On Monday, Pennsylvania State Police announced that a body found on September 9th, 2010, was 38-year-old Teresa Mae Ware of Mississippi.
Police say Ware went missing in April of 2010 and was last seen with a commercial truck driver from Pennsylvania.
The body was originally discovered as skeletal remains in Howe Township, Perry County. Ware's death has been ruled a homicide. Authorities were not able to identify the body for more than two years until they were able to match DNA samples with Ware.
Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick has been in the business for more than 20 years, and he says while these cases don't happen often, they do happen. "It's not infrequent. We'll have a John Doe or some case where we have to try and find an identity, maybe once a year. We have some that have been extended out into 9 years."
Hetrick says there are many ways to identify a body including teeth analysis, physical anthropology, medical artifiacts, and DNA, but you have to start broad before you can get specific. "With skeletal remains the real thing is to try to narrow the search. Like I said. Narrow it down to a man, or a woman, the race, the height, here's the location here's the time, then you get that out onto a national database."
One may think that you could just use the DNA to find a match, but Hetrick says that's not the case. "You have to have to have a direction to go in, you can't check everybody's DNA, so you have to have reasonable belief that it might be that missing person, then you do the DNA studies."
Ware's DNA was sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.
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State Police have important new information regarding the discovery of human remains along Route 22/322 in Howe Township.
On September 9, 2010, a person discovered the body along the roadway. An autopsy was conducted and the Perry County Coroner ruled the death a homicide.
A forensic exam determined the remains were that of a woman between 25 and 45 years old who had brown hair.
On February 7, the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification informed PSP Newport that DNA samples submitted from the missing body matched those of Teresa Mae Ware, 38 of Mississippi.
Ware went missing in April 2010 and was last known to be with a commercial truck driver from Pennsylvania.
State Police, along with the Coroner’s Office, FBI, Philadelphia Police Department in Mississippi and Ms. Ware’s family assisted in her identification.
Plans are currently underway to reunite her body with her family members.
Anyone with information concerning the homicide case is asked to call State Trooper David Chewning, PSP Newport Criminal Investigation Unit at 717-567-3110.
Police say Ware went missing in April of 2010 and was last seen with a commercial truck driver from Pennsylvania.
The body was originally discovered as skeletal remains in Howe Township, Perry County. Ware's death has been ruled a homicide. Authorities were not able to identify the body for more than two years until they were able to match DNA samples with Ware.
Dauphin County Coroner Graham Hetrick has been in the business for more than 20 years, and he says while these cases don't happen often, they do happen. "It's not infrequent. We'll have a John Doe or some case where we have to try and find an identity, maybe once a year. We have some that have been extended out into 9 years."
Hetrick says there are many ways to identify a body including teeth analysis, physical anthropology, medical artifiacts, and DNA, but you have to start broad before you can get specific. "With skeletal remains the real thing is to try to narrow the search. Like I said. Narrow it down to a man, or a woman, the race, the height, here's the location here's the time, then you get that out onto a national database."
One may think that you could just use the DNA to find a match, but Hetrick says that's not the case. "You have to have to have a direction to go in, you can't check everybody's DNA, so you have to have reasonable belief that it might be that missing person, then you do the DNA studies."
Ware's DNA was sent to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________
State Police have important new information regarding the discovery of human remains along Route 22/322 in Howe Township.
On September 9, 2010, a person discovered the body along the roadway. An autopsy was conducted and the Perry County Coroner ruled the death a homicide.
A forensic exam determined the remains were that of a woman between 25 and 45 years old who had brown hair.
On February 7, the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification informed PSP Newport that DNA samples submitted from the missing body matched those of Teresa Mae Ware, 38 of Mississippi.
Ware went missing in April 2010 and was last known to be with a commercial truck driver from Pennsylvania.
State Police, along with the Coroner’s Office, FBI, Philadelphia Police Department in Mississippi and Ms. Ware’s family assisted in her identification.
Plans are currently underway to reunite her body with her family members.
Anyone with information concerning the homicide case is asked to call State Trooper David Chewning, PSP Newport Criminal Investigation Unit at 717-567-3110.