Remains found nearly 50 years ago in North Carolina have been identified as those of a missing Maryland teenager, authorities announced, as investigators still seek answers on the cold case.
Skeletal remains and clothing were found in a wooded area in Wilson, North Carolina, in December 1977, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation. The remains, determined to have belonged to a female teenager or young woman, had likely been there for at least six months, it said.
Utah man’s disappearance remains unsolved 17 years later
No match was found when comparing the dental records against missing persons cases, and the individual’s identity remained unknown for decades due to limited forensic tools, the bureau said. The state reopened the case in 2010, but no match came back then, either, it said.
In 2024, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation’s Cold Case Investigative Team assigned Special Investigator Andy Murr to review the case again, “this time with forensic tools that didn’t exist in 1977,” the bureau said in a press release on Tuesday.
Investigators were able to develop a DNA profile that could be used for forensic genetic genealogy. After submitting the profile to a genealogy service to find potential relatives, they were ultimately able to identify the remains as Cindy Marcell Blizzard, a 15-year-old girl who had run away from Monkton, Maryland, in the spring of 1977, the bureau said…