ATLANTA — There are 2,500 missing people in the state of Georgia and 154 unidentified remains. New technology called forensic genetic genealogy could help solve those mysteries.

One includes the case of a young girl whose death and identity have been unknown for nearly three decades. 

“Here we are 27 years later, and we still don’t know who she is,” said Dr. Carol Terry, the medical examiner for Gwinnett County. 

The “she” Terry is referring to is known as the “Atwood girl.” She was found in a shallow grave off Atwood Street on April 5, 1995. Her real name and everything else about her remain a mystery. 

“There’s so few answers. So many questions about what happened to this girl,” Terry said. “Who she is? How she died?”

In 1995, Terry worked for Fulton County. She did the girl’s autopsy and exam and has thought about her ever since.

She said her body was badly decomposed, but she could tell the girl was in her mid to late teens. Technology told investigators what the girl potentially looked like, but it couldn’t tell much else.  

“There was nothing in the toxicology, there was no obvious trauma,” Terry said. 

Terry said, at the time, she was sure all of her questions about the girl would be answered. But as the years dragged on, those answers never came. 

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