Search to ID woman brings another one home

Sealy News - TX, USA

Search to ID woman brings another one home

Posted: Wednesday, January 18, 2012 2:00 pm

Search to ID woman brings another one home By AMBER GONZALES, Staff Writer The Sealy News | 1 comment

The body of a 13-year-old girl murdered almost 38 years ago was finally returned home to her family in Beaumont.

But the remains found in a wooded area in Georgia may never have been identified if it weren’t for the body of another young woman found in Austin County in 1975.

Ima Jean Sanders was a white female who had been living in Warner Robins, Ga. who went missing in 1974. Her skeletal remains were found off of George Highway 96 in Peach County and were kept by the Georgia Bureau of Investigation (GBI) Crime Laboratory, though she could not be identified – until last month.

Last year, Austin County Precinct 4 Justice of the Peace Dennis King reopened a case that has kept one woman in his thoughts and prayers. An unknown woman, who he refers to as Pamela, was found in 1975 by two boys checking their fishing lines in the Brazos River, close to Sealy behind the Lazy River subdivision.

King, along with the Austin County sheriff, deputy sheriff, Sealy police chief and funeral home director, was called to the scene.

Investigators estimated the body had been in the river three to four days. The victim, now thought to be between the ages of 17 and 25, had no clothes or jewelry on when she was found and there were few clues to her identity. (more...)