Headless Woman_s Body Found In Tennessee River _ The New Detectives

A skull on a riverbank. A body scattered for hundreds of feet. And a team of forensic anthropologists who spent years trying to give a Jane Doe her name back.In this episode, I uncover a haunting case featured on The New Detectives, the groundbreaking Discovery Channel series that aired from 1996 to 2004 and inspired the creation of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation. On March 25, 2003, surveyors working on an Alcoa Highway bypass project discovered a human skull alongside a creek bed behind Alice's Restaurant in Alcoa, Tennessee [citation:1].Detectives and the University of Tennessee forensic anthropology team recovered 30 bones scattered over 850 feet. The creek's current had pulled the skeleton apart as it decomposed [citation:1]. The Jane Doe was a Black female between 17 and 25 years old, with synthetic hair pieces woven into her natural hair. Her lower jaw was never recovered, forcing anthropologists to approximate a match from their bone collection [citation:1].The killer believed the water would wash away the evidence. But forensic science proved otherwise.Turn down the lights, put on your headphones, and press play — because the river gave up its dead, and the truth followed.