JACKSON CO., Miss. -  A thirty-year-old unsolved murder mystery in a Mississippi community has led investigators to Sharon, Pennsylvania.

Skeletal remains found in a swamp in rural Jackson County, Mississippi in early 1991 have been identified as those of Kimberly Ann Funk, who was 21 years old when she was reported missing nearly one year before.

According to the Jackson County, Mississippi Sheriff’s office, when the remains were discovered in Ward Bayou, all experts could determine was that they were those of a female Caucasian with brown hair.

  Investigators, who said that the body could have been in the bayou for up to three years, considered the death a homicide.

Later that year, a clay model was made of the woman’s skull to generate a possible identity. Sheriff's investigators worked with the news media to attempt to generate information from the public. However, the case went cold when no identity was made.

 

 In 2012, Pascagoula Police Investigator Darren Versiga, former Jackson County Coroner Vickie Broadus, and sheriff's investigators began looking at unsolved death cases. They sent the clay model of the skull to the University of North Texas where the DNA was extracted and processed.

The victim’s information was uploaded to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database. The remains were still unidentified when they were transferred to the Mississippi Crime Lab.

Two years ago, using money from an anonymous donor, the Mississippi Crime Lab was able to fund further DNA research through Othram Inc., a Texas company that specializes in analyzing degraded DNA.

Othram built a family tree that linked the DNA to a possible brother in Sharon, Pennsylvania.

This past March, a cold-case investigative team spoke with the brother, who confirmed he had a sister named Kimberly Ann Funk. He said she was known to go by the name “Star,” and went missing in 1990.

Investigators worked with the Sharon, Pennsylvania Police Department to collect DNA swabs from the brother, which were sent to Othram Inc. for comparison.

Within two weeks, the DNA confirmed Kimberly Ann Funk’s identity.

 

 

Based on the brother’s information, investigators concluded Kimberly arrived on the Mississippi Gulf Coast between April and June 1990, from the Houston, Texas area.

Efforts continue to piece together a timeline of Kimberly’s life between April 1990, and the time she was found in February 1991.

Anyone with information on this case can contact the Jackson County Sheriff's Office at 228-769-3063, or Mississippi Coast Crime Stoppers. All information will remain confidential.