Who was William Thomas Green?

Blount County, Tennessee – On Tuesday, we shared on social media the TBI news release reporting that the human remains discovered by a hunter in 1981 in East Millers Cove in Blount County have been identified as William Thomas Green. Today, we’d like to tell you more about Tommy Green (he was known by his middle name) as a person, and what we’ve been doing in regard to the case over the years.

William Thomas Green, who was 35 when he went missing on November 14, 1977, was not from Blount County. Tommy was born on March 29, 1942 in Memphis. At some point his family moved to Bernhurst Drive in Knoxville and then to Fenwood Drive in Fountain City near the Fountain City Lake and Park, an area north of downtown Knoxville. He graduated from Central High School in approximately 1960.  As an adult, Tommy worked various jobs, Kern’s Bakery being one of them, and at the time of his disappearance in 1977, Tommy worked for HR Foods, a wholesale food distribution company. Tommy was divorced and the father of two children, a boy and a girl. He also served as a Little League baseball coach.

On November 1, 1977, Tommy was arrested by the Knoxville Police Department on charges related to stolen property and narcotics. Tommy spent two weeks in jail and was released in mid-November before his disappearance.  His court date was set for November 29, 1977.  He never showed up for his court date.

The last time anyone saw or heard from William Thomas Green was November 14, 1977. He was last seen walking toward his Knoxville residence on Merchants Drive.

After not hearing from her son for a couple of days following his release from jail, his mother reported him missing to the Knoxville Police Department, but no report was filed. This wasn’t unusual for the 1970s; adults who left on their own were often considered a private matter, and there was not a centralized database in place for missing persons at that time. The District Attorney General in Knoxville abandoned his charges in 1978 after he hadn’t been seen or heard from in almost a year.

With the exception of his grieving mother, son, daughter, girlfriend, and other family members, Tommy’s disappearance was mostly forgotten.

On April 1, 1981, local hunters discovered partial human remains in the East Millers Cove area of Blount County. A forensic study of the remains determined the remains were those of a white male between the ages of 20 and 35. Blount County Sheriff’s Office investigators worked to determine his identity using existing technology and attempted to match the remains to any missing person reports in Blount County and surrounding counties. Investigators came to a dead end, and the partial remains remained nameless.

As reported in the TBI news release Tuesday, in 2007, DNA technology had advanced to a point where a DNA profile on the human remains was developed and entered into CODIS (Combined DNA Index System) and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) with the hope that these remains would be identified. Still, there were no matches.

 In March 2025, a TBI agent with a special interest in cases of unidentified remains began working with investigators with the Blount County Sheriff’s Office to identify the human remains from this case. Using federal grant money earmarked for forensic genetic genealogy testing (FGG), TBI agents submitted a sample of the human remains to Othram, a private laboratory in Texas, for FGG testing. The results were positive for potential relatives connected to the man. Sheriff’s investigators and agents with TBI contacted one of the family members and obtained a DNA swab for comparison and were able to confirm the remains as Tommy Green.

Prior to the recent positive identification of Tommy Green, for decades, Sheriff’s investigators continued to work toward identifying the remains using the latest DNA technology available. Working from other missing persons reports, Sheriff’s investigators reached out to family members of those missing persons to obtain DNA swabs with the hopes of making a positive match to the remains discovered in 1981, but to no avail. It wasn’t until the BCSO teamed up with TBI, and with the advancement of FGG testing, that the remains of William Thomas Green were identified.

Though many of Tommy’s immediate family members have since passed away, he still has some close relatives in Tennessee. Sheriff’s investigators are in communication with his living family members, and they are thankful that after more than 48 years, they can lay their loved one to rest.

What remains a puzzle is how and why Tommy Green ended up in East Millers Cove three and a half years after he went missing in Knoxville.  Investigators realize 48 years have passed since Tommy was last seen, but we hope there is someone out there who may have known Tommy and what happened leading up to his disappearance and/or his death. If you have any information that might be helpful, please contact Blount County Investigations during normal business hours at 865-273-5001. You can also submit an anonymous tip on the 24-hour Crime Hotline at 865-273-5200, or at www.bcso.com and select “Submit a Tip” from the homepage.

Sheriff James Lee Berrong is grateful for the help of the many people and agencies who worked to identify Tommy Green.

“There are many people who I must thank, including our investigators, the dedicated agents with TBI, Congressman Tim Burchett’s office for securing the grant money that was used to identify Tommy, and the scientists at Othram for their expertise. We are deeply grateful to help give some closure to Tommy’s family.”