Skeletal remains found woman disappeared
Woman vanished identified skeletal remains.
Accident – Death – Obituary News : A missing person’s case from 1968 has finally been solved as authorities positively identified remains that were discovered almost 40 years ago on a beach in St. Augustine, Florida.
The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office recently announced that the remains found in a shallow grave on Crescent Beach in 1985 have been confirmed to belong to Mary Alice Pultz, a woman who went missing nearly two decades before the discovery of her remains.
Sheriff Rob Hardwick expressed, “This investigation is a powerful example of our commitment to never give up. The combination of skilled detectives and advanced DNA technology has provided Mary Alice’s family with some closure about her disappearance almost four decades ago.”
Mary Alice Pultz, originally from Rockville, Maryland, was 25 years old when she was last seen by her family. She had distanced herself from her family after leaving home with her boyfriend at the time, known as John Thomas Fugitt, who also went by the alias Billy Joe Wallace. Fugitt was convicted in 1981 for the murder of his male roommate in Georgia and was sentenced to death. However, he passed away in prison before the execution could be carried out, the sheriff’s office revealed.
The circumstances surrounding Pultz’s death remain unclear, but detectives are treating it as a homicide and have named Fugitt as a person of interest in the case.
Construction workers discovered the skeletal remains at Crescent Beach on April 10, 1985. The victim was believed to be a white woman aged between 30 and 50 years old, but her identification was not possible at that time.
In 2011, some of the remains were sent to the Florida Institute for Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science at the University of South Florida. Experts created a facial reconstruction of the victim in the hopes of generating leads, but unfortunately, no significant breakthroughs were made.
Fast forward to 2023, where the sheriff’s office collaborated with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. The decision was made to send the remains to a private laboratory in Texas, where DNA was extracted and a profile was created. This profile led genealogists to locate living relatives of Pultz, who provided DNA samples to confirm the match.
Medical examiner Dr. Wendolyn Sneed examined Pultz’s remains and noted multiple injuries, including fractures of the nasal bones, ribs, and lower legs. Some of the fractures had healed, and three surgical burr holes were found drilled into Pultz’s skull.
Burr holes are typically used by surgeons, as explained by John Hopkins Medicine, to alleviate pressure on the skull caused by fluid build-up. Interviews with Pultz’s family indicated that the burr holes were likely performed after her disappearance in 1968, suggesting severe trauma that would have required hospitalization, such as a vehicle collision.
The sheriff’s office press release stated, “Dr. Sneed advised that these injuries, along with the surgical burr holes, indicate severe trauma that would have necessitated hospital treatment, such as being involved in a vehicular accident or being struck by a vehicle.”.
skeletal remains identified woman disappeared 1968
skeletal remains found woman disappeared 1968.
