Cold Case file investigation in Pulaski County results in the identification of a body found in 1981

The Pulaski County Sheriff’s Office and the DNA Doe project announced this morning the identity of a woman whose body was discovered on May 25th, 1981, at a low water crossing near Dixon. For many years, her cold case file was left on the shelves. However, in 2012, Sheriff J. B. King agreed to reopen the case. Sheriff Ron Long and Current Sheriff Jimmy Bench continued the investigation throughout the years, searching for answers. In 2015, Sheriff Long obtained a court order for the exhumation of the woman’s remains to obtain DNA for identification. Her remains had been buried in the Waynesville Cemetery in a grave marked, “Jane Doe.” The exhumation was conducted on May 25th of that year. The following month, the remains were transported to Texas for identification, DNA, and forensic anthropology testing. And now, 40 years to the date after her body was initially located, 6 years after the remains were exhumed, we now know the identity of Pulaski County’s Jane Doe. The victim has been identified through DNA testing to have been Karen Kay Knippers.