The Hamilton County district attorney’s office, cold case unit and the GBI closed an almost 40-year-old case on Friday after they identified a woman’s remains as Patricia Parker’s.
“Back in March of 2019, this law enforcement team behind me was here and were working on an unsolved murder in Georgia,” District Attorney Neal Pinkston said. “We had an artist’s rendering and a facial reconstruction.
We asked the media and community to help us identify who this individual was.”
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s special agent Joe Montgomery was in charge of solving the cold case. He said closing this particular case gave closure to Ms. Parker’s son, who for decades has wondered what happened to his mother.
“Ms. Parker was 30 years old when she was killed, and she would be 69 years old today. We made contact with the family today, as she has a son who is still alive here in Chattanooga today, to give him that closure and to give him some comfort in knowing his mother did not abandon him.”
He said the cold case unit immediately began receiving calls and tips about the cold case. Many of Ms. Parker’s friends and family members came forward and said the artist’s rendition and facial reconstruction looked like her. However, agent Montgomery also said “we had other people who thought it might be their family member too.”
“We sent it out to the DNA lab out there (at North Texas State), and the DNA was done and we sent it off to the FBI out in Quantico and confirmed it was Ms. Parker,” agent Montgomery said. “We took DNA samples from the son, and we sent it off for DNA testing and comparison.”
The agent said the cold case center got at least “10 to 20” calls right after the March press conference. He also said they got a tip as late as last month. The tipster said they believed the person was Ms. Parker, and they also said they believed they knew who the killer was.
GBI and the cold case unit believe Ms. Parker was murdered by Samuel Little, a serial killer who is serving multiple life sentences in California.
“Essentially, she was out on Ninth Street, which is now MLK Boulevard, and she was out enjoying herself. Unfortunately she went to a bar and left with the wrong person, and it cost herself her life.”