A recent episode of the popular true-crime podcast "My Favorite Murder" features a 1985 cold case from Marion County that was solved with the help of a local stay-at-home mom.
Barbara King Ladd, of Sewanee, Tennessee, was scrolling Facebook when she came across a 2018 Chattanooga Times Free Press article. The story focused on unidentified remains found in a Marion County creek off Interstate 24 in December 1985, a mystery that still haunted 12th Judicial District Attorney's Office investigator Larry Davis three decades later.
Davis was 32 when he first became involved in the investigation. The "John Doe" was estimated to be between 25-40 years old.
In 2018, Davis was 69 and considering retirement. But he couldn't stop thinking about the remains of the unidentified man still being stored in the University of Tennessee at Knoxville's Anthropology Department.
Davis and 12th Judicial District Attorney General Mike Taylor told the Times Free Press they hoped the description from the autopsy and a forensic sketch made in 2002 could help lead to the man's identity. The 12th Judicial District includes Bledsoe, Franklin, Grundy, Marion, Rhea and Sequatchie counties.
The John Doe was "dressed like somebody who had money," Taylor told the Times Free Press. According to the autopsy, he was wearing Jordache jeans and an L.L. Bean shirt.
Ladd was able to connect the John Doe from Marion County with Donald Boardman, a missing person from Chamblee, Georgia, by searching missing persons websites using information from the article and the forensic sketch, according to the previous Times Free Press story.
According to the podcast, Ladd made the connection by searching NaMus, or the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, a unified national online database for unidentified remains and missing persons records that didn't exist in 1985.
NaMus originally launched with an unidentified persons database in 2007, and a missing persons database debuted the following year, according to the NaMus website. An upgraded system known as NamUs 2.0 launched in May 2018, a few months after Davis sought help from the public through the Times Free Press article in hopes of cracking the case.
Ladd searched NaMus for missing persons in Georgia because the body was found near the state line, and she assumed investigators would have already searched in Tennessee. The third name she clicked on was Donald Boardman, and she sensed she had found a match, podcast host Karen Kilgariff said in the episode.
(READ MORE: Tennessee woman's sleuthing helps identify Georgia man's body after 37 years)
"What my personal dream is, is that the popularity of true crime and the awareness that these stories that keep getting told bring to the fore is that these systems have to get refined," Kilgariff said in the episode of the national database. "With all of that money that goes toward policing every year, like maybe cut some of that out, give it to the schools, and then take the other money and put it toward actually solving these cases and using technology and using all the stuff that we now have at the tips of our fingers to clear some of these away."
Ladd reached out to the 12th Judicial District Attorney's Office with her theory on Boardman and heard back from Davis a few days later. He took the information to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, but with no DNA evidence, the case idled, according to the previous Times Free Press story,
She then took the information to the Police Department in Chamblee, Georgia, where Donald Boardman's father reported him missing in November 1985. Ladd reached out through the department's Facebook page, and her message was received by crime analyst Lori Bradburn.
Bradburn's captain agreed to let her do some digging, she said by phone. She found a 1985 police report stating that Boardman's 1985 Chevrolet Camaro Z28 was found in East Point, Georgia, outside Atlanta, where Boardman told his family he was attending a health food conference the last time they spoke.
The car was in possession of three people -- two men and a woman -- including two with extensive criminal records. Credit cards and clothing belonging to Boardman were found in the car, according to the previous Times Free Press story.
Neither of the two men in the car were charged with a crime. The woman was charged with drug possession, Bradburn said.
Bradburn found that the two men had died, but initially believed the woman to still be alive. She later learned the woman died in June 2021, a month before Bradburn first came into contact with Davis.
With DNA from Donald Boardman's only living relative, his sister, Debbie Boardman Anderson, investigators were able to confirm the Marion County John Doe was Donald Boardman, according to the previous Times Free Press story.
While the homicide portion of the case remains unsolved, Bradburn said she is relieved Boardman was identified.
"I hate that it took so long, because there's no more leads to follow and everyone's deceased now," Bradburn said. "At least the body was identified, and Debbie got closure, and Larry got closure."
Davis is now retired, and Bradburn said it's exciting to be featured in a true crime podcast.
"I'm such a little true crime nerd," said Bradburn, who listens to "My Favorite Murder" and other popular podcasts in the genre such as "Crime Junkie." "I wish they had reached out so I could have been really a fangirl, but it was a nice surprise."
Staff writer Ben Benton contributed to this story.
Contact Emily Crisman at ecrisman@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6508.