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The following is a dramatized narrative,
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inspired by documented patterns of
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forensic misidentification
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in rural jurisdictions during the 1980s
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A technician kneeling in a cemetery
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outside a small Midwestern town in the
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lifted a fragment of bone from the soil
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and knew immediately that the paperwork
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in her other hand was wrong.
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She had been sent to collect a DNA
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sample from what the records called
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belonging to a woman named Sarah
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Collins, murdered in 1983,
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and identified through physical
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description before burial.
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The exhumation was part of a statewide
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cold case initiative.
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But when the medical examiner compared
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the skeletal measurements to the
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original autopsy photographs pulled from
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storage that morning, the height did not
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The dental work described in the Sarah's
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medical file, a filled cavity on the
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lower left molar, was absent from the
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jaw now resting under laboratory light.
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Sarah Collins was not in this grave.
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Her mother had visited this plot every
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week for 18 years before she died.
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Her younger brother still brought
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flowers on her birthday.
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They had grieved here.
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They had spoken her name into the
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And for 40 years, they had been speaking
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The case file had been closed since
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The investigation into Sarah's murder
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had gone cold within months.
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Detectives had retired.
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Evidence had been archived, then
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digitized, then tagged for the DNA
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project that would finally reveal what
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no one had questioned for nearly half a
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The question now was not whether a
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mistake had been made.
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The bones confirmed that.
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The question was whether anyone had
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Sarah Collins disappeared on the night
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Last seen leaving a diner parking lot
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after her shift ended just past
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Her car was found abandoned on a county
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access road 4 days later.
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Keys still in the ignition.
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6 weeks after that, a surveying crew
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discovered human remains in a wooded
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area 11 miles from where the car had
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Advanced decomposition.
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The forensic pathologist assigned to the
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case noted female, approximate age 20 to
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Approximate height 5 ft 7 in.
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Blond hair still attached to portions of
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Sarah Collins had been 5 ft 7.
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Reported missing by her family.
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The medical examiner made the
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Dental records existed.
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Sarah's family dentist was still
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But the autopsy report contains a
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handwritten note clipped to the final
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page, undated and unsigned.
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Family confirms clothing.
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Dental comparison deferred pending
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The coroner's office had been operating
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at a deficit for 3 consecutive years.
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Dental consultations required
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contracting an outside specialist.
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Autopsies were already overbudget.
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According to county records from that
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period, the office had been instructed
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to minimize costs wherever possible.
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The body was released to the family for
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burial within 72 hours of
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Sarah's parents held the funeral on a
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Small service, closed casket.
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The grave was dug in the newer section
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of the municipal cemetery.
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A flat stretch near the perimeter fence
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where the headstones were uniform and
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the grass was kept short.
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For 38 years, no one questioned it.
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The case remained technically open.
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Sarah's killer was never found, but her
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identity was considered settled.
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The detective who had handled the
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investigation retired in 1992.
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His successor inherited the file,
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glanced through it once, and moved on to
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By the time the cold case DNA initiative
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was launched in 2020,
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the original circumstances of Sarah's
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had been buried under decades of
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administrative transfers,
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office relocations, and format
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The exhumation order was signed by a
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judge who had been in elementary school
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The technician who arrived at the
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cemetery that morning had performed this
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She expected routine.
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The grave was opened by a contractor
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using a small backhoe.
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The casket was removed and transported
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to the state medical examiner's office
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By 4:00 that afternoon, the measurements
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The skeleton measured 5 ft 3 in.
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Sarah's driver's license, still on file
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in the original case folder,
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listed her at 5 ft 7.
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is not a rounding error.
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The pelvis showed evidence of an old
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Sarah's archived medical records,
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requested from her former physician,
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contained no mention of such an injury.
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And the teeth told the rest.
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Sarah had a documented dental filling
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The receipt had been submitted by her
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family during the original missing
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persons investigation.
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The skull from grave 14C showed no
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no fillings, no dental work of any kind.
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The examiner picked up the phone.
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According to later testimony, the
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conversation lasted less than 3 minutes.
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The words exchanged were procedural,
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but the conclusion was immediate.
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They had buried the wrong woman.
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The original investigation had been
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handled by a two-detective unit
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operating out of a sheriff's office with
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The lead investigator was a man with
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more than two decades of experience in
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His partner was younger, newer,
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and rarely made independent decisions.
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When the body was discovered in August
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it was logged, photographed, and
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transported within 6 hours.
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The forensic pathologist who performed
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the autopsy noted blunt force trauma to
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undetermined pending further
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Identification was listed as
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subject to confirmation.
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That confirmation never occurred.
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The case file contains the unsigned note
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about deferred dental comparison.
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It also contains a second document,
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a one-page memo from the county
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administrator's office to all department
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heads dated June of 1983,
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instructing staff to exercise maximum
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fiscal restraint in discretionary
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Dental consultations were discretionary.
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The clothing recovered with the body,
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denim jeans, white canvas sneakers,
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remnants of a dark shirt,
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matched the general description of what
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Sarah had been wearing the night she
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A co-worker at the diner, interviewed
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during the missing persons
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investigation, recalled Sarah in jeans
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The lead detective wrote in his case
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summary that the identification was
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consistent with available evidence and
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He recommended the body be released.
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The death certificate was signed on
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Sarah Elizabeth Collins,
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Her family buried a woman they believed
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was their daughter 3 days later.
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They visited the grave.
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They marked anniversaries.
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And no procedural safeguard existed to
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because the system had been designed to
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assume that once a body was named and
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the question was closed.
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What the investigators did not know,
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what could not have been known without
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the technology that would not exist for
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was that Sarah Collins had not been in
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And somewhere else, another family had
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>> 4 months after the exhumation, forensic
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genealogists working with the cold case
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unit uploaded the DNA profile from the
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unidentified remains to a national
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The process took 8 weeks.
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The match was returned on a Tuesday.
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The woman in grave 14C was named
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Jennifer Marie Hale.
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Jennifer had been reported missing in
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early July of 1983 by her mother
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who lived in a city 70 miles south.
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last seen leaving a bus depot after
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She never arrived home.
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The missing person's report had been
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filed with a different jurisdiction.
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The cases were never cross-referenced.
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The agencies did not communicate.
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Jennifer Hale was 5 ft 3 in tall, blonde
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She had fractured her pelvis in a fall
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She matched the exhumed remains in every
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Her mother had died in 2009
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She had kept Jennifer's bedroom
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She had hired private investigators
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She had died without knowing where her
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daughter had been buried.
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Genealogists were able to locate
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Jennifer's younger sister, now in in
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late 50s, living two states away.
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She agreed to provide a reference DNA
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sample. The match was confirmed within
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She requested that her sister's remains
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be returned for reburial in the family
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The request was granted.
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But the correction of one grave raised
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the second question.
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If Jennifer Hale had been buried under
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Sarah Collins's name in 1983,
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then where was Sarah?
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The cold case unit reopened Sarah's
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file, now reclassified from closed to
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active unsolved homicide.
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They re-interviewed surviving witnesses.
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They searched regional databases for
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unidentified remains discovered between
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They expanded the search to four
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>> Sarah's younger brother provided a DNA
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It was uploaded to every available
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forensic and genealogical database.
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No matches. No partial hits.
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No investigative leads.
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As of the most recent update,
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Sarah Collins has been missing for 41
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The state issued formal letters of
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apology to both families
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An internal review concluded that the
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original identification had been
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conducted below acceptable standards,
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and that systemic budget pressures had
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contributed to procedural failures.
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No individuals were disciplined.
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Everyone directly involved in the
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original case was either deceased or
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beyond the reach of administrative
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Jennifer Hale was reburied beside her
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mother in the spring of 2022.
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Her sister was the only family member in
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She told a journalist afterward that she
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was grateful to finally bring Jennifer
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She also said she wished their mother
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had lived long enough to see it.
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Sarah Collins' brother still visits the
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But the grave he visits now is empty.
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It was excavated, examined, and sealed
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again without a occupant.
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He brings flowers anyway.
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In the language of administrative
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review, the case is classified as a
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due to insufficient verification
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protocols and resource constraints.
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But that language does not account for
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the four decades that followed.
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It does not account for the two mothers
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who grieved in separate towns, each
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believing they knew where their daughter
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lay, neither knowing the truth.
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The investigator who ordered the
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was asked in a recorded interview
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whether she believed Sarah Collins
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She said she believed Sarah had died in
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She said she believed there was another
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grave in another cemetery
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that had never been questioned.
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And in that grave, she believed was a
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body that had never been correctly
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The system that allowed the mistake,
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prioritized over verification,
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administrative convenience prioritized
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remains largely unchanged.
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Forensic genealogy has created new tools
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but it cannot correct what it never
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And across the country, in small town
