The murder of Ada Elizabeth Fritz
Grand Bay, Mobile County, Alabama · 1976
Overview
On May 18, 1976, the body of an older woman was found in Sessions Creek in Grand Bay, in south Mobile County, Alabama. She had been shot in the back of the head, and her hands had been removed. With no hands for fingerprints and no identification, she became a Jane Doe, and after an autopsy her remains were cremated in 1979 and placed in a mass grave, leaving investigators with no body to test. For 47 years no one knew who she was. In December 2022, Mobile County Sheriff's Office cold-case investigator and genetic genealogist Olivia McCarter, working with Moxxy Forensic Investigations, located an old ceramic dental mold made from the victim's mouth that still carried trace skin cells. Intermountain Forensics in Utah used an M-Vac wet-vacuum system to recover an uncontaminated DNA profile from the mold and performed whole-genome sequencing in early 2023. Through investigative genetic genealogy, McCarter identified the woman within about 19 days of research as Ada Elizabeth Fritz, born in 1914 in Sheridan, Wyoming, and last known to live in Batesville, Arkansas; she had never been reported missing. A nephew in another state provided a confirmatory DNA sample, and the Mobile County Sheriff's Office announced the identification in August 2023. Investigators have said they believe Fritz was killed by Henderson James Williams, a man later convicted of murdering his elderly mother in Mississippi in a strikingly similar manner, with her hands removed and her body left in water near Grand Bay; Williams died in a Mississippi prison in 2008. Because Williams is deceased and was never charged in Fritz's death, the attribution is the investigators' stated conclusion rather than a court finding.
How it was solved
The identification of Ada Fritz turned on a single piece of evidence that had survived for nearly half a century. When her body was recovered from Sessions Creek in 1976, her hands had been removed, eliminating fingerprints, and the case quickly went cold. Her remains were cremated in 1979 by the University of South Alabama's anatomical donations program, which meant that decades later there was no skeleton or tissue left to sample. When Mobile County Sheriff's Office investigator Olivia McCarter, a genetic genealogist with Moxxy Forensic Investigations, reopened the case, she and the team searched the old case file and located a ceramic dental mold that had been made from the Jane Doe's mouth during the original investigation. Dead skin cells were still present in the mold. According to investigators, when the mold was swabbed at the state lab it yielded no usable DNA, but in December 2022 it was sent to Intermountain Forensics in Utah, which used an M-Vac wet-vacuum collection system, a tool originally designed to sample bacteria from food, to pull an uncontaminated DNA profile from the crevices of the mold. Intermountain Forensics performed whole-genome sequencing in early 2023, producing the only DNA profile of the victim in existence. McCarter uploaded the profile to genealogy databases and built family trees from the matches; she has said the identification came together within about 19 days of research. The work pointed to Ada Elizabeth Fritz, born in 1914 in Sheridan, Wyoming, who had last been known to live in Batesville, Arkansas, had no children, and had never been reported missing. The Mobile County Sheriff's Office located a nephew, who provided a confirmatory DNA sample and recognized his aunt in a post-mortem photograph, and the office publicly announced the identification in August 2023. As for who killed her, investigators have publicly named the man they believe responsible: Henderson James Williams. Williams was convicted of murdering his own elderly mother in Mississippi, whose body was also found with the hands removed, dumped in water near Grand Bay roughly ten miles from where Fritz was found, in a killing reported in the 1990s. The lead investigator, Sgt. J.T. Thornton, has said he believes Williams murdered Fritz, but the sheriff's office has acknowledged it lacked the physical evidence to formally tie him to her death. Williams died in a Mississippi prison in 2008, so he was never charged or tried in Fritz's case; the attribution rests on the matching method, geography, and Williams's documented record, as stated by investigators.
Sources
- MCSO names murder victim in 40-year-old cold case
“Ada Elizabeth Fritz was found in 1976 in a creek in Grand Bay with her hands cut off and an apparent gunshot wound; investigators believe she may have been killed by Henderson Williams, who died in 2008 in a Mississippi prison after being convicted of murdering his mother, whose body was also found without hands.”
- [Case Resolution] Ada Elizabeth Fritz Identified
“On May 18, 1976, the remains of an older female were found in Session's Creek, Grand Bay, Alabama, with a gunshot wound to the back of her head and mutilation to her hands; the remains were cremated in 1979 through the University of South Alabama's Anatomical Donations Program, and the victim was identified after 47 years as Ada Elizabeth Fritz, born 1914 in Sheridan, Wyoming, last known to reside in Batesville, Arkansas.”
- No Hands. No Teeth. No Body.
“An old dental mold from the 1976 case yielded no DNA when swabbed at the state lab; in December 2022 Intermountain Forensics used the M-Vac system to recover an uncontaminated profile, and genetic genealogist Olivia McCarter of Moxxy Forensic Investigations identified the remains as 61-year-old Ada Elizabeth Fritz, born 1914 in Sheridan, Wyoming, within about 19 days of research.”
- How new technology, hard work and luck cracked nearly 50-year-old Mobile County cold case
“Sgt. J.T. Thornton of the Mobile County Sheriff's Office said he had a strong hunch that Henderson James Williams was responsible for Fritz's death; Williams was convicted of murdering his 94-year-old mother in Mississippi, whose body was also found without hands about 10 miles from where Fritz's remains were discovered, and Thornton said, 'We needed some kind of physical evidence to tie him to that.'”
- How Mobile County Sheriff's Office cracked cold case using genetic genealogy
“Sgt. J.T. Thornton and investigative genetic genealogist Olivia McCarter reopened the Jane Doe case in 2021; despite the cremation they recovered a dental mold containing skin cells, McCarter analyzed DNA matches and built a family tree over 19 days, and a nephew's DNA confirmed the victim's identity as Ada Fritz, while Thornton said he believes Henderson James Williams, who died in prison in 2008, murdered her.”
- Grand Bay 'Jane Doe' identified nearly five decades later
“The Grand Bay Jane Doe shot in the back of the head and found with her hands removed in 1976 was identified as Ada Fritz; she had no children and her only living relative was a nephew out of state, and the sheriff's office says it believes Henderson Williams, who died in a Mississippi prison in 2008 and had cut off his mother's hands and dumped her in water in Grand Bay, killed Fritz.”
- DNA genealogy breathes new life into Alabama cold cases
“Forensic genetic genealogy is being used to revive decades-old Alabama murder investigations, including the Mobile County Sheriff's Office identification of Ada Fritz through DNA recovered from a dental mold, with investigators naming a deceased suspect they believe was responsible.”
- Case Solves
“Moxxy Forensic Investigations, with genetic genealogist Olivia McCarter, identified the Grand Bay, Alabama Jane Doe found in 1976 as Ada Elizabeth Fritz using investigative genetic genealogy on a DNA profile recovered from a dental mold.”