Texas officials are asking Chattanoogans for help in a cold case homicide from 1984.
Remains found near Wizard Wells, Texas, were identified as those of Roberta Mumma, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
Mumma was 25 at the time of her death, the department said in a news release.
Her last known location before her remains were discovered was in Tennessee, officials said. She was last known to be working at a Red Lobster in Chattanooga, according to Chattanooga police.
Her remains were found in a remote area in Texas’ Jack County, outside Fort Worth, more than 35 years ago, officials said.
Mumma graduated from Ephrata High School in Pennsylvania in 1976, according to The Graham Leader, in Graham, Texas. The paper, citing articles from The Ephrata Review and the Intelligencer Journal, both of Pennsylvania, reported she received multiple scholarships to attend the University of Pittsburgh to major in physical therapy after graduating.
Mumma’s location was listed as unknown in a 1986 obituary for her father, according to The Leader. The Texas paper reported that a family member posted a public notice in several Pennsylvania newspapers in 1997 notifying Mumma she had been named as a beneficiary in her maternal grandfather’s will. He died that same year.
The Leader cited a Dec. 2, 1984, article in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram in which Jack County sheriff’s officials said skeletal remains found by deer hunters the day before were those of a woman and authorities suspected her death was a homicide.
The University of Tennessee performed tests on the remains in 1985, The Leader reported, quoting then-Jack County Sheriff W.B. Mathis. A Texas Department of Public Safety missing persons bulletin from that time said the dead woman had healed trauma to her spine and may have had foot problems, the Texas paper reported. The bulletin said she had likely been dead between three months to one year.
Anyone with information about Mumma or the circumstances around her death can contact the Jack County Sheriff’s Office at 940-567-2161 or chauger@jackcounty.texas.gov.
Contact Ellen Gerst at egerst@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6319.