Mother of Ima Jean Sanders Receives Daughter’s Ashes

BEAUMONT, Texas- The ashes of a 13-year-old girl whose remains were found two years after she disappeared in Georgia in the 1970s are finally in the hands of her mother in Texas.

Investigators believe Ima Jean Sanders was raped and strangled in 1974 by a serial killer blamed for the murders of at least 18 people. Her skeletal remains were found in 1976 in a wooded area near Macon, Ga., but weren’t identified until last year.

The break came last January when a Texas investigator working another cold case realized that information from Ima Jean’s killing wasn’t entered in a database. The girl’s mother, Betty Wisecup, submitted DNA, and officials said last month it matched the remains.

The Beaumont Enterprise reported Thursday that Wisecup received the ashes from Georgia on Tuesday.