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Tampa Authorities Have Name To Go With Bones Found In '96

By JOSH POLTILOVE | The Tampa Tribune

Published: December 8, 2008

Updated: 12/08/2008 05:09 pm

Reconstruction

TAMPA - A dozen years after a woman's skeleton was found under a tree at Adamo Drive near 26th Street, the slaying victim has been identified, Tampa homicide Detective Eric Houston said today.

Tina Louise Johnson would have been 37 when her skeleton was found Oct. 13, 1996, police said.

Houston said Johnson had frequented the Ybor City area, worked down there off and on, and had several family members there.

Police said Johnson died of upper body trauma but did not elaborate.

Homeless people spotted the bones, covered with carpet padding, in 1996. Investigators said at the time that it wasn't clear whether she was slain at the site or had been dumped there.

Police identified the woman with the help of the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Web site, which had posted a rendering of what she might have looked like. The Web site includes information on other unidentified remains, such as physical descriptions, scars, tattoos and what the person was wearing when found.

Johnson's daughter recently saw the description and image online, Houston said. She contacted the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner's Office in February. The daughter provided a DNA sample, which an FBI analysis compared with the remains for a match, he said.

Now that investigators know who the woman is, "it gives us a starting point for investigating the murder," Houston said.

ON THE WEB

•Hillsborough County remains: www.hillsboroughcounty.org/medexam/about/unidentif...

•Florida remains: www.fluiddb.com

•National site for unidentified remains: www.identifyus.org

•National site for missing people: www.find-the-missing.org

Researcher Michael Messano contributed to this report. Reporter Josh Poltilove can be reached at (813) 259-7691.

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