Young couple identified, victims of 1976 homicide, Sumter County

The Sumter County Sheriff’s Office and the DNA Doe Project announce the identities of two victims of a 1976 double homicide as Pamela Buckley and James Freud.

The skeletal remains of Sumter County Jane and Jock Doe arrived at the Astrea Forensics lab in July 2020. Our scientists processed the remains using our specialized DNA extraction procedure. The DNA extracts were sent for sequencing shortly thereafter.

Read more about the success stories at DNA Doe Project: Sumter Jock Doe 1976 and Sumter Jane Doe 1976

The DNA Doe Project acknowledges the contributions of those groups and individuals who helped solve this case: the Sumter County Sheriff’s Office, especially Investigator Charles Bonner; Matt McDaniel for his unwavering interest in seeing the case solved; the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children; DNA Solutions in Oklahoma City and Astrea Forensics in Santa Cruz, California for extraction; HudsonAlpha Discovery for sequencing; Kevin Lord of Saber Investigations; GEDmatch and Family Tree DNA for providing their databases; and DDP’s dedicated teams of volunteer genealogists who provided SCSO with the names of the victims.