NEW ORLEANS ( WGNO ) — More than 20 years ago, a woman was found dead in Algiers. Now, with the use of new investigative technology, she has been identified.
According to the New Orleans Police Department, the woman was found dead in a field in the 1200 block of Eliza Street on Feb. 24, 2002, and the coroner ruled that she had been murdered.
She was found without any identification, and all efforts to figure out her identity fell flat.
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That changed around April of this year, when the FBI approached the NOPD and offered the use of a new technology called Investigative Genetic Genealogy to attempt to identify the woman.
IGG reportedly uses a more comprehensive DNA analysis that takes advantage of publicly available genetic information to find a familial match. Near the end of September, the search turned up a positive identification of 49-year-old Lelia Ann May Malley, of Long Beach, Mississippi.
