Skeletal remains found in Middle Tennessee identified as Memphis woman 50 years later

MEMPHIS, Tenn. - 50 years after skeletal remains were found by two hunters in Middle Tennessee, authorities now know who they belong to.

The remains were found on February 14, 1975 on Joe Brown Road in Maury County near I-65, according to the Maury County Sheriff's Department (MCSD). Officials determined that the remains belonged to a Black woman between the ages of 17 and 21, but that was as far as the investigation got for decades.

In 2019 MCSD began working with the DNA Doe Project, a volunteer driven non-profit with the mission of identifying John and Jane Does and return them to their families. After three years of DNA analysis, a distant match was made a a possible relative and authorities began to assemble a family tree, a project that took over 530 hours of work, according to the sheriff's office.

Finally in April 2024, the sheriff's office found a sibling who was a full DNA match for their unidentified woman. That sibling told authorities that she had a sister who went missing in 1974 but was never officially reported missing. Her sister was 19-year-old Annie Carolyn Jenkins of Memphis and her family had been searching for her for decades, MCSD said.

DNA confirmed that the unidentified woman was Jenkins, according to the sheriff's department. MCSD said the 19-year-old had been visiting relatives in Chicago and she left on a flight bound for Tennessee in the fall of 1974. That was the last her family had heard of her until a DNA match identified her remains decades later.

The sheriff's department said her remains will be returned to her family and that the homicide investigation into her death remains open.