Stacey Lyn Chahorski last spoke to her mother in September 1988. (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System)
DADE COUNTY, Ga. – After a decade-long investigation, law enforcement officials have identified the body of a woman in Dade County, Georgia, as a missing Michigan teenager.
On the afternoon of December 16, 1988, deputies from the Dade County Sheriff’s Office and agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation were called to the north lane of Intestate 59 following reports of a dead body. At the scene, 5 miles from the Alabama state line, investigators found the body of an unidentified woman who had been killed.
For years, agents worked to identify the victim – using composite drawings, audio recordings and a DNA profile to figure out what she looked like and who she was.
In 2015, officials said, the GBI contacted the FBI about possibly using a new type of geneology study that was known to help solve other cold-related homicide cases.
With this new investigation, law enforcement had a breakthrough. Using the technology, officers identified the body as that of Stacey Lyn Chahorski, a 19-year-old from Norton Shores, Michigan who was reported missing in January 1989. She would have been 52 today.
“Without the advances in DNA technology, we wouldn’t be able to help and have this success,” said FBI Special Agent Tim Burke.
Burke said they could give Stacey Lyn’s mother some peace and return some of her daughter’s jewelry. After more than three decades, Chahorski will be reunited with her family.
Investigators are now looking for Chahorski’s killer and are asking the public for information related to the case.
According to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, Chahorski last spoke to her mother by phone on September 15, 1988 and informed her that she was in North Carolina and was traveling to Flint, MI. and then travel to Muskegon, MI.
The original police report on her disappearance said she went to Chicago from Knoxville, Tennessee.
If you know anything that might assist in the investigation, please call 1-800-597-TIPS(8477).
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