A 19-year-old homicide victim who went missing in 1979 and named ‘Sahara Sue Desert’ has been identified through DNA after 44 years, authorities said.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department made the announcement on Tuesday confirming the woman’s identity as Gwenn Marie Story of Colerain Township.
Story had traveled from her home in Cincinnati, Ohio, to California with two of her male roommates to search for her biological father but later turned up dead in Sin City.
Her remains were found near the Las Vegas strip on August 14, 1979, the former site of the El Rancho hotel, but her killer has never been caught.
The Texas-based company Othram Labs that works with the LVMP on cold cases used familial DNA to identify the teen. She was officially identified last month.
Police are continuing to investigate the case and are urging ‘anyone with information about the young woman or the two men she traveled to Las Vegas with to contact them.’
Gwenn Marie Story was identified as the 19-year-old homicide victim who was known as ‘Sahara Sue Doe’ before her name was revealed
Police released a composite sketch of the man shortly after Story’s body was discovered.
According to investigators, after Story’s murder, the two men the teen had been traveling with returned to their home in Ohio.
Terry Miller, an investigator with the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department told 8 New Now Investigators that the two men she was with are likely still alive.
Witnesses at the time of her disappearance said they saw Story enter a liquor store that was located near the intersection of Las Vegas Boulevard and Sahara with a man about an hour before she was killed.
The man was described as six feet tall, thin, and with a different-colored mustache from the color of his hair, according to a clerk in the liquor store.
Police released a composite sketch of the man shortly after Story’s body was discovered.
Miller said it remains unclear whether the man Story entered the store with was one of the two traveling companions from Ohio.
When she was asked by the news outlet if she thinks ‘one of those men killed Gwenn?’
Miller responded, ‘I don’t know, until I am able to interview them, and I don’t have a name on them either.
She said that they are ‘at the very beginning stages of this investigation on the homicide portion of it.’
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department posted a statement to X, formerly known as Twitter, hoping to generate new leads in the case.
After the young woman’s name was publicly released, Story’s family issued a statement in the decades-long case and expressed gratitude to the tenacity of the investigators.
‘Finally after 44 years of not knowing what happened to our sister Gwenn Story, we have news that she had been identified,’ they said.
‘We are looking for some closure on this case. Our family just wants some answers, we would really appreciate the help.
‘Our family would also like to thank all the many detectives who have worked this case over the years at the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department’
They added: ‘If it wasn’t for you, we would still be wondering where is Gwenn.’
Tips can be submitted anonymously through Crime Stoppers by calling 702-385-5555 or at https://crimestoppersofnv.com/report-a-crime.
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