diff --git a/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/AutopsyManifestFileParser.java b/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/AutopsyManifestFileParser.java
index c40b20be24..99462f8084 100644
--- a/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/AutopsyManifestFileParser.java
+++ b/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/AutopsyManifestFileParser.java
@@ -57,11 +57,10 @@ public final class AutopsyManifestFileParser implements ManifestFileParser {
 
         Path fileName = filePath.getFileName();
         if (fileName.toString().toUpperCase().endsWith(MANIFEST_FILE_NAME_SIGNATURE)) {
-            try {
-                fileIsManifest = isAutopsyManifestFile(filePath);
-            } catch (Exception unused) {
-                fileIsManifest = false;
-            }
+            
+            fileIsManifest = (ManifestFileParser.getManifestRootNode(filePath, (str) -> {
+                return (str.compareToIgnoreCase(ROOT_ELEM_TAG_NAME) == 0);
+            }) != null);
         }
 
         return fileIsManifest;
@@ -75,12 +74,12 @@ public final class AutopsyManifestFileParser implements ManifestFileParser {
             Date dateFileCreated = new Date(attrs.creationTime().toMillis());
             Document doc;
             try {
-                doc = createManifestDOM(filePath);
+                doc = ManifestFileParser.createManifestDOM(filePath);
             } catch (Exception ex) {
                 // If the above call to createManifestDOM threw an exception
                 // try to fix the given XML file.
                 tempPath = ManifestFileParser.makeTidyManifestFile(filePath);
-                doc = createManifestDOM(tempPath);
+                doc = ManifestFileParser.createManifestDOM(tempPath);
             }
 
             XPath xpath = XPathFactory.newInstance().newXPath();
@@ -114,23 +113,6 @@ public final class AutopsyManifestFileParser implements ManifestFileParser {
         }
     }
 
-    /**
-     * Creates the DOM object for the file at the given path.
-     *
-     * @param manifestFilePath Path to XML file.
-     *
-     * @return DOM object for the given XML file.
-     *
-     * @throws ParserConfigurationException
-     * @throws SAXException
-     * @throws IOException
-     */
-    private Document createManifestDOM(Path manifestFilePath) throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException {
-        DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
-        DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
-        return docBuilder.parse(manifestFilePath.toFile());
-    }
-
     /**
      * Check to see if the given file is an autopsy auto ingest manifest file by
      * if the root element is ROOT_ELEM_TAG_NAME.
@@ -141,7 +123,7 @@ public final class AutopsyManifestFileParser implements ManifestFileParser {
      */
     private boolean isAutopsyManifestFile(Path filePath) throws IOException {
         try {
-            Document doc = this.createManifestDOM(filePath);
+            Document doc = ManifestFileParser.createManifestDOM(filePath);
             Element docElement = doc.getDocumentElement();
             return docElement.getTagName().equals(ROOT_ELEM_TAG_NAME);
         } catch (Exception unused) {
diff --git a/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/ManifestFileParser.java b/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/ManifestFileParser.java
index a04fe0df0b..7e451c8be1 100644
--- a/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/ManifestFileParser.java
+++ b/Experimental/src/org/sleuthkit/autopsy/experimental/autoingest/ManifestFileParser.java
@@ -24,7 +24,14 @@ import java.io.FileOutputStream;
 import java.io.IOException;
 import java.nio.file.Path;
 import java.nio.file.Paths;
+import java.util.function.Predicate;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilder;
+import javax.xml.parsers.DocumentBuilderFactory;
+import javax.xml.parsers.ParserConfigurationException;
+import org.w3c.dom.Document;
+import org.w3c.dom.Element;
 import org.w3c.tidy.Tidy;
+import org.xml.sax.SAXException;
 
 /**
  * Responsible for parsing the manifest files that describe cases, devices, and
@@ -77,6 +84,60 @@ public interface ManifestFileParser {
         return Paths.get(tempFile.toString());
     }
     
+        /**
+     * Create a new DOM document object for the given manifest file.
+     *
+     * @param manifestFilePath Fully qualified path to manifest file.
+     *
+     * @return DOM document object
+     *
+     * @throws ParserConfigurationException
+     * @throws SAXException
+     * @throws IOException
+     */
+    static Document createManifestDOM(Path manifestFilePath) throws ParserConfigurationException, SAXException, IOException {
+        DocumentBuilderFactory docBuilderFactory = DocumentBuilderFactory.newInstance();
+        DocumentBuilder docBuilder = docBuilderFactory.newDocumentBuilder();
+        return docBuilder.parse(manifestFilePath.toFile());
+    }
+
+    /**
+     * Return the root node of the given Manifest XML file.
+     * 
+     * @param filePath XML filePath
+     * @param isRootTester Predicate method for testing if a string is the root node.
+     * 
+     * @return The XML file root node or null if the node was not found or the 
+     *          file is not an XML file.
+     */
+    static String getManifestRootNode(Path filePath, Predicate<String> isRootTester) {
+        Document doc;
+        Path tempPath = null;
+        try {
+            try {
+                doc = ManifestFileParser.createManifestDOM(filePath);
+            } catch (Exception unused) {
+                // If the above call to createManifestDOM threw an exception
+                // try to fix the given XML file.
+                tempPath = ManifestFileParser.makeTidyManifestFile(filePath);
+                doc = ManifestFileParser.createManifestDOM(tempPath);
+            }
+            Element docElement = doc.getDocumentElement();
+            String rootElementTag = docElement.getTagName();
+            if(isRootTester.test(rootElementTag)) {
+                return rootElementTag;
+            }                 
+        } catch (Exception unused) {
+            // Unused exception. If an exception is thrown the given XML file
+            // cannot be parsed.
+        } finally {
+            if (tempPath != null) {
+                tempPath.toFile().delete();
+            }
+        }
+        return null;
+    }
+    
     public final static class ManifestFileParserException extends Exception {
 
         private static final long serialVersionUID = 1L;