Her bones have been identified, the Bastrop County Sheriff’s Office revealed during a news conference on Thursday, more than 40 years after authorities discovered her remains by the side of a Texas highway.
What Happened?
When police enforcement was passing by in Elgin, Texas, they discovered the woman. According to DNA Solves, which helps crowdfund identification investigations, she was sporting a white blouse with a red collar trim and dark blue pants.
Kathy Ann Smith was the lady’s name. According to the sheriff’s office, she was just 22 years old at the time of her murder, or almost 23. At the time, investigators had no leads as to who she was or who killed her.
Who Is The Suspect?
Source: CNBC’s
Henry Lee Lucas, a serial murderer who admitted to killing hundreds of people but only three were proven to have perished, claimed responsibility for Smith’s death in 1984. Local authorities were still unsure of the woman’s identity, though.
The sheriff stated at the news conference that Lucas had changed his mind about several of his admissions but not about this specific instance. Bastrop County Sheriff Maurice Cook stated, “I know Henry Lee was capable of committing murder,” but he was unable to state with certainty that he was accountable for this particular crime.. Lucas, though, was noted in the files for the inquiry and is currently the lone suspect, according to the sheriff.
After Sergeant James Miller started looking into the matter, the burial was dug up in 2019 to get DNA samples, according to the sheriff’s office. At the time, there was insufficient data to create a DNA profile. According to the sheriff’s office, a second exhumation was performed in 2022, and sufficient DNA was present for a lab to use forensic genealogy to identify the remains.
In April 2023, the lab created a profile and gave law enforcement a name. At the news conference, Cook stated that “the issue was she was adopted.” Before informing the public, law enforcement had to get a court order in order to access the adopted family’s information and tell both families of the victim’s fate.
According to them, the sheriff’s office worked the case “to provide closure to the family.”
Smith would have been 67 last week, according to the sheriff’s office. According to the sheriff’s office, Smith is survived by a daughter who begged that her name not be used. The girl is now aware of what happened to her mother, according to Cook.
