JEFFERSON COUNTY — Jefferson County authorities during a Friday press conference, released the identity of the woman whose head was discovered nearly 30 years ago in the Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park as a Tennessee woman last seen by her family on Christmas Eve 1992.
Genetic genealogy helped officials identify Susan Lund as the person long known as “Ina Jane Doe.” Lund reportedly left her family home in Clarksville, Tennessee to walk to a local grocery store on Christmas Eve 1992. Her husband reported her missing soon after. A multi-agency search was conducted over several months.
The official missing person’s case was closed, but Sue’s family did not stop looking for her. Susan, who was 25 years old at the time of her disappearance, was a mother of three children all under the age of six, and was reportedly pregnant when she vanished from her home.
It was on January 27, 1993, that the head of a white female was discovered on the side of a wooded roadway within Wayne Fitzgerrell State Park.
The original anthropological analysis estimated that the victim was between 30 and 50 years of age, and may have had torticollis or “wry neck syndrome,” a condition that may have caused her head to have a sideways tilt during life.
Jump ahead nearly 30 years to February 2021; Dr. Amy Michael (Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of New Hampshire) approached Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office to offer a reexamination of the case using updated forensic methods.
Samples of the unknown woman were then transferred to Astrea Forensics in Santa Cruz, California, for the creation of a DNA profile suitable for the use of forensic hereditary genes.
Redgrave, a Massachusetts-based genealogical firm, then received the DNA profile. On March 6, the remains were confirmed to be those of Susan after a DNA sample was compared to those of Susan’s family members.
Authorities continue to investigate what happened to Susan Lund and how her head ended up nearly 200 miles from where she was last seen.
Any information about the actions and/or whereabouts of Susan Lund on or following December 24, 1992, should be directed to Detective Captain Bobby Wallace at the Jefferson County Sheriff’s Office at (618) 244-8004 or email bwallace@jeffil.us.