Body found in Kentucky over 4 decades ago identified

LEXINGTON, Ky. (WKYT) - Kentucky State Police say they now know the name of the victim found dead in 1979.

On Thursday, those with Kentucky State Police Post 11 in London announced they have identified remains linked to a cold case more than four decades old.

Post 11′s Public Affairs officer Scottie Pennington says the victim was identified as twenty-five-year-old Michael Murray of Atlanta, Georgia.

Murray’s remains were found on Coon Club Road in Laurel County in 1979 and evidence from the scene has been with post 11 since then.

“After 45 years, we were able to identify him, and hopefully, his family can get some peace that now they know where their son is,” said Pennington.

Pennington says Post 11 was able to revisit the case through a case review and then partner with the FBI to get the remains identified.

“We’ve used NAMIS (the National Missing Person and Identification System) to help us with this investigation,” Pennington said. “It’s awesome that you can send DNA and fingerprints and hair samples to help solve cases that you couldn’t solve in 1979.”

Pennington says although Murray’s death was confirmed to be a murder, police are still trying to investigate other details regarding his death.

“We’ll still try to investigate this and see if we can solve it. It might be solved in a week, and it might take us another 45 years. We won’t stop digging and scratching until we can find what happened,” said Pennington. “This case does have life now. It does have a heartbeat.”

Anyone with information regarding the death of Michael Murray is asked to contact Detective James Royal at 606-878-6622.

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