Accident – Death – Obituary News :

Teenager Missing for 44 Years Finally Identified in Las Vegas

LAS VEGAS (AP) — A body discovered in an open field in 1979 near what is today a busy intersection of the Las Vegas Strip has been identified as a teenager from Ohio who had left home that year in search of her biological father, authorities announced Tuesday.

After an extensive investigation, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department revealed that the body found at the intersection, previously known as “Sahara Sue Doe,” was 19-year-old Gwenn Marie Story. This identification was made possible through advancements in DNA testing, which yielded positive results last month.

The discovery of Gwenn Marie Story’s body took place on the night of August 14, 1979, when a man stumbled upon it while walking through a vacant lot near the northern edge of the Las Vegas Strip. With wavy hair and red-painted fingernails and toenails, she remained unidentified for over four decades.

Today, the intersection where she was found is dominated by the imposing Strat Hotel, adjacent to the Sahara hotel-casino.

According to authorities, the young girl had passed away within 24 hours before her body was discovered, as recorded in the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children database.

An autopsy conducted at the time concluded that Gwenn Marie Story had been a victim of homicide, but due to limited technology, her identity remained a mystery until last September when the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department teamed up with Othram, a private DNA testing laboratory specializing in forensic genealogy analysis.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Othram confirmed that their scientists successfully developed a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman, enabling authorities to trace potential relatives who provided DNA samples. The confirmation ultimately revealed that “Sahara Sue Doe” was, in fact, the missing Ohio teen, Gwenn Marie Story.

According to Story’s relatives, she left her home in Cincinnati during the summer of 1979, embarking on a journey to California in search of her father. Accompanied by two male friends, she vanished without a trace. The family never heard from her again.

Interestingly, the timing of Gwenn Marie Story’s disappearance aligns with the return of her two male companions to the Cincinnati area in August of the same year. They claimed to have left her in Las Vegas, coinciding with the month she was found dead near the Las Vegas Strip.

With the identification of Gwenn Marie Story, the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has shifted its focus to investigating the circumstances surrounding her death and the involvement of the two friends who last saw her alive.

This breakthrough in Story’s case highlights the remarkable advancements in genetic testing, which have played a crucial role in identifying missing persons and solving cold cases in recent years.

Earlier this year, Othram assisted the Nevada State Police in identifying another long-unidentified victim, Florence Charleston, whose remains were discovered in a highly deteriorated state inside a garment bag in a remote area of northern Nevada in October 1978. Charleston, like Story, had also gone missing from Ohio.

As technology continues to advance, cases that have remained unsolved for decades are being reopened, providing much-needed closure to the families of missing individuals.

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