Authorities were able to identify human remains found a decade ago as those of a 14-year-old girl who disappeared in 1969, state police said Tuesday.
Genetic genealogy tests, a technique that applies DNA profiles to traditional geneology, allowed to say that the remains belong to Joan Marie Dymond, who was last seen in a park in the small town of Wilkes-Barre on June 25. from 1969.
The remains of Joan Marie Dymond have been identified 53 years after she disappeared. National Center for Missing & Exploited Children via NBC News
"We never stop looking for answers, and this investigation remains very active," Capt. Patrick Dougherty, commanding officer of Pennsylvania State Police Troop P, said in a statement.
The remains were found in November 2012 on the grounds of a former coal mining operation in Newport Township, west of Wilkes-Barre, police said.
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The people who found them were "digging for relics in a place littered with rubbish on the ground."
Investigators determined the girl died under suspicious circumstances or due to "foul play," police added.
The remains were shipped to a specialized Texas-based company, Othram Inc, in March for analysis along with samples from family members, eventually leading to identification.
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"She was a sweet girl and she didn't deserve what happened to her," Dymond's sister, Suzanne Estock, said at a news conference Tuesday, according to local Wilkes-Barre station WBRE, an NBC affiliate.
The last time the two spoke, Dymond was very happy that Estock was pregnant, the woman explained.
“She was excited to be an aunt and for me to have a baby and come visit him,” she added.
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Police are still searching for whoever was responsible for Dymond's death and are asking anyone with information to contact authorities.
“After 53 years, the family of Joan Marie Dymond deserves closure.
We will do everything in our power to get him," Dougherty, the police captain, said in Tuesday's statement.
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Genetic genealogy tests make it possible to identify people who died decades ago or, in some cases, the people who killed them.
In September, the Georgia FBI announced that technology confirmed that a now-dead trucker had killed a Michigan woman who had been missing for 33 years.
This was the first known case in which both the victim and the killer had been identified using genealogical technology.