Latasha LaShelle Smith was a young woman found murdered in Georgia in 2005. She had been missing for several weeks before her body was found, Smith was identified in early March of 2015.
Case[]
On December 22, 2005, the body of a young female was located on Quincy Drive around the vicinity of the I-185 underpass in Columbus, Georgia. An autopsy later revealed that the woman had been the victim of a homicide via strangulation, this murder being believed by authorities to have taken place no more than two days prior to the victim's body being discovered. However, despite the relatively-short length of time that had elapsed between the unidentified woman's death and discovery, the condition of the remains had been compromised (possibly due to a postmortem attack by wild dogs in the area), and this made it difficult for authorities to identify the woman in the time following her initial discovery. [1] As the unidentified female had also not had any significant dental work, the main distinguishing characteristics that authorities were able to discern came in the form of scarring on the woman's lower back.
The unidentified female was ultimately identified via DNA as Latasha LaShelle (or "La Shelle") Smith around March 2015. Her murder remains unsolved, and the circumstances surrounding her departing California and ultimately being found deceased in Georgia (including the weeks that she had evidently spent alive in between) are not entirely certain.
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Footnotes[]
- ↑ Prior to Smith's identification, the Doe Network listed her estimated postmortem interval as being 1 to 14 days and the state of her remains as being "recognizable face", both of which are likely erroneous, based on information that was released later on.