Staff photo by Rosana Hughes / District Attorney General Neal Pinkston, left, and cold case unit supervisor Mike Mathis speak at a news conference on Aug. 31, 2020.The cold case unit of the Hamilton County District Attorney's Office is hoping to generate leads in a possible homicide case after receiving a credible tip that a woman was killed about a decade ago.
District Attorney Neal Pinkston said his unit has been investigating for about 18 months after learning that a woman allegedly was killed near where Dagwood's Bar used to be, 4431 Highway 58, although her body has not been recovered.
According to the information received, Pinkston said, the woman's body was stored in the trunk of a Lincoln Continental for some time before later being dumped somewhere near the area of Hickory Valley Road and Highway 58.
No missing persons were reported during the same period - a few years before or after 2010 - or homicide cases opened, Pinkston said.
Because of that, they don't have any information about who the woman was, how old she was, where she came from or what she looked like.
All they know is that she was a white woman who visited the Dagwood restaurant about a decade ago.
She could have come from another county or another state, Pinkston said. That's what his office has been trying to determine, but it's been difficult to come up with any leads due to the way records were kept in that time period, he said.
Pinkston and cold case unit supervisor Mike Mathis said Monday they hope media attention can help generate leads.
"We've had other cases where we've had information where a body might be located, and we've searched that area and not found the body," Mathis said. "It doesn't mean that it's not credible - doesn't mean that there's not one. We just didn't find it."
"Our hope is that somebody says, 'Hey, you know what, my aunt has been missing, and she wasn't reported for this reason or that reason,' and then we've got a name," Mathis continued. "We can start looking at who that party associated with."
Anyone who has information about the case is urged to call the cold case unit at 423-209-7470 or send an email to coldcases@hcdatn.org. Tips will be kept confidential.
Contact Rosana Hughes at rhughes@timesfreepress.com or follow her on Twitter @HughesRosana.