First victim identified in Tulsa Race Massacre

DNA profiles were constructed of remains that have been underground for over a century.

Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum says the first set of remains recovered from Oaklawn Cemetery have been positively identified.

Experts say they got a lead when they obtained a letter in the national archives from a mother whose son disappeared during the time of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

A forensic team was able to link the DNA of two brothers to a WW1 veteran named CL Daniel.

Mayor Bynum says Daniel was killed in the massacre and the family didn’t know his whereabouts until this week.

Alison Wild with Intermountain Forensics says Daniel was not from Tulsa and his life was cut short while he was en route to Georgia from Ogden, Utah.

Wild says Ogden is only 45 minutes from the DNA lab that would eventually sequence his DNA and bring us here.

Wild says Daniel stopped in Tulsa and ultimately became a victim of the Tulsa Race Massacre.

The City of Tulsa’s search for victims at Oaklawn Cemetery from the 1921 Tulsa Race Massacre continues.

Mayor Bynum says there are still seventeen bodies that have been recovered from Oaklawn Cemetery that have yet to be identified.

Watch the news conference here