DNA test helps police identify remains of woman missing since early 1970s

By Curt Yeomans

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    GWINNETT COUNTY, Georgia (Gwinnett Daily Post) — A genealogy DNA test helped crack the 39-year-old mystery surrounding the identity of a woman whose remains were found in southern Gwinnett in the early 1980s.

The woman’s skull, additional bones and some personal belongings were found in a wooded area off Deshong Drive in 1982 by a man who was looking for deer. Police handling the scene at the time believed the remains had been there for six to 10 years. DNA testing recently proved the woman was Marlene Standridge, who went missing in the early 1970s, while her daughter, Janis Adams, was an infant.

The results closed one chapter on Adams’ lifelong search to find out what happened to her mother, according to Cpl. Ryan Winderweedle.

“Recently, at a friend’s urging, Janis Adams submitted her DNA to a law enforcement database,” Winderweedle said. “Her DNA matched the remains. Janis Adams has so far spent her entire life never knowing what happened to her mother. She did not know if her mother abandoned her as an infant, went missing from Atlanta or had possibly been murdered around 1972 or 1973.

“Her father, uncle and brother never knew what really happened when her mother disappeared in the early 1970s.”

As it turned out, a Gwinnett police detective sent Standridge’s skull to Othram Labs so the company could create a DNA profile for her in case a DNA match appeared. Othram Labs then found the match with Adams after she submitted her DNA for testing. That allowed the detective working the case to get in touch with Adams so her mother’s remains could finally be identified.

A second DNA sample was taken from Adams when she met with Gwinnett police so the match could be confirmed. That confirmation that Standridge was indeed Adams’ long missing mother came earlier this month.

“Almost four decades later, Gwinnett Homicide Detectives continue to look for innovative technologies and new information to assist them in cases to help bring closure to victim’s families who have spent decades not knowing what happened to their loved ones,” Winderweedle said.

The DNA testing and eventual identification of the remains showed one assumption made about the victim’s possible identity in 1982 proved to be incorrect. A police report from that time showed the State Crime Lab’s preliminary report indicated the victim was likely a Black woman.

The report states a nylon rope, which was believed to have been used to tie up the body, was found with Standridge’s remains. Clothing was also found with the remains, including two shows, a sock, a blouse and a clothing zipper.

A cause of death could not be determined, although investigators considered the possibly that the victim suffered a blow to the head.

Missing persons reports in Atlanta and DeKalb from before 1975 were checked to see if anyone matched the likely description police had at the time of the victim, but matches were not found.

But, while the mystery of who the remains belonged to has been solved, there is another mystery that police still have to solve.

They need to find out what happened to Standridge.

The report from 1982 states that, at the time, police considered the possibility that Standridge’s death might be tied to the deaths of two other women whose bodies were found in the area in 1975, including one whose identity had not been determined as of 1982. The report states a man named James Willie Brown was convicted and sentenced to death in the murder of the one of the women found in 1975, who was identified as Brenda Watson.

Brown was reconvicted in 1990 after his first conviction was overturned, and he was executed in 2003 for Watson’s death, according to a CNN report about his execution.

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