SMITH COUNTY, Texas - The person at the center of an almost 40-year-old mystery finally has a name, thanks to DNA testing and genealogy.
The DNA Doe Project says that a Jane Doe found in October 1985 has been identified as Sindy Gina Crow.
Crow's skeletal remains were found by a highway mowing crew in a brush-covered gully on the south side of I-20 in Smith County. The nonprofit says that investigators felt her body had been purposefully concealed and had been in that gully for 12 to 15 months.
READ MORE: DNA Doe Project helps identify human remains through genetic genealogy
Her case went cold until 2021, when the Smith County Sheriff's Office contacted the DNA Doe Project.
The nonprofit uses investigative genetic genealogy to identify John and Jane Does and says it has helped in more than 100 cases of unidentified human remains to date.
A forensic assessment concluded the skeletal remains belonged to a white/Caucasian woman between 20 and 25 years old with reddish brown hair tied in a ponytail. She was estimated to be 5'5" to 5'7" and between 110 and 125 lbs.
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DNA Doe Project looks to identify the yet-unidentified
There are more than 50,000 unidentified sets of human remains in the U.S. In this "Missing in Texas," FOX 7 Austin's Angela Shen takes a look at the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit dedicated to identifying the numerous John and Jane Does across the country.
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A DNA profile was produced and then uploaded to GEDmatch Pro and FTDNA, two consumer websites that allow law enforcement cases. From there, the DNA matches were analyzed and DNA Doe Project volunteers built a family tree.
The nonprofit says that this type of work is often stalled when Jane or John Doe's ancestry includes recent immigration, or when they are a person of color. Access to records and underrepresentation of these populations in the databases can make these cases especially difficult to research.
The DNA Doe Project says that Jane Doe's father had been born in Italy and her mother was Hispanic, but they were able to find a match that pointed them in the right direction to identify Jane Doe as Sindy Crow.
Volunteers were also unable to find any proof of life for Crow after 1985.
FOX 7 Austin has reached out to the Smith County Sheriff's Office for more information on Crow's case and has not received a response yet.