CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Tenn. — Genetic science continues to help Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents crack decades-old mysteries.
The agency announced Wednesday that it had positively identified skeletal remains found 40 years ago in Cumberland County.
Kenneth Levall Thompson's remains were found in a wooded area close to Sycamore Lane in Crossville in 1983. He had been stabbed multiple times and his death was ruled a homicide, according to the TBI.
A forensic pathologist determined that the remains were those of a black male, likely between the ages of 20 and 25, the TBI said.
Despite not knowing Thompson's identity at the time, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office and the TBI charged someone with his death in 1984. The suspect pled guilty to second-degree murder in exchange for a 20-year prison sentence, the TBI said.
Attempts to identify the man continued in 2007 when officials sent a sample of his remains to the University of Tennessee Forensic Anthropology Center.
A DNA profile was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in hopes that Thompson's identity would be revealed. However, no matches came, the TBI said.
In December, as part of TBI's Unidentified Human Remains DNA Initiative, agents submitted a sample of Thompson's remains to Othram Laboratories in Texas for forensic genetic genealogical (FGG) DNA testing.
Scientists provided information about Thompson's possible relatives and the TBI said agents located potential family members in Michigan.
A family member confirmed they had a brother who they hadn't heard from in four decades. Agents then obtained a familial DNA standard and positively identified Thompson. He was 17 years old when his remains were found.
The only photo of Thompson that surviving family members could find was taken when he was a child. If you knew him during his life and have access to a photograph of him taken in late 1970s or early 1980s, please contact TBI at 1-800-TBI-FIND.
