Will DNA answer 2 lingering questions?

• Remains will be exhumed this week from a Richmond cemetery in pursuit of an answer to two unsolved cases from the 1970s.
• Lula Miller disappeared from Laurel Nov. 1, 1974, and unidentifiable remains were found in a Richmond sewer Oct. 1, 1975.
• A call from a representative of The Doe Network national database for missing persons and unidentified bodies sparked Indiana State Police Sgt. Scott Jarvis to check into the case.
• Jarvis found similarities between Miller and the remains and hopes DNA testing will prove the remains are Miller.

Lula Miller left her Laurel, Ind., home Nov. 1, 1974. She was never heard from again.

Workers for a Richmond excavating company discovered a body Oct. 1, 1975, in a sewer. The decomposed remains could not be identified.

Nearly 40 years later, utilizing the Internet's power and advanced DNA testing, Indiana State Police Sgt. Scott Jarvis hopes he'll answer both lingering questions.

Wednesday at Earlham Cemetery, Jarvis exhumed the remains of that body found in a sewer and will submit DNA samples for testing. He thinks the results will show the remains are Miller.

"I'm more confident than not," said the 15-year ISP veteran.

Jarvis' journey to this point began with a January phone call from a volunteer with The Doe Network, an online database of missing persons and unidentified bodies. The volunteers comb through cases, trying to find matches, according to Jarvis.

Jarvis began researching beyond the similar time frame, proximity of location and gender match. He reviewed the cases, researched newspaper accounts at the Ball State University library and acquired the autopsy report and photos from Cincinnati.

"There are characteristics, like height and weight, and other factors that match from the autopsy," Jarvis said. "There are similarities between this lady and the one missing from Franklin County."

DNA was taken from members of Miller's family and run through national police databases of unidentified bodies. There was no match. Jarvis then worked through the legal steps necessary to obtain a search warrant to exhume the remains in Richmond and analyze DNA. Final paperwork was approved last week, leading to the next step this week.

After the remains were checked at a local funeral home, Jarvis said, the University of Indianapolis anthropology lab will conduct an examination. Dr. Krista E. Latham and graduate students Justin Maiers and Ryan Strand helped Jarvis exhume the remains.

"They are looking for any information they can get," Jarvis said, "but we're basically relying on DNA."

Mitochondrial DNA samples will be sent to the University of North Texas for analysis. Then, Jarvis and Miller's family members will begin a wait that could last six months, depending on the lab's case load.

"The daughters I'm in touch with are excited. They were 2 or 3 years old when their mom left," Jarvis said. "They're excited about the possibility of finding her for closure, but they don't have their hopes up. It's still just a possibility right now."

It's a possibility brought about because of advances in communication between agencies and the collection and analysis of evidence. Jarvis said it would not have been unusual for cases a couple of counties apart not to be matched, especially with no means of identification available.

"Back then, they would only check for blood type," Jarvis said. "DNA wasn't even used back then."

Jarvis, who is based in Pendleton District 51, has utilized modern methods to solve other cold cases. He said he's found a missing Connersville woman and a missing Brookville man alive previously, but more often, such searches result in no answer.

"It's interesting and frustrating, too. There's a reason these cases go unsolved during previous investigations," Jarvis said. "It's like looking for a needle in a haystack.

"When you do solve one, it is rewarding."

Staff Writer Mike Emery: (765) 973-4466, mwemery@pal-item.com or @PI_Emery

Body found Oct. 1, 1975

A report appeared on Page 7 of the Palladium-Item's Oct. 2, 1975 edition noting that human remains were found in a sewer near North 17th and J streets. The remains were described by deputy coroner Paul Patterson as a white female, 5-foot-2 in her 40s or 50s, the article said.

Workers from Cains Lake Excavating Co. discovered the remains lying face up on a steel rail beneath an open manhole where three sewers formed a "T," the Palladium-Item reported. The workers were installing a new 54-inch sewer above the existing sewer.

According to the article, the Hamilton County, Ohio, coroner's pathology lab estimated the body had been in the sewer between 20 and 40 days.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Scott Jarvis is having those remains exhumed from an area cemetery this week for DNA testing. He thinks the remains are those of Lula Miller, who was 27 years old when she disappeared Nov. 1, 1974, from Laurel, Ind.