.jpg "The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has released the names of three previously unidentified people, including a homicide victim from 1986, officials say.")
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has released the names of three previously unidentified people, including a homicide victim from 1986, officials say.
Courtesy: Google Maps
Courtesy: Google Maps
The Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office has recently identified the remains of three people, including a homicide victim who was found near a Fort Worth park 40 years ago, the agency said in a news release.
On Feb. 24, 1986, the body of a woman was found in the 1300 block of Kuroki Street east of Hillside Park. An autopsy showed the woman had been strangled. According to Star-Telegram archives, authorities determined the woman was in her late 30s or early 40s with green or hazel eyes and brown hair. In police records she’s known as “Jane Doe.”
Investigators have tried for decades to solve the mystery of the woman’s identity. Some DNA profiles were developed in the mid-2000s, but no leads emerged.
In 2025, the Medical Examiner’s Office submitted some biological evidence to Othram, a laboratory near Houston, for a forensic genetic genealogy analysis. The results showed a link between the McLerran family and the victim. Investigators located a potential relative, who said his sister had disappeared in the mid-1980s after telling her family she was planning to hitchhike to Dallas.
The man provided a DNA sample, which confirmed he and the victim were siblings. The woman has been identified as Brenda Darnell McLerran Smith. Anyone with information about her death is asked to contact the Fort Worth Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 817-392-4330.
Jose Francisco Reyes Ortega
Jose Francisco Reyes Ortega was identified through his fingerprints nearly 40 years after his body was found on Oct. 16, 1986. According to the release, the Fort Worth Police Department helped the ME’s Office recover archived evidence, which included some fingers removed during the autopsy.
Analysts were able to develop fingerprints using a special casting technique. The prints were entered into various databases, which resulted in a match. Reyes Ortega has no known next of kin, according to the release.
Ciro Estrada Hernandez
Investigators have been trying to learn the identity of Ciro Estrada Hernandez ever since his body was found on Aug. 18, 2000. The ME’s Office had a copy of his fingerprints, but they never showed up in any of the databases until recently.
“Due to improvements in fingerprint databases and potential for archive data uploads by law enforcement, the TCME periodically resubmits all unidentified cases in which fingerprint evidence is available,” the release states.
Estrada Hernandez was identified through a criminal history out of California, according to the release. He has no known next of kin.
How the public can help
The Star-Telegram reported in June that the ME’s Office had released the names of five previously unidentified individuals, including two homicide victims. ME spokesperson Dr. Christian Crowder said at the time that the office had received a $500,000 grant in 2023 that allowed them to hire a dedicated cold case investigator and send forensic material from homicide victims to Othram for DNA extraction analysis.
Thanks to the advent of direct-to-consumer genetic testing, more than 20% of the general population has submitted DNA samples to private companies. When individuals opt in to sharing their DNA profiles in a public genealogy database, it gives cold case investigators trying to solve crimes or identify human remains a bigger pool to draw from.
“That’s how some of these connections are made,” Crowder said in June of the identifications that the ME’s Office was able to make.
Individuals can also upload their DNA data directly to places like Othram that specialize in forensic genetic genealogy testing.
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Harriet Ramos covers crime and other breaking news for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.