The recently identified remains of a missing Memphis woman found last month in southeastern Tallahatchie County were retrieved from a burned house in a very remote rural area, officials have confirmed.
Sheriff Jimmy Fly said Wednesday that the remains of 27-year-old Ashley McDonald, who went missing four months ago on Thanksgiving Day, were found Feb. 11 amongst the charred rubble of an abandoned residential structure.
Fly noted that the property owner told officials it had been at least eight years since anyone had lived in the house, adding that it had been more than a year since he himself had been in that particular area.
The sheriff said since no one had reported the house fire, there was no fire department record. An area resident told investigators in February that he remembered seeing some smoke in the general vicinity two or three months earlier, Fly noted.
Fly said a burned automobile also was discovered on the property and was hauled away for analysis, but he said its role, if any, has not been determined.
"It's unknown if there was any connection between the car and this case," he noted.
Ms. McDonald's car, which she is believed to have driven to meet an unidentified male in Batesville, in Panola County, had been found hidden in the Tippo community of Tallahatchie County in mid-December. It was not until late January that the connection between the car and the missing woman was made. Memphis police came down at that time to search the area and process the car but found no clues as to her whereabouts.
Fly said this week that investigators had tracked "McDonald's vehicle, for the timeline of her disappearance, along with her phone records ... to Tallahatchie County and inside its local communities."
The remains of Ms. McDonald were discovered, according to Fly, after the sheriff's office received an anonymous tip through a telephone call on the evening of Feb. 10.
Fly said the tip led to their search of private property in a wooded location off the graveled Providence Road.
The sheriff said investigators walked quite a distance to reach the remote house site that had been suggested by the caller.
"The structure was well off the main road, and because of nightfall, nothing could be determined at that time," the sheriff noted.
Investigators returned to the site on the morning of Feb. 11 and found what was believed to be human remains amid the debris of the burned house, Fly noted.
He said the Memphis Police Department, the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation, the Mississippi State Fire Marshal's Office, the district attorney's office and the county coroner's office were notified.
Tallahatchie County Deputy Coroner Angie Davis "assisted in the removal and preservation of the remains," Coroner Ginger Meriwether revealed in a Wednesday statement, adding that she herself delivered the remains to the Mississippi Forensics Laboratory in Pearl.
Meriwether noted that Scales Biological Laboratory in Brandon and Dr. Anastasia Holobinko, a forensic anthropologist at the Mississippi State Medical Examiner's Office, worked together to extract DNA from the remains for comparison with a maternal swab provided by Ms. McDonald's mother, who had given it to Memphis police.
The coroner said she received notification Friday, March 11, that the DNA was a match..
Meriwether added that the precise cause of Ms. McDonald's death is yet to be determined. Officials are investigating it as a homicide.
The sheriff said the fire marshal's office also has not released its report on the cause of the house fire.
Other facts of the continuing investigation are being held close for the moment, the sheriff noted.
"No other details or names can be released at this time," he said. "However, we are working diligently with all agencies to make sure this investigation stays on course."
Fly did hasten to add that, based on information gleaned from their "extensive investigation involving the cooperation of multiple agencies and spanning across state lines," officials "do not feel that there is any threat or danger to the people of Tallahatchie County or anyone else."
The sheriff said his office is appreciative to everyone who has been involved with the investigation, "especially The Sun-Sentinel for running the story of Ashley McDonald and the public who was willing to call with information."
Fly noted that any additional info the public might have would be "greatly appreciated," listing 662-647-5511, 662-375-8676 and 662-647-3000 as phone numbers which may be called. He said callers may "remain anonymous."
Both Fly and Meriwether expressed the hope that there is some solace for family and friends in the recently revealed confirmation.
"I pray the family can find some sense of closure with this information," said Fly, "and know that the Tallahatchie County Sheriff's Office will remain at their service until this case is closed."
"All agencies worked together to be able to provide closure for a hurting family," stated Meriwether. "I cannot fathom what that family has been through in the past months."
