Officials have identified the remains of a girl whose body was found hidden in brush under a plastic tarp in 1973, Pennsylvania authorities said this week.
The remains belong to Ruth Elizabeth Brenneman, 14, a sergeant with the Pennsylvania State Police. Josh Lacey told reporters at a news conference on Wednesday.
Two game wardens found the decomposed remains of a young girl on Oct. 10, 1973, in a wooded area of Lebanon County, about 47 miles from Brenneman’s home in York County, Lacey said.
It could not be determined how she died.
Ruth Elizabeth Brenneman, who went missing in 1973.
Officials have been trying to identify the girl for the past 50 years, Lacey said. In another effort to identify her, officials, with the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, exhumed the girl’s body from Mount Lebanon Cemetery in May 2016.
Finally, the positive identification was made last month after her remains were examined at Lehigh Valley Hospital. Lacey said she was identified through genealogy.
“As a result of their efforts, this young woman will no longer be known as Jane Doe,” Lacey said.
Identifying the body is a “huge step in this investigation,” state trooper Ian Keck said. “We need to know more about the victim and his daily life, who he associated with and what his various activities are.”
Brenneman was last seen “after she left for school and never returned home,” Lacey said. Officials are investigating whether she arrived at school that day.
They are also trying to determine if Brenneman was considered missing and what day she went missing, Keck said.
“Just because we identified her today does not mean our investigation is over,” Keck said. “We are going to do our best and put our best foot forward to reach a conclusion.”
Anyone who knew Brenneman or knows anything about her is asked to contact the Pennsylvania State Police.
Lacey declined to say if there is a person of interest in the case and could not say for sure if it was a homicide as the case is still “pending” at the coroner’s office.
He did say there was “some degree of suspicion” about Brenneman’s death, “given that she was found under a tarp in some brush.”
Brenneman’s family said in a statement read by Lacey that her identification “has given us some closure on questions that have lingered for the past 51 years.”
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
