DNA helps identify missing person found in Corpus Christi

CORPUS CHRISTI - Police said DNA testing has helped identify some bones found in a drainage ditch near West Oso High School in 1999. Police said preliminary tests have identified the remains as those of Billy Ray Weems. He was last seen in Houston back in 1985.

6 News talked with Weems' sister, who now lives in Kentucky. She said she's glad she'll finally be able to give her brother a proper funeral.

For more than 20 years, police have been investigating the disappearance of 30-year-old Weems. His his body was found in this drainage ditch just outside the gates of West Oso High School.

It took nearly a decade to identify him and all along Weems sister, Katherine Soto said she always suspected something terrible had happened to her brother.

"I knew something had happened to him. I knew in my heart somebody did something to him, because just not hearing from him," Soto said. For years Katherine kept in contact with police. She filed a missing persons report and prayed police would find her brother.

"I never expected to get closure, I never expected they would even find him, and I was just hoping and praying to god that they would," she said.

Soto was determined to do what she could to help. Last year Katherine submitted a DNA sample to the DPS Missing Persons Clearinghouse, and a few weeks ago she got a call from investigators who said her DNA sample matched that of the bones found in the ditch.

"I nearly fell out and I started shaking," Soto said. While she would like to know what happened to her brother she said she's glad she may now be able to say a final goodbye.

"Maybe someday I can find out what happened to him, if not that, just the fact that maybe someday I can bring him down here and give him a decent burial." She's waited years to do it.

Police said Weems bones had no apparent injuries; his case is not being investigated as a homicide at this point. Investigators hope to get some leads when they feature this case in an upcoming Crime Stoppers segment.