DNA may help solve 40-year-old SE Ind. mystery

Lula Miller left her Laurel, Indiana, home Nov. 1, 1974. She was never heard from again.

Workers for a Richmond excavating company discovered a body Oct. 1, 1975, in a sewer. The decomposed remains could not be identified.

Nearly 40 years later, utilizing the Internet's power and advanced DNA testing, Indiana State Police Sgt. Scott Jarvis hopes he'll answer both lingering questions.

Jarvis this week will exhume from an area cemetery the remains of that body found in a sewer and submit DNA samples for testing. He thinks the results will show the remains are Miller.

"I'm more confident than not," the 15-year ISP veteran told the Palladium-Item.

Jarvis' journey to this point began with a January phone call from a volunteer with The Doe Network, an online database of missing persons and unidentified bodies. The volunteers comb through cases, trying to find matches, according to Jarvis.

Jarvis began researching beyond the similar time frame, proximity of location and gender match. He reviewed the cases, researched newspaper accounts at the Ball State University library and acquired the autopsy report and photos from Cincinnati.

"There are characteristics, like height and weight, and other factors that match from the autopsy," Jarvis said. "There are similarities between this lady and the one missing from Franklin County."

DNA was taken from members of Miller's family and run through national police databases of unidentified bodies. There was no match. Jarvis then worked through the legal steps necessary to obtain a search warrant to exhume the remains in Richmond and analyze DNA. Final paperwork was approved last week, leading to the next step this week.

After the remains are exhumed and checked at a local funeral home, Jarvis said, the University of Indianapolis anthropology lab will conduct an examination.

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DNA may help solve 40-year-old SE Ind. mystery