“Gwenn Marie Story Identified as Teenager Found Dead in Las Vegas Field in 1979 | SEO-Optimized Title”

Accident – death – Obituary News : LAS VEGAS: A body discovered in 1979 in an open field near the bustling intersection of the Las Vegas Strip has finally been identified after 44 years. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department revealed that the body belonged to 19-year-old Gwenn Marie Story, who had left her home in Ohio that year in search of her biological father. Story, who had been known as “Sahara Sue Doe” due to the location where she was found, was identified through advancements in DNA testing.

The body was found on the night of August 14, 1979, by a man walking through a vacant lot near the northern edge of the Las Vegas Strip. The victim had wavy hair and her fingernails and toenails were painted red. Today, the intersection where she was discovered is dominated by the imposing Strat Hotel, with the Sahara hotel-casino also featuring prominently.

Authorities believe that the victim died within 24 hours prior to the discovery. An autopsy confirmed that she had been a victim of homicide, but her identity remained unknown until the police partnered with a private DNA testing laboratory last September. Othram, a forensic genealogy analysis specialist, was able to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman. This led authorities to possible relatives who provided DNA samples, confirming that “Sahara Sue Doe” was indeed Gwenn Marie Story.

According to Story’s relatives, she left her home in Cincinnati in the summer of 1979, accompanied by two male friends, in search of her father in California. However, her family never heard from her again. When her friends returned to the Cincinnati area in August of the same year, they informed Story’s family that they had left her in Las Vegas. The police department is now shifting its focus to investigating these two friends and determining how Story ended up dead near the Las Vegas Strip.

The breakthrough in Story’s case comes as a result of advancements in genetic testing, which have led to numerous identifications and arrests in long-unsolved cases. These advancements have been instrumental in solving missing persons cases, homicide investigations, and sexual assault cases. Earlier this year, Othram also helped Nevada State Police identify another victim, Florence Charleston, who had been nameless for 45 years after her heavily decayed remains were found in a garment bag in a remote area of northern Nevada in October 1978. Charleston, like Story, also went missing from Ohio.

The identification of Gwenn Marie Story brings closure to her family after decades of uncertainty. It also highlights the power of DNA testing in solving cold cases and providing answers to long-standing mysteries. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department will continue its investigation into the circumstances surrounding Story’s death, with a renewed focus on the two friends she was last seen with..