Written by: A. Smith<\/p>\n
Published September 12, 2025 @ 11:11 AM ET<\/p>\n
COBB COUNTY, Ga. \u2013 A woman whose body was discovered near the Chattahoochee River in 1984 has been identified as Veronica Jane Miller of Mableton, Cobb County police said.<\/p>\n
Miller\u2019s remains were found in a wooded area on May 10, 1984. At the time, investigators were unable to determine who she was or whether she had been murdered. She was believed to be about 20 years old, dressed in western-style clothing and wearing an auburn wig.<\/p>\n
The case lingered for decades as authorities submitted DNA samples to state and national databases without success. A DNA profile was developed in 2011, and a 3D facial reconstruction was released, but no leads surfaced.<\/p>\n
That changed in 2022, when Cobb County\u2019s Cold Case Unit partnered with Othram, a Texas-based forensic company that specializes in genetic genealogy. Othram built a DNA profile that linked Miller to a half-sister, confirming her identity.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s an example of a case that takes a little bit longer to get to a final answer, but we\u2019re truly grateful to have been able to apply our tools and our technology to bring answers,\u201d said Colby Lasyone, Othram\u2019s chief of staff.<\/p>\n
With the identification, police now consider the case a homicide investigation. \u201cIt has gone from an unidentified person to now an unsolved homicide,\u201d said Sgt. Eric Smith of the Cobb County Police Department.<\/p>\n
Smith said finding answers will be challenging after nearly four decades. \u201cIf there are any witnesses, again in 40 years, where are they now? As well as the suspect or suspects, where are they now?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Police are urging anyone with information to contact the Cobb County Police Department\u2019s Major Crimes Unit at 770-499-3945.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Written by: A. Smith Published September 12, 2025 @ 11:11 AM ET COBB COUNTY, Ga. \u2013 A woman…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154601,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[50],"tags":[200,79],"class_list":["post-154600","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-genetics","tag-genetics","tag-science"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154600","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154600"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154600\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154601"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154600"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154600"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154600"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}