The Texas Department of Public Safety announced on October 5 that a woman whose remains were discovered in rural Hamilton County in 1983 had been identified as 44-year-old Betty Jo Norris. The identification followed renewed evidence testing and genetic genealogy work.
Ranchers found the remains along Highway 36 on September 1, 1983. Investigators determined that the woman had been left there months earlier and had died from a gunshot wound. Earlier attempts to identify her, including reconstruction images and DNA work available in 2005, had not resolved the case.
The Texas Rangers renewed evidence processing in 2024 in coordination with local authorities. DPS said an unknown male DNA sample recovered from clothing in 2025 was too degraded to provide a usable database profile, leaving a separate investigative problem.
Testing of the woman’s remains and genealogy research funded through the Sexual Assault Kit Initiative led investigators to relatives in July 2026. A son living in Belton provided a comparison sample, and testing confirmed the identification on August 20, the agency said.
The identification establishes who the victim was; it does not establish who killed her. DPS said the Texas Rangers and Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office were continuing to investigate her death.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Hamilton County Communications Office at 254-386-3300. The agency credited local investigators, its crime laboratory, the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification, federal grant partners and BODE Technologies for their work.
