The subject of a facial reconstruction performed at the Ohio Attorney General’s Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) has been identified as Tiffany Dawn Chambers, 33, of Florida.
She was last seen around July 16, 2015, in Springfield, Ohio. Police are investigating her death as a homicide.
Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine unveiled the reconstruction at a Dec. 8 news conference in hopes that the skeletal remains found May 1 in the woods of Greene County’s Spring Valley Township could be identified by the public.
When the body was first discovered, Greene County Sheriff Gene Fischer issued a press release with photos of the clothing found with it. No leads resulted, so he requested BCI’s assistance in identifying the woman. DNA was extracted and compared to state and national databases with no matches.
A newly trained forensic artist at BCI — Criminal Intelligence/Missing Persons Analyst Samantha Molnar — was asked to reconstruct the woman’s face in hopes that someone from the public would recognize her.
Using a CT scan of the skull, Molnar worked with The Ohio State University to print a 3-D plastic replica. Molnar created a clay reconstruction on the plastic replica.
The body was identified when a detective with the Springfield Police Division received Chambers’ missing person case and made inquiries into unidentified remains.
With assistance from law enforcement in Florida, a DNA sample from a Chambers family member was collected and tested at BCI. That DNA profile led to the positive identification.
“Now we know the identity of this woman, and law enforcement can begin the task of finding out what happened to her,” Attorney General DeWine said.
The sheriff thanked the Attorney General and his staff in the BCI’s Missing Persons Unit for “an incredible amount of support in getting the deceased identified.”
“Without their assistance, the identification of the deceased would have been difficult to bring to a resolution,” Fischer said.
Anyone with information about Chambers is urged to contact the Springfield police at 937-324-7709.
Facial Reconstruction, a video about the process at BCI, is available on the Attorney General's YouTube channel.