carla and the Rankin County investigators then agreed to make a third attempt using Othram, which has previously assisted in the identification of suspects in more than a dozen difficult forensics cases in Mississippi.
Investigative material was submitted to Othram for sophisticated DNA testing in July 2022. Othram was able to successfully recover DNA from the skeletal bones that had failed elsewhere.
Othram scientists then created a genealogy profile for 1978 Jane Doe using Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing®. Carla Davis, Othram’s Chief Genetic Genealogist, searched the victim’s genealogy for relatives.
In conjunction with subsequent DNA testing, the discovery of a likely close relative of the unidentified victim matched the investigation leads provided by Othram.
According to the press statement, authorities continue to examine Tonya’s death to identify the cause of her passing.
The report notes, “We are tremendously appreciative to everyone who helped drive this investigation from the first crime scene to the exhumation, DNA testing, and investigative procedure that led to Tonya’s identity being restored.”
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