24 Year Old Cold Case May Be Solved

An archaeological dig has uncovered what may be the remains of Donald Lee Izzett Jr. in Fernwood, Miss.

Izzett was a student at Frostburg State University in Maryland when he went missing in May of 1995. He was 19 at the time and on a cross-country trip after his freshman year in college.

A speeding ticket placed him in Arizona, and reportedly, he called his mother from California in July of that year.

Recently, an eyewitness claimed to investigators that Izzett was shot three times, and that his killers attempted to burn his body and bury it in a wooded area near Fernwood. Police have searched in that area twice before with no results.

This time Izzett’s mother, Debra Skelley, is paying for the archeological dig to figure out what happened to her son.

Donald Lee Izzett, Jr

A memorial of flowers sits on the spot where some possible bone chips were found last week.  Officials say it is the site of a ‘burn event’ years ago.

District Attorney Dee Bates is not drawing any conclusions until the results of the tests are clear.  “I really can’t talk much about the find or if there’s anything there, because the case is under investigation,” Bates told WLBT’s Therese Apel. “There were things reported located, and anything viewed to be a part of the investigation has been sent to an appropriate lab, to Quantico or another location to be tested.”

Bates says Izzett Jr’s mother, Debra Skelley is to be credited for keeping the investigation alive through the years. While it can be hard to pull a cold case together after 24 years, Bates says he wants to do it right for justice and for Skelley.

“There’s a number of different challenges you actually have in cold cases. It’s reacquiring old info and new info, and just trying to find closure for the victim’s mother,” Bates said. “That’s one of the things we really want to try to do.”

Skelley has also filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Shane Guenther, formerly of Fernwood and now of Bremerton, Washington.