NATCHEZ, Miss. (WJTV) – Mississippi investigators and a Texas DNA lab created a crowdfund to help identify the skeletal remains that were discovered in a wooded area of Natchez nearly one year ago.

Natchez police were led to the remains in a shallow grave by a man who had been pulled over for a traffic stop around 8:30 p.m. on March 14, 2024. Officers detained the driver during a routine traffic stop at the intersection of Fatherland Road and Sgt. Prentiss Drive after they noticed drug paraphernalia in his truck.

At the time of the discovery, police said the driver, who has not been identified, told officers that there was a body buried nearby in the woods.

“We came out and actually went off in the woods maybe 10 feet, and discovered that there was a dead corpse,” said Natchez Police Department Commander Jerry Ford.

According to Ford, the body was severely decomposed. The remains were sent for an autopsy but could not be identified.

In June, the Mississippi State Medical Examiner’s Office teamed with Othram, a forensic DNA lab in Texas, to extract the DNA and build a DNA profile that can be used for genetic genealogy analysis.

Earlier this month, a crowdfund was launched to help fund the analysis. The page can be found online.

The remains are believed to belong to a man, estimated to be between 38 and 82 years old,
standing between 5’9” and 6’4”. An ID card found near the remains suggests he may have been
a 70-year-old male.