Post by Scumhunter on Apr 16, 2018 1:30:14 GMT -5
(Above: Left: Howard Hardin as a youth. Right: Howard at age 30 in 1981 Photo Credits: Knoxville News Sentinel website via Knox County Sheriff's Office)
(Above: Facial reconstructions before Hardin's identification Photo Credits: Knoxville News Sentinel website via Knox County Sheriff's Office)
From the Knoxville News Sentinel website: (2013 article)
Now that Knox County authorities have determined the identity of a man whose remains were found in 1982 they can get on with finding who executed him with a bullet to the head.
Since Jan. 12, 1982, authorities have wondered whose skeletal remains were found under brush in an area off Clear Springs Road and Arnold Lane in Northeast Knox County. The property owner found the remains, although attempts had been made to conceal the body.
"A forensic examination of the remains showed that the victim had been shot in the head, execution style, with a small-caliber pistol," according to the Sheriff's Office.
Without a name of the victim, authorities had little to pursue in the investigation.
But with modern technology and the happenstance of relatives seeing an article about the unsolved slaying in the News Sentinel, authorities now know the victim is 30-year-old Howard Hardin, according to Officer Amy Dobbs of the Knox County Sheriff's Office Cold Case Squad.
Hardin had been reported missing in 1981 to the Knoxville Police Department by his girlfriend. Hardin lived at an apartment on Linden Avenue and had no arrest history.
Dobbs already had enlisted the aid of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington to help crack the case. Scientists at the Smithsonian examined teeth from the remains and determined the victim had lived in the southeast. That conclusion was based on chemical markers found in the teeth from water consumption.
As part of that effort, Dobbs already had Eileen Barrow at Louisiana State University produce a picture of the victim at age 13-14 by regressing the supposed facial features derived from the skull.
"The age regression is what did it," Dobbs said. She planned to circulate the picture of a 13-year-old in the Southeast in hopes of stirring up leads.
She didn't have to.
Hardin's relatives saw a Feb. 12 story in the News Sentinel about Dobbs' efforts to identify remains and thought the age-regressed picture resembled their missing loved one. The next day the family contacted Dobbs, who took buccal swabs of the inside of the cheeks of Hardin's brother and sister to collect DNA samples.
The family also provided pictures of Hardin as a teen to Dobbs.
"One was of the same age as the regression and it was unbelievable," Dobbs said. "I knew right away it would be a match."
The relatives samples were sent to the University of North Texas Human Identification Center to compare with DNA from the slaying victim's femur bone, Dobbs said. The University of Tennessee's anthropology department maintained the bones.
Dobbs said on April 8 she "got notification that it was a perfect match."
Dobbs said Hardin's relatives, who do not want to be identified, are shocked and sad about the revelation.
"They had a whole host of emotions," Dobbs said. "They are grieving at the moment. To learn he was the victim of a homicide was a shock."
Dobbs pulled the missing person report filed on Hardin and confirmed the clothes found with the remains matched those last seen on Hardin by his girlfriend, Linda Gaile Cole.
"Once I had a name, I could start pulling all the pieces together," Dobbs Sadi.
Dobbs said she has interviewed Cole as part of the now active investigation.
archive.knoxnews.com/news/local/perfect-match-technology-newspaper-article-luck-solve-mystery-of-remains-ep-358402445-355919561.html/
Case on Knox County Sheriff's Office website : Just click on Hardin's name among list of victims to see website description: www.knoxsheriff.org/coldcase/homicides.php
Thoughts? I should stress the above article is from 2013 but probably still somewhat accurate as Howard's case is unfortunately still listed as an unsolved homicide on the Knox County Sheriff's Office website as of this posting date. (4/16/2018). Very impressive how they solved the John Doe mystery, but now it's time to finally get justice.
Admin Note #1: According to the Knox County Sheriff's Office website, if you have any information on this case, please call the Knox County Sheriff's Cold Case Investigations Unit at (865) 215-2243 or e-mail us at coldcase@knoxsheriff.org
Admin Note #2: If you have any news-related updates on this case, please contact us here: amwfans.com/thread/1662/website-contact-form