Investigators tentatively match burned body to missing person

Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Aug 27, 2010 - Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood gives a press release on the triple homocide that happened late Thursday near Dawnville in southern Whitfield County.
Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Aug 27, 2010 - Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood gives a press release on the triple homocide that happened late Thursday near Dawnville in southern Whitfield County.
photo Staff Photo by Allison Kwesell/Chattanooga Times Free Press - Aug 27, 2010 - Whitfield County Sheriff Scott Chitwood gives a press release on the triple homocide that happened late Thursday near Dawnville in southern Whitfield County.

Investigators "strongly believe" the partially burned body found last week in Whitfield County, Ga., woods is that of a missing person.

In a news release, Sheriff Scott Chitwood said Tuesday that the body has some similarities to a person who was reported missing in another state.

Chitwood did not identify who that person is or what state he or she comes from. But the sheriff added that finding the burned body in the woods lines up with "circumstances surrounding the disappearance of the individual."

Investigators collected DNA left behind by the missing person and sent it to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation Crime Lab. Medical examiners will compare the DNA to that of the missing person.

A 13-year-old found the body in the woods on Ellis Road in Whitfield County on Jan. 10.

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