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DNA helps ID woman 2 decades after body found 2,500 miles away from her home
The body of a missing Canadian woman was identified using modern forensic tests, nearly two decades after her remains were found in 2005 about 2,500 miles away from her home.
Tammy Eileen Penner was last seen early that year, with an official missing person report filed to the Royal Canadian Mounted Police on Feb. 7, according to Othram, a U.S.-based company that works with law enforcement to help resolve unsolved murders and disappearance cases by identifying victims through investigative genetic genealogy. Canadian authorities used the company’s services to identify Penner, whose remains until recently were known only as Rockwood Jane Doe.
Citing law enforcement involved in the case, Othram said Penner’s body was originally found in August 2005 in the picnic area of a rest stop off of a highway between Guelph and Rockwood in the Canadian province of Ontario. At the time, authorities determined the remains belonged to a woman who was potentially as young as 25 or as old as 45 when she died. They said her left cheek, nose and eye socket had all been broken before her death and had time to heal while she was still alive.
Investigators didn’t — and still don’t — know what caused Penner’s death. But the circumstances around it were deemed suspicious.
Othram said her body was discovered under a sleeping bag at the rest stop. She wasn’t wearing jewelry or carrying identification, and authorities believed the clothing she wore when she died had been purchased somewhere in or around Montreal, which is almost 400 miles from Rockwood.
Authorities back then created and released composite images showing what the mysterious woman may have looked like, hoping a member of the public would recognize her.
Othram
Despite their efforts, she remained unidentified for years until the Ontario Provincial Police and the Toronto Police Service reviewed the case in 2023 and sought out Othram for genetic genealogy testing.
The company uses DNA from a victim or crime scene to build a genetic profile that can then be compared with profiles of other people, with the goal of finding potential matches and, in turn, possible relatives. The genetic profile for Rockwood Jane Doe allowed Toronto police to develop new leads in the case, ultimately confirming that the remains were those of Penner, who had lived before she died in British Columbia, on the opposite side of Canada. She was 41 when she died.
Randy Gaynor, a detective inspector with the Ontario Provincial Police, told the Canadian news organization CBC News that he has been in touch with Penner’s family. He said he hopes people who may have known the woman during her life will come forward with tips that could aid the investigation into what happened to her.
“We’re hoping that people will recognize and name Tammy Penner as being in Ontario or even being in British Columbia and coming to Ontario with someone, and we’re hoping that anyone that has information will come forward with any information they have that will assist us in determining her cause of death,” Gaynor said.
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A Georgia county’s emergency call center was overwhelmed by calls on Sept. 4 about a school shooting at Apalachee High School that killed four people and wounded nine others, records released Friday by Barrow County show.
Local news organizations report many of the 911 phone calls were not released under public record requests because state law exempts from release calls recording the voice of someone younger than 18 years old. That exemption would cover calls from most of the 1,900 students at the school in Winder, northeast of Atlanta.
Calls spiked around 10:20 a.m., when authorities have said that 14-year-old suspect Colt Gray began shooting. Many calls were answered with an automated message saying there was a “high call volume,” WAGA-TV reported.
One man called 911 after receiving text messages from a girlfriend. He was put on hold for just over 10 minutes because of an influx of calls at the time of the shooting, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
“She hears people yelling outside, so I don’t know if that’s officers in the building or that’s — I don’t know,” he said, adding that she was eventually evacuated out of the school.
Other adults also called 911 after their children contacted them.
“My daughter calling me crying. Somebody go ‘boom, boom, boom, boom,'” one mother said. The 911 operator responded: “Ma’am we have officers out there, OK?”
Parents of students at an elementary school and middle school neighboring Apalachee also flooded 911 seeking information.
“Sir, my daughter goes to school next door to Apalachee. Is there a school shooter?” one caller asked.
“We do have an active situation (at) Apalachee High School right now,” the operator responded. “We have a lot of calls coming in.”
More than 500 radio messages between emergency personnel were also released Friday.
“Active shooter!” an officer yells in one audio clip while speaking with a dispatcher, CNN reported. Another officer responds, “Correct. We have an active shooter at Apalachee High School.”
The shooting killed teachers Richard Aspinwall, 39, and Cristina Irimie, 53, as well as students Mason Schermerhorn and Christian Angulo, both 14. Another teacher and eight more students were wounded, with seven of those hit by gunfire.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation reported Thursday that the suspect rode the school bus on the day of the shooting with the assault-style rifle concealed in his backpack.
He then asked a teacher for permission to go to the front office to speak with someone, and when he received it, he was allowed to take his backpack with him, GBI said. He then went to a restroom, where he hid, and then eventually took out the weapon and started shooting, investigators said. A knife was also found on him when he was arrested.
According to investigators, the suspect enrolled at Apalachee High on Aug. 14, and between Aug. 14 and the day of the shooting, he was absent for nine days of school.
The family told CBS News that the suspect’s maternal grandmother had visited the school the day before the massacre to discuss the suspect’s alleged behavioral issues.
The suspect has been charged as an adult with four counts of murder, and District Attorney Brad Smith has said more charges are likely to be filed against him in connection with the wounded. Authorities have also charged his father, 54-year-old Colin Gray, alleging that he gave his son access to the gun when he knew or should have known that the teen was a danger to himself and others.
The 13,000 students at Barrow County’s other schools returned to class Tuesday. The 1,900 students who attend Apalachee are supposed to start returning the week of Sept. 23, officials said Friday.
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