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Missing in Texas: Lee County 1975 cold case
The Lee County Sheriff's Office is working to identify the remains of a young child that were found in a trash bag nearly 50 years ago.
LEE COUNTY, Texas - The Lee County Sheriff's Office is working to identify the remains of a young child that were found in a trash bag nearly 50 years ago.
On Sept. 7, 1975, a family was having a picnic at a roadside park off of Hwy 77 south of Giddings near the Fayette County line. The father found a trash bag under a tree. Human remains were inside.
Lee County deputies were called to investigate. Sheriff Garrett Durrenberger says they believed the remains were of a four-year-old child.
"At the time, they just had a little bit of hair on the skull. There wasn't much to work off of, and they believe those remains had been there a significant amount of time," Durrenberger said.
RELATED: 1975 Lee County cold case: DNA evidence being examined to identify boy's remains
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Cold case investigation in Lee County
The Lee County Sheriff's Office is hoping DNA evidence will help crack open a cold case from 1975
There were three holes in the skull. It's not clear how they got there.
"This clothing that was found with the remains at the time, I believe it was Buster Brown, which is a very popular brand, I'm told, for 3, 4 or 5-year-old kids," Durrenberger said.
The case sat inactive for nearly half a century.
Earlier this year, Durrenberger and former Lee County Sheriff Rodney Meyer met to discuss the unsolved case and put an investigator on it.
They reviewed old documents and learned after the remains were sent to a DPS lab, they went to an expert doctor in Oklahoma.
"After the years go by, these remains become for educational purposes, until that doctor passed away. The remains were returned to the Oklahoma City Medical Examiner's Office," Durrenberger said.
This is a picture of the clothing found with the remains in 1975.
They got the evidence back from Oklahoma City and sent it to the University of North Texas for DNA analysis. They hope genealogy can help track down a family member.
"I can't imagine a child, and for whatever reason, how it got there, we may never know the story, but we want to put a name to the face," Durrenberger said.
Investigators recreated the crime scene using a hand-drawn map from Meyer in 1975, as well as a Bluebonnet Electric map to find a nearby power pole and tree that still exists today.
They hope each step is a clue to whom this child could've been.
"A case of this nature is never closed. Cases become cold when there's no additional leads to follow. In 1975, I'm sure they did the very best they could with the resources that they did have at that time. We very much operate the same way today," Durrenberger said. "With the science and technology that exists today, we're very confident that UNT can put a name with this child and get it identified."
It's not clear how long it will take to get results back from the lab.