Skeletal remains identified as Conyers woman missing since 1997, but questions about death remain

Nearly three decades after the disappearance of a metro Atlanta woman, DNA analysis has led to a breakthrough in her case, police say.

Officials with the Conyers Police Department say that Tammy Fortson was reported missing in 1997 from the Fox Chase Court area. While officers tried to find Fortson, the case went cold, and her disappearance remained a mystery for years.

In 2016, officials reported finding skeletal remains near Christian Circle, one of the areas where Fortson was last seen. Investigators recovered the remains, sending a portion to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in 2019, in hopes of identifying them, but still weren't able to get information to positively link them to the missing woman.

That began to change in 2024, when authorities say the case was reassigned to Criminal Investigations Lt. Kayla Hinds, who renewed the efforts and coordinated additional forensic testing with the Texas organization. 

After months of DNA analysis, investigators say they determined the remains were "approximately 104 million times more likely" to be the biological child of Fortson's mother than an unrelated individual. With this discovery the officials were able to identify the remains as those of Tammy Fortson earlier this year.

"This identification represents a significant milestone in a case that has remained unresolved for many years. While it cannot erase the pain experienced by Tammy's family, we hope it provides them with some measure of answers and allows the investigation to move forward," the Conyers Police Department wrote on Facebook.

While the discovery does solve part of the mystery of Fortson's disappearance, officials questions still remain about her death.

If you have any information about Fortson that could help with the case, call the Newton County Sheriff's Office at 470-426-4294.