NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — Cold cases that have lost hope get answers.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is getting clues unlocked through the Unidentified Human Remains Initiative.

It helps identify human remains, bringing potential leads.

The latest identified was John Troutman from Pennsylvania. He was identified in July after his remains were found in 2019 in East Tennessee.

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"Our goal has to constantly be to focus on the innocent people and keep turning back to those cases where there's no answers yet," TBI Special Agent Brandon Elkins said.

That's where the Unidentified Human Remains Initiative comes in; it helps identify victims through DNA testing. As of August 2025, there have been eight people who have

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