GEORGETOWN, Ky. (WTVQ)- The body of a teenager killed in Georgetown almost 100 years ago was exhumed Friday to try and identify who he was.

The Scott County coroner, along with the Georgetown mayor and police department spent hours out at Georgetown Cemetery digging up the remains of a 17-year-old unidentified teenager who died after being hit by a train back in 1921.

After close to 100 years underground, the body of an unidentified teenage boy was exhumed to try and figure out who he was.

“Even the years that have passed since 1921 we still feel an obligation to some mother’s boy to return those remains to the folks that have lost this young man,” said Tom Prather, mayor of Georgetown.

- Advertisement -

According to old newspaper articles, the teen was hit and killed by a passing train at Georgetown Train Station as he and a friend were trying to hop another train across the tracks.

“They came south together and he said they never exchanged names but the talked, they kind of had a bond. They got off the train at Georgetown and then in trying to out run one train they ran right into the second train,” said John Goble, the Scott County Coroner.

No one in the town at the time knew who the boy was, so they decided to all pitch in and pay for his burial and a headstone that read “Some Mother’s Boy”.

But now decades later, there is DNA testing, So the people of Georgetown are coming together again to try and reunite the boy with his family.

“I hope that there’s some comfort in this somewhere for both our community and for any family this young man may have,” said Mayor Prather.

Investigators were able to recover enough of a DNA sample from the grave.

It will now be sent to the FBI for testing.

The results are expected to come back in a month to a year.

This exhumation is just one of several the FBI is conducting across the country.

The Scott County coroner will be involved in another one in Grant County next month where they will exhume the body of a unidentified man who’s hands were cut off back in 1989.