NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — A Gallatin family is one step closer to finding closure after their loved one disappeared 39 years ago, all thanks to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.

DNA testing linked a human skull found in 2004 to Alice Mae Sullivan.

20-year-old Tennessee State University sophomore Alice Sullivan was studying business. She was last seen on campus on Aug. 28, 1986.

Her family knew something was wrong when she did not pick her son up from a babysitter. She has been missing for 39 years.

In 2004, a human skull was found along Stokers Lane, about eight minutes away from TSU’s campus.

It was sent away for DNA testing.

“We would do that kind of testing, upload it into CODIS and try to make associations across the United States,” University of North Texas Center for Human Identification Executive Director Michael Coble said.

Coble said there are only a few labs across America that test mitochondrial DNA.

“Across the nation, at any one time, there's anywhere from 4,000 to 6,000 unidentified remains,” he said.

So there is a backlog. But for Sullivan's case, UNT CHI finally gained all the pieces to solve this puzzle.

“We'll take that sample and then we'll clean it, because, you know, if it's a bone that's been out in the elements for a long time, there's potentially a lot of contaminating DNA from the soil, bacteria, things like that,” Coble said. “So we'll clean the outer surface, and then we'll grind that bone up into a very fine powder, where we can then extract the DNA."

Sullivan's family submitted their DNA to the Combined DNA Index System database, and it matched the skull.

“We can get fairly good results from bones,” he said. “I probably couldn't say that 20 years ago because 20 years ago the methods we were using to extract the DNA from the bone were quite old and limited.”

When News 2's Alexia Tsiropulos asked what it felt like to be involved in the process of solving cases, Coble said, “It’s really the people that we have are so dedicated, they understand that they’re families that are wanting answers, and we really try our best to try to give them those answers as quickly as we can.”

Coble encouraged anyone in a similar situation can let local law enforcement know and they will connect you with CODIS.

Metro Nashville police said this is still an active investigation to find out if someone killed Alice Sullivan.

News Source : https://www.wkrn.com/news/local-news/dna-testing-explained-linked-to-missing-persons-case-alice-sullivan/