UNSOLVED GA - Athens, Skeletal Remains, possibly Walter Moody, Aug'08

http://onlineathens.com/stories/081908/news_2008081900344.shtml

A state forensic expert should have a better idea today whether skeletal remains found in a demolished West Athens house last week belong to a man or a woman.
Authorities will wait longer - maybe months - to confirm their suspicions the bones belong to a West Hancock Avenue man missing since 1995, according to Rick Snow, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation's forensic anthropologist.
The bones, which workers found Thursday as they demolished a house on Carter Street, were "heavily encrusted" with dirt, and Snow began cleaning them Monday at the GBI Crime Lab in Decatur, a process that should be completed by today, he said.
Snow might be able rule out foul play as the cause of death by studying the bones.

http://www.myfoxatlanta.com/myfox/p...n=1&locale=EN-US&layoutCode=TSTY&pageId=1.1.1

Police said a construction worker found the bone while tearing down an old abandoned home. The home of Walter Moody is just around the corner from the site. The 69-year-old disappeared in 1995

I know this is neither here nor there, but the title caught my attention. The name Walter Moody is kind of a family name in my genealogy and it spooked me!

http://www.onlineathens.com/PalmPilot/stories/082108/news_2008082100581.html

No ID, but bones 'consistent' with man's description
By Joe Johnson
joe.johnson@onlineathens.com


Human remains found this month at a West Athens construction site seem to belong to a West Hancock Avenue man who went missing 13 years ago, a Georgia Bureau of Investigation official said Wednesday.

The skeletal remains belong to a black male between 55 and 75 years old who stood about 5 feet 8 inches tall, according to Rick Snow, the GBI's forensic anthropologist.

That would be "consistent" with the description of 69-year-old Walter Moody, who was last seen in June 1995 not far from where the bones were found last Thursday, an abandoned house on Carter Street, Snow said.

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See also
http://onlineathens.com/stories/081708/news_2008081700162.shtml

Walter Moody is not listed as a missing person on Doe Network, Charley Project or Namus and these remains are not on Namus as an UID either.

I didn't find a Walter Moody with an Athens GA address listed in http://ssdi.rootsweb.ancestry.com/


More about him from an older article:
http://www.onlineathens.com/stories/040207/news_20070402003.shtml

There are a couple of open cases that don't seem to involve foul play, Richardson said, but probably won't have a good ending.

Walter Moody, for example, already was 69 years old when he was reported missing 12 years ago, in June 1995.

Moody was known to hitchhike a lot, according to Capt. Clarence Holeman of the Athens-Clarke police Criminal Investigations Division. But he also was drinking heavily when last seen walking down the street from his home on Hancock Extension.

"We talked to Mr. Moody's family about a year ago, just to let them know we haven't forgotten," Holeman said.

During the visit, police took cheek swabs from family members, just in case DNA is needed to identify the missing man, Holeman said.

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This map shows West Hancock Avenue where Mr. Moody lived and Carter Street where the remains were found (A and B are randomly placed)

W Hancock Ave - Carter St, Athens, GA 30606 - Google Maps

I couldn't find any update on this case--no Namus listing, not on the GBI website--so I presume the remains were in fact those of Mr. Moody.

I found an obituary for a Walter C. Moody of Athens, funeral in September 2009, no date of death given. That's about the right interval for identity to have been confirmed, but there's no other indication whether it might be the same guy. Maybe somebody with Ancestry can look to see if they can find anything?