Body ID’d as missing 24-year-old woman

The body found in Sequatchie County, Tenn., in April along State Highway 111 has been identified as a Chattanooga-area woman who went missing about a month before she was found by a state inmate litter crew.

Authorities said the woman has been identified as 24-yearold Zulma Karina Quizar.

Chattanooga police issued a statement March 20 that Quizar had been reported missing and was last seen heading to a gas station on March 4 at around 8 p.m. She never came back.

Her empty vehicle was found in a parking lot on East 23rd Street at El Texano, a restaurant and bar at the corner of 23rd Street and Commerce Street near Rossville Boulevard, authorities said.

Sequatchie County and Tennessee Bureau of Investigation agents worked with the 12th Judicial District Attorney General’s office to identify the body found April 27, Sequatchie County Sheriff Ronnie Hitchcock said in a statement on the new information.

“During the investigation, it was discovered that Chattanooga Police Department was currently investigating a missing person from their area,” Hancock said.

Investigators obtained a DNA sample from Quizar’s children and sent it to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville for a comparison to DNA from the body found by the inmate litter crew, official said.

On Thursday, Hitchcock said investigators are in communication with the family and are awaiting more information from a forensic examination.

“It’s still an open investigation on the cause of death,” he said.

Hitchcock said the sheriff’s office is leading the investigation with assistance from the TBI and the Chattanooga Police Department.

Anyone with any information on the case is asked to call the Sequatchie County Sheriff’s Department at 423949-7750 and ask for Detective Jody Lockhart or Detective Paul Howard.

Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@ timesfreepress.com or 423-7576569.