Dekalb County officials identified remains of a woman who was found dead in the county in 1993 by using modern-day DNA testing, according to county officials at a press conference Wednesday.
The remains of the unidentified woman were found in September 1993 in the Tucker area near Ranch Wood Drive and Parkland Drive.
The woman’s remains have been identified as Rebecca “Becky” Burke of Cobb County who was a 50-year-old when she died, Dekalb County District Attorney Sherry Boston said Wednesday morning.
“The body was found behind an electrical unit covered in pine straw and branches, which appear to have been deliberately placed in an effort to conceal the body,” Boston said.
The Dekalb County Medical Examiner’s Office examined the unidentified body and determined it likely belonged to a Caucasian woman between 35 to 40 years old. She was believed to have been dead between two weeks to three months prior to when her body was found. Blunt force trauma was suspected to be the cause of death, as the woman sustained traumatic injury to her face and neck, Boston said.
“Despite law enforcement efforts at the time, the woman found on September 16, 1993 was never identified and her case ran cold. Today, nearly 30 years later, I am grateful to share that our victim has been identified,” she said.
Burke’s body was identified using an ‘emerging investigative technique’ called Forensic Genetic Genealogy, or FIG, in collaboration with the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System and Othram; this technique linked Burke’s DNA to a living family member.
“FIG is a unique investigative method that can generate leads to identify unknown suspects and helped identify remains of homicide victims when traditional law enforcement ID methods have failed,” Boston said. "FIG was first used to identify the Golden State Killer in 2018 and has since been utilized to solve over 600 cases and bring justice to numerous victims of violent crime such as rape and murder."
The Dekalb County District Attorney’s Office was awarded a three-year missing and identified human remains program grant for $500,000 to improve identifying unknown human remains. The grant was provided by the US Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs and Bureau of Justice Assistance. Dekalb County’s DA office is one of six entities in the country to receive the grant, County officials said.
“The task force will use these funds to catalogue, report, test, identify and return to the families the unidentified remains of 27 individuals, including Becky Burke,” Boston said. “To date, some remains have been housed at the Dekalb County Medical Examiners Office, others have been buried and will be exhumed to begin the process of identification.”
Dekalb County Task Force will host a DNA drive Saturday, May 20, in an effort to locate families of people who know a family member has gone missing in Dekalb County. The drive will be similar to genealogy testing where a mouth swab is collected and compared in a DNA database, Boston said.
“The idea that you can use DNA to reunite families and find distant people that you did not know you were related to, including some celebrity or President from 70 years ago," Boston said. "That's a lot of what this work is going to help us to do, but now we're actually going to be able to lend closure and justice to families who have someone that went missing, and they don't know, they assume that person is now deceased but haven't had closure,” Boston said.
According to the Dekalb County Medical Examiner’s Office, the 27 cold cases that will be investigated date back from 1987 to 2022.
No other details on the DNA drive are available at this time.
