Long-Missing Boy's Remains Will Be Transferred To California

News9.com

MADILL, OK -- Thanks to a Madill funeral home, the remains of Thomas Tillery, a once-missing and unidentified 11-year-old boy are one step closer to being home.

Brown's Funeral Home offered to take care of expenses associated with cremation and transportation of the remains following their identification by the State Medical Examiner's Office this week.

Tillery disappeared in September 1994 while walking from his home to a nearby store in Madill.

Human remains were discovered in Dickson, Oklahoma, in December 1994, but investigators could not positively identify them as belonging to Tillery. In 1995 an anthropologist determined the skull belonged to a young Caucasian with brown hair, but could not determine the person's sex.

The remains were reexamined last spring by the Unidentified Remains Unit of the Oklahoma Medical Examiner's Office. A forensic artist reconstructed the facial features of the skull and compared it to a poster from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Investigators were able to positively identify the remains as Thomas Billy Lee Tillery using a DNA profile.

Tillery's mother, who now lives in California, has been notified. Brown's Funeral Home is coordinating the transfer of the remains to California.