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31st March 2025
03:01pm BST
Human remains that were discovered in a river in California 30 years ago have been identified as a 13-year-old girl who disappeared half a century ago.
Laura O'Malley was just 13 when she went missing from her New York home on August 26, 1975.
This week, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office in California announced that skeletal remains found in a California river 30 years ago belonged to O’Malley.
The partial remains were discovered in a riverbed off the state’s Highway 129, about 90 miles from San Francisco in 1995.
Officials were unable to determine who the remains belonged to for decades, but some DNA testing confirmed they belonged to a female.
In 2019, officials re-examined the case and sent the remains for additional forensic testing, which included carbon dating, determining the girl had been born in the 1960s and died between 1977 and 1984.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office partnered with the forensic DNA lab, Othram, to develop new leads in the cold case.
Between 2022 and 2023, officials used advanced genealogy to track down the girl’s family members.
Investigators found a match and determined the remains belonged to 13-year-old O’Malley from Queens, New York. It’s unclear how the teenager ended up in California or what happened to her.
The sheriff's office said: "We are deeply grateful for our partnership with Othram and the use of forensic advancements that have provided long-awaited answers to Laura’s family. The circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation."
According to an article in the New York Daily News, published in 1978, O'Malley had two sisters and a brother who all left their Long Beach, Long Island home because they couldn’t get along with their stepfather.
All the siblings eventually returned except the 13-year-old.
The girl reportedly wrote a note to her mother stating she wouldn’t return home if her stepfather kept living there.
Her mother and stepfather separated a year later, but the family said the child never found out about the separation.
Her sisters kept searching for her years after her disappearance and circulated her picture across Manhattan.
The sheriff's office is appealing for information about her disappearance.
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