Forty-four year-old remains identified in Jackson County

Jackson County Sheriff’s Department investigators identified the remains of a woman found back in 1977.

Skeletal remains of a woman known as the Escatawpa Jane Doe had gone unidentified for 44 years. Jackson County Sheriff Mike Ezell said, “A body was discovered up there on 63 around 1-10 area. Deputies responded to the scene, worked the scene over the years, case very cold.”

Jackson County Sheriff’s Department investigators were able to identify her as Clara Birdlong of Leflore County, Mississippi. “With this new technology and some good old fashioned police work, we were able to identify this woman and get some answers to some family members who had no idea what had happened to her.”

It is believed that Birdlong was killed by notorious serial killer Samuel Little. In 2018, Little confessed to several killings in the south including that of Escatawpa Jane Doe, although Little said he did not know her name.

Birdlong’s remains were found by hunters about three or four months after her death, according to the forensic evidence. Othram Inc CEO David Mittelman said, “There were very old skeletal remains. So, they were not in particularly great shape. So, there was some work to figure out how to best approach getting DNA that’s usable for testing and DNA that’s human from these bones.”

Othram, Inc in Texas was contacted by investigators and was able to take the DNA that has failed previous identification methods and matched it with a distant cousin of the victim. These failed methods relied on about 20 DNA markers in remains to identify the body. However, Othram’s method looks into even more detail. “Instead of looking at 20 markers, we’re looking at tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands that have been previously considered inaccessible and once we get this information, we can do a lot.”

The victim’s cousin then referred the investigators to her grandmother who ended up having matching DNA with the victim.

This match concluded a 44-year-old mystery and helped a family finally get closure. “It’s very rewarding. You know, so many times we don’t get to solve a case and it’s very discouraging, but to be able to solve something like this, especially after 40 years, my goodness, that’s just a wonderful joy.”