ST. PAUL, MN — Washington County investigators have identified a woman whose remains were found in 1993, closing one of the county’s oldest and most troubling cold cases. Detectives say the victim was Denise Hartley, who was 27 when she disappeared.
The identification came more than three decades after a head was discovered in northern Scandia’s Bone Lake and, the next day, a foot was found in the Mississippi River in St. Paul. Investigators say the remains were later confirmed to belong to the same person, but it took modern DNA work to put a name to her.
Detective Clayton Evans says the family did not know the case had been solved until authorities were ready to tell them in person…