On April 14, 1985, the body of a young female was found partially decomposed along Interstate 81 in Greene County, Tennessee near Exit 44.
Tennessee Bureau of Investigations Special Agents joined the Greene County Sheriff’s Office in investigating the case, which was ruled a homicide.
Autopsy results revealed the victim died approximately three weeks before her body was discovered. Authorities were unable to determine the identity of the victim, and she was listed as a Jane Doe.
As a result of the ongoing investigation, a sample of the victim’s remains was submitted to the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification in 2006.
A DNA profile for the victim was developed and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in hopes that she would eventually be identified.
In 2018, the reamains were identified as being those of 17-year-old Elizabeth Lamotte, who was missing from New Hampshire, more than 900 miles from where her body was located.
Lamotte, of Allenstown, New Hampshire, was last seen on Nov. 22, 1984, when she left the Youth Development Center in Manchester, New Hampshire on a furlough to Gill Stadium, but it wasn’t until 2017 that detectives with the Manchester Police Department located members of her family and obtained DNA samples from them.
Those samples were submitted to CODIS, which ultimately resulted in Elizabeth Lamotte being identified.The YDC discharged Lamotte's case on July 27, 1985, on what would have been her 18th birthday, even though she never returned to the facility.
Her death was ruled a homicide and an autopsy revealed that she died of blunt force trauma to the head about two to three weeks before her body was discovered,
New Hampshire officials received a tip in 2017 after a press conference on the Allenstown unidentified persons cases. Officials had been trying to ascertain information about "Elizabeth Evans," who had been listed as the spouse of murder suspect Bob Evans on a 1980 arrest report.
Bob Evans' real name was Terry Peder Rasmussen.
One of the tips received by the Cold Case Unit was that Lamotte had disappeared from Manchester in that time frame and could be the "Elizabeth Evans" that New Hampshire officials were trying to identify.
Although the New Hampshire Attorney General's Office said Lamotte was not Elizabeth Evans, the investigations into both Lamotte's disappearance and death and the identity of Elizabeth Evans are ongoing.
At the time of her disappearance, Lamotte was described as being 5 feet, 5 inches tall, weighing between 110 and 125 pounds and having brown hair and hazel eyes.
Given the official autopsy findings and the date she went missing, investigators speculate Elizabeth may have lived as long as six months after her disappearance.
If you think you have information in this case you can submit a tip to the Manchester police at 603-668-8711 or to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation at 1-800-824-3463.
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