A New York girl who disappeared in 1975 has been identified 50 years later and tied to another cold case in California, authorities said Tuesday.
Laura O’Malley, a 13-year-old from Queens, was reported missing by her family five decades ago. She was never heard from after August 1975.
But in March 1995, skeletal remains were found in a riverbed in Santa Cruz County in Northern California. The case went cold for nearly three decades, until the local sheriff’s office partnered with a Texas-based DNA analysis company, Othram.
Initial tests showed the remains were likely from someone born in the 1960s, and the person likely died between 1977 and 1984. Further tests revealed the person was likely between 13 and 17 years old at the time of death and stood between 5-foot-1 and 5-foot-7.
Othram, which often helps law enforcement agencies solve cold cases, also used genetic genealogy to generate new leads in the case. That led Santa Cruz County investigators to O’Malley’s living relatives, and they eventually confirmed the remains found in 1995 belonged to O’Malley.
Cops said it is unclear how O’Malley traveled from New York to California and what she was doing in the state at the time of her death. The area of Santa Cruz County where her remains were found is about 30 miles south of San Jose.
“We are deeply grateful for our partnership with Othram,” the Santa Cruz County sheriff’s office said in a Facebook post. “The circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation.”