During one of the deadliest years in Fort Worth history, two homicide victims were found months apart in very different parts of the city. Neither carried identification, and despite investigative efforts, both remained nameless for decades.

Their cases became part of the long list of unidentified people whose deaths could not be fully investigated without first answering the most basic question: who were they?

Decades later, preserved evidence and advances in forensic technology gave investigators new opportunities to revisit both cases. One would require modern DNA analysis and genealogical research, while the other depended on an unusual method of recovering fingerprints from evidence preserved since the original investigation.

After forty years, both victims finally got their names back. 

This episode examines their original discoveries, the evidence investigators had to work with, the forensic methods that eventually provided answers, and what remains unresolved now that their names are known. It also looks at another recent identification by the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office and the continuing effort to locate relatives of people who remained unidentified or unclaimed for years.

If you have information about the 1986 murder of Brenda Darnell McLerran Smith, please contact the Fort Worth Police Cold Case Unit at (817) 392-4307.

If you have any information that might help locate the next of kin of Jose Francisco Reyes Ortega, whose body was found in October of 1986, please contact the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office at (817) 920-5700. If you have information about his murder, please contact the Fort Worth Police Cold Case Unit at the number above.

If you have any information that might help locate the next of kin of Ciro Estrada Hernandez, whose body was found in August of 2000, please contact the Tarrant County Medical Examiner’s Office at (817) 920-5700.

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