When it comes to finding long-missing loved ones, Maryann Newsom Collette of Tennessee implores people to keep trying, even when the search seems hopeless.
"Sit there at the computer," she says, "make a Facebook probe. Don't let people tell you to stop."
Newsom Collette, who was 9 years old when she last saw sister Patricia, never stopped, and neither did East Haven police.
Monday, almost 48 years since a woman's body turned up, bound and gagged, in an East Haven ditch, police confirmed DNA testing that shows the remains are those of Maryann's sister, Patricia Newsom, who would have been 18 at the time she was found.
With that identification in hand, East Haven police are hoping to find out what happened to Patricia. They say she started at a boarding school near Monticello, NY in 1972. She's believed to have run away with a friend, heading for Maine, possibly by hitchhiking.
"It's unclear to us whether Patricia made it to Maine, or not," says Capt. Joseph Murgo, "and we want to locate the friend she allegedly ran off with. We also want to identify the school that Patricia attended in Sullivan County, New York, (starting) in 1972."
Maryann Newsom Collette credits East Haven police for continuing their pursuit, including a complicated exhumation of the body last year-- the unidentified remains were buried without a marker at the State Street Cemetery in Hamden. Maryann provided the DNA sample that allowed for Patricia's identification.
"Thankfully, Maryann had submitted her own DNA," says forensic scientist Dr. Colleen Fitzpatrick of Identifinders, which describes itself as worldwide cold case experts. "In comparing, going into the interface and looking into the DNA cousins we call them, it became obvious that we had an answer."