“Body found in 1979 near Las Vegas Strip identified as missing Ohio teen Gwenn Marie Story”

Accident – Death – Obituary News : LAS VEGAS (AP) — Authorities in Las Vegas have finally identified the body found in an open field in 1979 as Gwenn Marie Story, a teenager from Ohio who had left home that year in search of her biological father. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department made the announcement on Tuesday, after advancements in DNA testing finally led to the identification last month.

For 44 years, the young woman had been referred to as “Sahara Sue Doe,” named after the intersection where her body was discovered. The discovery was made near the northern edge of the Las Vegas Strip, in what is now a busy intersection dominated by the Strat Hotel and the Sahara hotel-casino.

At the time of her discovery, the victim was 19 years old, with wavy hair and red-painted fingernails and toenails. An autopsy revealed that she had been the victim of a homicide, but her identity remained a mystery. However, with the assistance of Othram, a private DNA testing laboratory specializing in forensic genealogy analysis, a comprehensive DNA profile was created for the woman.

Using this DNA profile, authorities were able to identify possible relatives, who provided DNA samples that confirmed the body belonged to Gwenn Marie Story. According to Story’s family, she had left her home in Cincinnati in the summer of 1979 in search of her father in California. She was accompanied by two male friends, who claimed to have left her in Las Vegas before returning to Cincinnati in August of that year.

With the identification of Gwenn Marie Story, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is now focusing its investigation on the two friends who left her in Las Vegas and how she ended up dead near the Las Vegas Strip. This breakthrough comes at a time when advancements in genetic testing have led to increased identifications and arrests in long-unsolved cases across the country.

Earlier this year, Othram also played a crucial role in helping Nevada State Police identify another victim, Florence Charleston, who had been nameless for 45 years. Charleston’s heavily decayed remains were found in a garment bag in a remote area of northern Nevada in October 1978, less than a year before Story was discovered dead in Las Vegas. Remarkably, Charleston, like Story, had also gone missing from Ohio.

The identification of Gwenn Marie Story after all these years brings closure to her family and highlights the power of advancements in DNA testing. It serves as a reminder that every unidentified body has a story to tell, and with the help of modern technology, justice can still be served..