Human remains found in a California river have been identified as being a 13-year-old New York girl who vanished 50 years ago.
The partial skeletal remains were first discovered in a riverbed off a highway in Watsonville almost exactly 30 years ago, but the case ran after initial DNA testing only showed they were of a female.
But more advanced testing has now confirmed the body was Laura O’Malley, a 13-year-old Queens girl who was reported missing in August 1975, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office announced this week.
However, “it is not known when, or under what circumstances, Laura O’Malley arrived in California,” the sheriff’s office stressed.
It was also unclear how she is thought to have died.
The young teen was identified when the cold case was reopened in 2019, with additional forensic testing — including carbon dating — now showing the decedent was likely born in the 1960s and died between 1977 and 1984, cops said.
In 2022, advanced genetic testing was used to identify potential family members, finally confirming it was the long-missing New York girl, police said.
Since she went missing, O’Malley’s siblings — two sisters and a brother — continued searching for her for years, circulating her picture across Manhattan, where they initially assumed she might have fled to.
The sheriff’s office said it was “deeply grateful” to have finally “provided long-awaited answers to Laura’s family.”
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