After nearly two decades of investigation and unanswered questions, the La Vergne Police Department has finally been able to put a name to the unidentified woman whose body was found in a remote wooded area in La Vergne in 2007. The woman has been identified as Mary Alice Maloney, a 40-year-old from Connecticut who had been living in the Nashville area up until her disappearance, as reported by WSMV.
Details surrounding Maloney's case were sparse for years despite efforts to identify her remains which included the discovery of jewelry and a clay reconstruction of her face, it wasn't until the DNA Doe Project, described by WKRN as "labor-intensive," took on the case that significant progress was made—utilizing genetic genealogy to connect distant DNA matches in the GEDmatch database that ultimately led to the identification of Maloney, was found off Hollandale Road, she had been shot in the head.
"It's definitely shocking to the system, and it's something that you don't get over," Sgt. Bob Hayes, who discovered the remains, told WKRN reflecting on the initial discovery in 2019, highlighting the emotional toll such cases exact on those who work them. Matthew Waterfield, Media and Communications Director for the DNA Doe Project, underlined the significance of the breakthrough, stating, “To finally have that resolved is very important for people, even when they don’t get closure, having those answers make a massive difference,” as reported by WKRN.
According to News Channel 5, the DNA Doe Project began assisting the La Vergne Police when conventional methods to identify Maloney had failed, despite early assumptions about her racial background and age bracket which may have initially diverted the course of the investigation; still, even with Maloney's identity now known, the La Vergne Police Department continues to seek the perpetrator in this ongoing cold case investigation, issuing a call for any information that might help bring resolution to this long-standing mystery who committed this to Mary Maloney remains unknown.
