NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WTVF) — More than 56 years after 12-year-old Nora Kathylene “Kathy” Jones was killed, Metro Nashville Police detectives are revisiting the case with the help of modern forensic technology.
Cold Case Unit detectives attended the exhumation of Kathy’s remains Wednesday morning as part of the ongoing homicide investigation.
Police said the Medical Examiner’s Office will conduct a new forensic review using technology that was not available in the 1960s in hopes of uncovering new evidence.
Kathy was last seen on the evening of Nov. 29, 1969, after leaving her home on Lutie Street to walk to the Roller Drome skating rink on Thompson Lane with her roller skates. She was supposed to call her mother for a ride home, but never did.
Kathy’s body was found Dec. 2, 1969, in tall grass in an empty lot at 2806 Grandview Avenue, behind a Krispy Kreme Donut Shop. Investigators said she had been raped, stabbed and suffocated.
A 1994 NewsChannel 5 report by Larry Brinton described the killing as “one of the most brutal this city has ever had.”
In that report, Clyde Green, director of a funeral home a few blocks away from where Kathy’s body was discovered, recalled responding to the scene after searchers discovered Kathy’s body.
“I will never forget the child's face,” he said. “Just a child destroyed like that.”
Almost eight years after Kathy’s body was discovered, a former skating rink employee was charged in connection with her murder. However, prosecutors later dropped the charge, saying there was not enough evidence to move forward with the case.
Over 55 years later, her exhumation is big news, particularly for Mickey Miller.
He's the retired chief of police in Hendersonville who previously worked on cold cases in Nashville, including Kathy's.
Because the unit didn't do autopsies at the time, they never got answers to who committed this crime. Now, with advanced technology, another review could lead to closure.
"From every indication she was a sweet, 12-year-old girl, little girl and she did not deserve for this to happen to her," he said. "We need to let people out there that's doing bad things know we don't quit. We don't give up and eventually we might get you. And hopefully that'll be the case."
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