$10,000 reward offered for information on dead girl as Effler and TBI renew push to solve her murder
Tracy Sue Walker, formerly the unidentified girl known as "Baby Girl," was discovered in a trash dump along the Scott/Campbell county line in 1985.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible for the murder of Tracy Sue Walker, the former Jane Doe who was known for many years as “Baby Girl.”
Lee’s offer comes on the heels of a request by 8th Judicial District Attorney General Jared Effler, who said Monday that the search for justice for Walker continues.
“We are determined to bring justice to Tracy Sue’s case,” Effler said. “Through the vital efforts and commitment of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, it is our sincere hope that someone, somewhere holds the crucial piece of information to bring her killer to justice.”
Walker was only 15 when she was murdered more than 40 years ago. She disappeared from Lafayette, Ind. in 1978 and her remains were discovered in the Big Wheel Gap area of Elk Valley, along the Scott/Campbell county line, in 1985.
Investigators in the ‘80s determined that the remains were those of a white girl, likely between the ages of 10 and 14, who had been dead from one to four years. The body had been discarded like trash at an illegal dump site near an old strip mine. Authorities found a pair of size five hiking books and a necklace made of plastic buttons near the body, but few other clues.
Authorities nicknamed the victim “Baby Girl.” For nearly 30 years, they had little to go on except for a biochemical analysis of the remains that determined she had not spent significant time in Campbell County, and could have been from somewhere in the Midwest.
In 2013, a TBI agent revisited the case, searching for new leads. That led to DNA analysis at a University of Tennessee laboratory that identified a possible relative of the child in Indiana. That led to information that the possible relative had a family member who went missing in 1978, and eventually led to the identification of “Baby Girl” as 15-year-old Tracy Sue Walker.
The identification was made in 2022.
Walker was described as a “shy, thoughtful girl who loved cheerleading and doing hair.” She was a freshman at Jefferson High School in Lafayette, Ind. and was last seen in July 1978 when she was spotted getting into a car with a “slightly older group of men” at Tippecanoe Mall in Indiana.
In a release Monday, Effler’s office said that “TBI agents are confident that someone in Campbell County possesses crucial information that will reveal who is responsible for Tracy Sue’s death.”
Working with a sociology class at Elizabethton High School, the TBI has published a new website, justice4tracysue.com. Persons with information on her death can submit tips. They can also call 1-800-TBI-FIND.