KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — A group of sociology students from Elizabethton High School are taking learning outside of the classroom and helping the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation solve a 40-year-old cold case.   

Their goal is to raise awareness about the murder of a girl not much younger than they are now, and hopefully bring closure to a family who have spent years questioning what happened.   

In 1985, the skeletal remains of a young girl were found in a remote part of the Elk Valley community. At the time, the TBI only knew her as “Baby Girl” but in 2022 they learned her name was Tracy Sue Walker, 15, and alerted her family.  

“For them, I think, they would describe it just like I would, that it’s very bittersweet. You know, I’m able to provide answers, but not closure or peace you really hope to see in a situation like that,” said TBI special agent Brandon Elkins 

Since discovering her identity, the TBI learned she was abducted from her hometown mall in Lafayette, Indiana in 1978. She was last seen getting into a vehicle with a group of older men who were believed to be working in the area at the time.  

TBI said after the men abducted her, they left the state, and she later ended up in Elk Valley, where she was murdered. She may not be their only victim.   

While it has been 40 years since Walker was found in the woods of Elk Valley, a new class at Elizabethton High School is hoping to help TBI close her case.  

“They’re not using textbooks and just doing busywork, but they’re actually trying to essentially solve a murder,” said Elkins.  

As students seek to find justice for Walker, they said the process has brought them a new perspective.  

“She was a teenager my age when all of this was happening to her,” said Elizabethton sophomore, Shelby Edmonds. “It’s going through the case that’s made me feel more empathetic towards other people because she probably had best friends who never would have expected this sort of thing happening to her. It kind of makes you think, well, it could happen to anyone else in my life.”  

 As someone who grew up not knowing Walker’s story, students like Edmonds hope to change that in their community.  

“Just like any other large homicide or serial killer activity, that sort of thing, it deserves as much publicity as all of those do, and it’s definitely not getting that,” said Edmonds. “But that’s our goal right now is to make as many people aware of it because there is somebody out there who knows something who eventually will help us solve the case.”  

While students work to get the word out by flying banners, posting signs, mailing flyers, and wrapping a car with Walker’s photo, Elkins said he hopes it will jog someone’s memory who may know more.  

“We’re really hopeful that that push and all of those options, these really out of the box options, we’ll bring that information in that we need to solve this case,” he said.  

Elkins said they are asking anyone who may have information about Walker’s case, or the group of men to call 1-800-TBI-FIND. For more information about her case, you can visit Justice4TracySue.com.