Cold case mystery solved as bones found along Texas interstate in 1985 are revealed to be remains of 27-year-old mother - as cops probe her cause of death

Investigators have finally established the identity of a woman whose remains were found discarded at the side of a rural Texas interstate nearly 40 years ago, but her cause of death remains a mystery.  

Officials in Smith Country, Texas, close to the city of Tyler, announced this week that the remains belonged to Sindy Gina Crow, a wife and mother-of-one, who was 27 at the time of her death. 

Crow's bones were found by a Texas Department of Transportation crew around 75 feet from the road on October 1, 1985. Her remains were thought to have been there for around 14 months. 

The remains were sent to the Southwestern Institute of Forensic Sciences in Dallas who were able to establish the age of the victim and that she was either white or Hispanic. 

Close to her remains, police found a butterfly earring, a watch and a t-shirt from the Top Rail County Music, a now-defunct Dallas honkytonk bar. Crow's last known residence was in Arlington, Texas, a suburb of the city. 

A detective who worked on the case said that Crow's father said she regularly hitch-hiked and that he 'felt like Ted Bundy got her,' reports Fox Dallas-Fort Worth.  

Officials in Smith County, Texas, close to the city of Tyler, announced this week that the remains belonged to Sindy Gina Crow, a wife and mother-of-one, who was 27 at the time of her death

A forensic reconstruction of what investigators felt Crow would have looked like

In 2021, police investigators began to work with the California-based DNA Doe Project who partners with law enforcement to solve cases of unidentified persons and many cases are fully funded by donors.

The group made contact with Detective David Turner, who responded to the scene all the way back in 1985, to tell him about the lead.

'This case here was always kind of a challenge because she was never reported missing. Her family lived out of state, she wound up back here in Texas and she was just around everywhere,' he said this week.  

The DNA Doe Project investigation found that Crow had been married to a man named Dwight P. Crow and that she had a child who was born in July 1984. Her husband has since died. 

Her identity was confirmed through DNA swabs that investigators took from Crow's mother in Fort Worth, Texas, and daughter, who now lives in Fort Payne, Alabama. 

The tests were conducted at the University of North Texas Health Science Center. 

'Anytime we have anybody who has lost a life, we will not rest until we identify the body and if at all possible try to determine what caused the death, which will be the next part,' Smith County Sheriff Larry Smith said this week. 

Smith added that although investigators are working to establish a cause of death, the passage of time, the fact that Crow's husband is dead and the age of her daughter at the time of the death will make it difficult to uncover the truth. 

Crow was wearing a t-shirt advertising a Dallas honkytonk bar named Top Rail Country Music

Investigators digging at the scene after the gruesome discovery was made back in October 1985

 Smith said that Crow was not close with her family and they did not know she married or had become a mother. It's not known what brought Crow to Tyler, some 120 miles from her last known home. 

'It's very difficult to go any farther,' the sheriff said. 

'When you don’t have any organs, or anything left with the body you have nothing but skeletal remains it is very difficult. We feel that it is our obligation that she gets a proper burial,' he added. 

'We would've never identified her unless we did this ancestry thing,' Detective Turner said. 

I’ve always said, before I pass through the gates, I want to identify her. So, it feels good, you know?,' the detective went on.  

'Through this process, our team was able to build the family trees of matching DNA relatives... We know this is a bittersweet resolution, and our hearts go out to all who grieve her loss,' DNA Doe Project's team lead Rhonda Kevorkian said.