The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has announced a major breakthrough in a decades-old case. The body of a teenage girl, known only as “Sahara Sue Doe” since her discovery in 1979, has been identified as Gwenn Marie Story, a teenager from Ohio who went missing that same year.
Authorities confirmed the identification using advancements in DNA testing, which led to the revelation last month. Story’s remains were found in an open field near what is now a busy intersection of the Las Vegas Strip. She had wavy hair and her fingernails and toenails were painted red.
Story had left her home in Cincinnati in the summer of 1979, in search of her biological father who was believed to be in California. She was accompanied by two male friends, and her family never heard from her again. When her friends returned to Cincinnati that same month, they claimed to have left her in Las Vegas. Now, the Las Vegas police department is turning its focus towards these two friends to unravel the mystery of how Story ended up dead near the Las Vegas Strip.
The breakthrough in Story’s case highlights advancements in genetic testing, which have led to more identifications and arrests in long-unsolved cases in recent years. The discovery of Story’s true identity comes on the heels of another case in Nevada, where Othram, a private DNA testing laboratory, helped the police identify another victim who had been nameless for 45 years.
The revelation that Gwenn Marie Story is Sahara Sue Doe has brought a sense of closure to her family after 44 years of uncertainty and mystery surrounding her disappearance and death. The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department is now focused on bringing justice to Story and her family by solving the case and bringing her killers to justice.