Victim in 30-year-old murder case identified

PINEVILLE, Mo. — After 30 years of investigation, recent DNA extraction and genealogy tracing, the identity of a cold case victim has been determined.

Detectives were told that it would be only by the “Grace of God” that she would be identified, leading to her unofficial name, Grace Doe.

According to McDonald County sheriff’s office Deputy Michael Hall, the victim is 22-year-old Shawna Beth Garber of Topeka, Kan.

The long-unidentified body was discovered Dec. 2, 1990, near an abandoned farmhouse on Oscar Talley Road, between Lanagan and Pineville, according to reports. A couple collecting cans discovered her remains.

The killer used six types of cord and clothesline for bondage, investigators have said. The six types of cord included military cord not available to the public in 1990, reports said.

From then to the present, the sheriff’s office has received calls from people from coast to coast with ideas on who the victim might be. Each tip was followed up on, with dental records and DNA used to exclude possible matches.

Hall was contacted in September by Othram Inc., an advanced DNA testing facility, in regard to extracting DNA from the victim’s skeletal remains.

At the beginning of this year, the sheriff’s office received information that candidate relatives for “Grace” had been identified through genealogy research.

Hall was given a list of names and the task of tracking down the potential relatives. After attempting without success to contact the first two individuals, Hall got in touch with Danielle Pixler.

During their conversation, Pixler confirmed that she had a half sister, Shawna Garber, who had been in foster care in Garnett, Kan., before being taken back into state custody. Pixler said she then lost touch with Garber.

For the past 28 years, Pixler has been searching for her sister.

In February, Pixler agreed to submit a DNA sample. One month later, a call from Othram confirmed that Pixler was a match to “Grace,” now confirmed to be Garber.

Hall said the sheriff’s office must now backtrack Garber’s life to trace her whereabouts and try to learn what and who led to her death.