Accident – Death – Obituary News :

Body Found in 1979 Identified as Ohio Teenager Searching for Biological Father

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

After 44 years of being known only as “Sahara Sue Doe,” the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department revealed that the body belonged to 19-year-old Gwenn Marie Story.

Groundbreaking advancements in DNA testing led to the long-awaited identification last month, according to the police.

The body was found one evening on August 14, 1979, by a man walking through a vacant lot near the northern edge of the Las Vegas Strip. The young woman had wavy hair and distinctively painted red fingernails and toenails.

Today, the iconic Strat Hotel overlooks the intersection where the body was discovered, which is now home to the Sahara hotel-casino.

Authorities believe that Story had died within 24 hours prior to the discovery, as indicated in a case entry maintained by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

An autopsy determined that she had been the victim of a homicide, but her identity remained a mystery until the police collaborated with a private DNA testing laboratory last September.

Othram, a reputable forensic genealogy analysis company, revealed in a statement on Tuesday that their scientists successfully constructed “a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman.” This breakthrough led authorities to potential relatives, who provided DNA samples that ultimately confirmed the missing Ohio teenager as “Sahara Sue Doe.”

Story’s family informed the police that she had left her Cincinnati home in the summer of 1979, embarking on a journey to find her father in California. She was accompanied by two male friends, but tragically, her family never heard from her again.

When the two friends returned to the Cincinnati area in August of the same year, coinciding with the time of Story’s death, they informed the teen’s family that they had left her in Las Vegas, according to the police.

Now, the focus of the investigation shifts towards these two friends and the circumstances that led to Story’s untimely demise near the vibrant Las Vegas Strip.

This significant breakthrough in Story’s case comes amid remarkable advancements in genetic testing, which have recently resulted in more identifications and arrests in long-unsolved cases, ranging from missing persons and homicide investigations to sexual assault cases.

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

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