How modern science helped identify the remains of a Hurricane Katrina victim after 2 decades
PASCAGOULA, Miss. (WKRG) — A recent DNA analysis of an unknown victim of Hurricane Katrina allowed a Gulf Coast mystery to be put to rest.
One week after the storm, an unknown body was pulled from the rubble of two houses in St. Martin, Mississippi.
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The body was buried at the Machpelah Cemetery in Pascagoula. The remains were given the name “Jane Love.”
In 2011, Pascagoula Police Lt. Darren Versiga began his efforts to identify the unknown remains.
Versiga said he submitted a request to the Jackson County District Attorney’s Office to exhume the remains for DNA testing. However, the DA expressed concerns that Versiga was stepping out of his jurisdiction and denied his request.
“I completely understand where they were coming from,” Versiga said. “It just put a little bit of red tape to an already complicated situation.”
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Versiga said he then submitted all information to the state police, who submitted their own request in October. Their request to exhume the unknown body was approved.
“It was just trying to find that little door to step in, to really make it work, and we did that. We found the door, and so here we are,” Versiga said.
The body was exhumed and taken to the local crime lab where Versiga said the bones were examined by an anthropologist.
“You can learn a whole lot from the bones from breaks that maybe have healed or medical implants that have been put in,” Versiga said. “There’s a lot of value to allowing an anthropologist to determine what they needed to determine.”
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Samples of the victim’s bones were sent to a Texas-based DNA lab known as Ortham Inc. According to Versiga, Ortham uses trailblazing technology to solve cold cases using DNA evidence.
“What they’re doing now with a lot of them is they just grind up those bones and they get the samples from the material,” Versiga said.
The process, according to Versiga doesn’t happen overnight.
“They do the forensic genealogy, which gives you an ancestry tree. From that, they were able to build relatives,” Versiga said. “Then you contact the relatives and go, ‘Are you missing someone?’
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Eventually, the unknown remains buried for nearly two decades make themselves known.
Tonette ‘Tonie’ Waltman Jackson, 46, was finally reunited with her own name.
Likely the last person to see Jackson alive was her husband, Hardy Jackson. The couple made it to the roof of their home to escape the rising flood waters.
In the aftermath of the storm, Hardy Jackson approached former WKRG reporter Jennifer Mayerle. In the interview, he said the force of the storm split the house in half.
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“I tried. I held her hand as tight as I could and she told me, ‘You can’t hold me.’ She said, ‘Take care of the kids and the grandkids,’” Hardy Jackson said.
The couple couldn’t hold on any longer. Tonette Jackson was washed away by the storm surge.
Hardy Jackson died of cancer in 2013.
Versiga said he had never seen the interview with Hardy Jackson. Had he seen it earlier, he said he could have connected the dots sooner.
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“When she was identified and I go back and look at that, I go, ‘How in the heck did I miss that?'” Versiga said. “I am never going to make that error again. It has been made the one time in my life and that isn’t going to happen again.”
Mississippi native and philanthropist Carla Davis, according to Versiga, funded the project.
“She is funding all of our Mississippi cases,” Versiga said. “When you have new departments that do not understand this technology, they’re not interested in spend [up to] $15,000 on a case that really doesn’t belong to the City of Pascagoula, and I completely understand that.”
Nevertheless, Versiga was able to close Jackson’s mystery thanks to his hard work and the innovation of DNA technology.
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“I am telling you; we are solving them left and right because of this [technology],” Versiga said. “This is very exciting to be in the line of work that I’m in now.”
While much of his work is related to his job with the Pascagoula Police Department, Versiga said he volunteers his efforts to find the identities of unknown people even outside of his jurisdiction.
The Jackson family doesn’t wish to comment at this time.
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