May 9, 2023
By: Dwayne Page
Missing person case finally solved!
A seventeen-month-old mystery as to the whereabouts of Matthew Braswell is a mystery no more.
According to Sheriff Patrick Ray a skull found on the shoreline of Center Hill Lake two months ago has now been positively identified as Braswell’s remains.
“The skull was sent to the Medical Examiner’s Office in Nashville, along with other bones, after they were found. The Medical Examiner’s Office sent the skull to another lab for DNA testing. One of my Detectives retrieved DNA from Braswell’s mother to compare to the DNA in the teeth of the skull. The lab confirmed the skull was that of Matthew Braswell,” said Sheriff Ray in a prepared statement released Tuesday afternoon.
The first clue in the disappearance of Braswell turned up on Thursday, March 9 when a human skull was found only 1.6 (aerial) miles from where Braswell was last seen on December 17, 2021 after he fled on foot from the scene of a crash on Ponder Road off Cookeville Highway. He was age 29 at the time.
More evidence including a shoe, sock, and a bone surfaced during a follow-up visual search in the same area on Wednesday, March 15. Sheriff Ray said at the time that the sock and shoe were consistent with the clothing Braswell was wearing when last seen.
A little more than a month later on April 17 additional remains, keys, and clothing were located during an expanded search effort in the same area.
“During that discovery on April 17 we found a scapula (shoulder blade) and a mandible (jawbone). We also found a portion of a pair of blue jean denim shorts fitting the description that Braswell was wearing and a key lanyard with keys on it. An area of about 10 acres was searched and the terrain was very rough making the effort very difficult”.
According to Sheriff Ray, the cause of Braswell’s death has not been determined.