JACKSBORO, Tenn. (AP) - The body of a woman strangled, stabbed and dumped along Interstate 75 a decade ago has been identified as a Texas resident thanks to the help of an Internet-based volunteer network devoted to finding long-lost missing persons, authorities said. "Now we have a face, we have a family - and not only an unmarked grave," said Capt. Don Farmer of the Campbell County Sheriff's Office, who has been chasing leads with retired detective Eddie Barton since the woman's body was found Jan. 9, 1997.
The woman was identified as Ada Elena Torres Smith of El Paso.
"We've been so many different places trying to get an identification on this Jane Doe," Farmer said.
"Every way you can possibly imagine we've sent those fingerprints out there. We put it out on national news."
Barton credited the Doe Network , an unofficial national database dedicated to connecting missing persons with unidentified "Jane Does," with matching Smith's distinctive tattoos with the body found along a remote stretch of I-75 near the Kentucky line.
"They're the ones who've actually done the grunt work," Barton said. "You could never do it by yourself with the number of missing people there are in the United States right now."
The identification has breathed new life into Smith's murder investigation. Farmer now awaits a visit from the woman's family. He wants to interview them for more leads in the case.
Doe Network spokesman Tod Matthews said the group has helped identify 40 bodies since 1999.
Campbell County has three other Jane Does - out of 13 in Tennessee listed by the network. They date to 1985.
One of them - a woman's body found in 1988 about a mile from Smith's - may be connected to Smith's murder, Farmer said.