Body discovered in empty lot finally got a name. Now, what?

Forensic investigation reveals man's identity, but with one notable error and no clear indication of whether purported crime will be investigated

On the surface, the Jan. 5, 2025, announcement that a Texas DNA lab had identified human remains found in an empty Mississippi lot showcased a successful forensics investigation.

The announcement noted that the forensics lab Othram, Inc. had collaborated with two state agencies, with funding from a philanthropist, to identify the partially skeletonized remains of a Mississippi man, 36-year-old Andrew Bert Coker.

Othram said it had teamed up with the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation and the State Medical Examiner to identify Coker, with funding by Carla Davis, described in published reports as a Mississippi expat who is now a real estate developer in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Though the case appeared to be a straightforward forensic success story, a deeper probe revealed several reporting and case announcement errors, including about the agencies that participated in the investigation, as well as an odd omission: No one seemed aware of whether it would be investigated as a crime, despite the fact that Coker apparently suffered a gunshot wound to the head.

Considering that the story was the subject of a public news release, it also seemed odd that few representatives of agencies involved were inclined to go into much detail about it. In a way, a story about solving a mystery had its own mysterious air.

Coker’s remains were reportedly found in an empty lot in Jackson, Mississippi in 2022 by firefighters who had responded to a brush fire. There seems no reason to doubt this origin story, yet “reportedly” is a necessary disclaimer given other discovered errors.

The announcement noted that Coker’s death was considered a homicide, though no explanation was offered for why investigators discounted a potential suicide.

Following the announcement, numerous online sites introduced their own factual errors, with several misidentifying the remains as “Andrew Gary Coker.” How an incorrect middle name was introduced into the record is anyone’s guess – such errors are a pitfall of poorly sourced online data, but it seems particularly notable given that accurate identification was the point of the story.

Further questions surfaced during an email exchange with a spokesperson for the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. The spokesperson, Bailey Martin, said MBI had not, in fact, participated in the investigation, as Othram claimed in its announcement and continues to assert in a case summary on its DNAsolves site.

Martin described MBI’s erroneous inclusion as “a misprint” and an “accident,” which seemed a generous way to explain such a significant mistake. She added that MBI has worked with Othram on other cases, as has the State Medical Examiner (which, like MBI, is part of the Mississippi Department of Public Safety), but said, “The Mississippi Bureau of Investigation (MBI) was not involved in this case whatsoever.”

Efforts to clarify how the mistake was made, and to gain further insight into the case and into Coker’s life and death, were stymied by the difficulty of communicating with Othram and Davis. A phone number listed for Davis on the Association of Professional Genealogists web page proved invalid and emails sent to her through the site were not answered. Contact info on online sites is sometimes out of date, and it is possible Davis never got word, yet calls to Othram, which lists Davis as its chief genetic genealogist, went straight to voicemail and were not returned. Multiple initial emails to Othram likewise garnered no response. Eventually, the company’s founder responded to an email and provided answers to some but not all submitted follow-up questions.

My initial interest was in the novelty of DNA research for identifying human remains, and in who Coker was, how he died, and whether his presumed murder would be criminally investigated. The idea, as is typically the case here, was to more fully explore an intriguing story that was otherwise thinly reported in the news. I was also curious about Davis’s dedication to helping solve such cases, which was highlighted in this What Happened post, based on existing published reports.

Due to the mistake about MBI, and the unexpected difficulty of getting answers from Othram or Davis, I began to wonder about other details. Notably, Othram did not correct its Coker case page profile after I alerted them by email that the MBI spokesperson said the agency was not involved. The mistake was repeated in a LinkedIn post by David Mittelman, Othram’s founder and chief executive, with whom I eventually communicated by email.

There is no doubt that Othram is a legitimate forensics research company and has solved numerous cases involving human remains nationwide, often relying upon private fundraising through its site. Headquartered in The Woodlands, outside Houston, Texas, the company describes itself on its website as “the world’s first private DNA laboratory built specifically to apply the power of modern parallel sequencing to forensic evidence.” Othram’s scientists, according to the site, “are experts at recovery, enrichment, and analysis of human DNA from trace quantities of degraded or contaminated materials,” and collaborate with academic researchers, other forensic scientists, medical examiners and law enforcement agencies “to achieve results when other approaches fail.”

In the Coker case, Othram clearly did its forensic job. The identification was enabled by sequencing DNA and then, apparently, matching it through family members, though how the family members were located is unclear.

Published articles about Carla Davis report that she is originally from Mississippi and, as a philanthropist, focuses on finding names and seeking justice for deceased Mississippians who were previously unidentified and became subjects of Othram’s research. It seemed logical to ask Davis about the ultimate aim of the Coker investigation, beyond identifying his remains, given that ensuring justice for the deceased and their loved ones is among her stated interests. I also hoped she might be able to reveal more about who Coker was and perhaps connect me with a family member who could illuminate his life and, potentially, his death.

Numerous online sites list people who are supposedly Coker relations, but such databases are prone to their own errors. Mugshot.com, a somewhat sensationalist site whose reports likewise often contain dubious details, attributes numerous crimes to Coker dating back more than a decade. As one reader pointed out, based on what’s been reported we don’t even know what became of Coker’s remains — did a family member perhaps claim them and give him a proper burial?

In our email exchanges, Mittelman seemed open to helping elaborate on the overall story, up to a point. He said he was not personally familiar with the Coker case beyond what was included on the Othram site, and that “our role was simply to identify human remains.” He was unsure which law enforcement agency might undertake a potential criminal investigation. He did not respond to my request to speak directly with Davis, and, more significantly, did not respond to repeated requests for clarification about the erroneous reference to MBI. This is not to suggest anything untoward, but in a case like this, every detail matters and who participated in the investigation is obviously a significant one.

Given the other reporting errors, I asked Mittelman for confirmation of details from previously published accounts, including that Davis lives in Dubai and works with a team of 11 genealogists, former prosecutors and attorneys across the U.S. He responded that Davis “works out of our headquarters and lives in The Woodlands, Texas. Her team currently comprises 13 genetic genealogists.”

The successful identification of Coker’s remains is obviously laudable, and the case is of public interest and was featured in a public announcement. As a result of Othram’s investigation, and of efforts by whomever else was involved, the remains found in the empty lot now have a name. But that’s about it.

The MBI spokesperson said the State Medical Examiner had submitted its autopsy report, together with what she described as Othram’s “findings,” to the Jackson Police Department, which she identified as the lead agency in the case; for whatever reason, JPD is not included in the Othram case summary.

Unfortunately, Jackson city government has a reputation for being dysfunctional, which means getting answers from JPD presented its own set of challenges. On its website, JPD lists an invalid phone number for the department’s forensic crime lab, and numerous calls to its homicide division and to an ostensible media contact went unanswered or ended up in voicemail and were not returned.

The core of Coker’s story appears to have been lost in a mix of institutional opacity and superficial reporting dazzle. We know that firefighters stumbled upon human remains, which prompted an investigation that successfully identified who it was yet ultimately introduced a significant error while skirting a deeper human and public interest story. That story, among hundreds of reported murders in Jackson since 2022, is intriguing in its own right. It is, after all, about life and death.

Perhaps someone, somewhere, is actively pursuing a Coker murder investigation, but at this stage, all that’s left is to revert to my earlier approach: Searching online for Coker’s name in hopes of finding contact info for family members. I will update this story as new details come to light, including through potential further responses from Othram, JPD or Andrew Coker relations.

For anyone interested in reading about other individuals that Othram is involved in identifying, Mittelman pointed to this site, which he described as “a realtime tracker of hundreds of cases that are publicly announced.” For cases specific to Mississippi, he suggested this page on Othram’s site.

“Unfortunately,” Mittelman said, “there are endless stories to tell.”

Image: Returned images from a Google search of “Andrew Bert Coker”; screencap of headline from Othram site