Nearly 50 years after a 17-year-old girl went missing in Northern Virginia, investigators announced they had identified human remains discovered in 2001 as Patricia Agnes Gildawie.
With the help of Othram Inc., a company that provides DNA testing and forensic-grade genome sequencing, cold case detectives from the Fairfax County Police Department were able to track down Gildawie's half-sister from Ancestry.com results, police said on Sept. 26.
Veronique Duperly, Gildawie's half sister, told NBC affiliate WRC-TV detectives came to her home last month to conduct further testing.
“When I gave them my DNA, they sent it to the lab while they were sitting here in my living room, and they had an 100% DNA match within 15 minutes,” she said.
Gildawie, who was also known as “Choubi,” was born in France in 1958 and moved to Fairfax County, in suburban Washington, D.C., in the 1970s, according to police.
She was last seen on Feb. 8, 1975. Police said she was dating a man in his 30s who worked at an upholstery store near the intersection of Church Street and Lawyers Road in Vienna.
Duperly told WRC-TV the last time she saw Gildawie was when she was driving a white Cadillac Eldorado with red interior that the man had loaned her. She said she noticed bruises on her sister.
“Bruises on her upper arms, her shoulders, and the back of her legs,” Duperly said. “I said, ‘Well, why are you so black and blue?’ She said, ‘I fall a lot.’ I said, ‘No, you don’t.’”
Police have not identified Gildawie's boyfriend at the time and the investigation into her case is ongoing.
“We’re moving fast and furious on this case. We know the killer is still out there,” police Maj. Ed O'Carroll, chief of the Major Crimes and Cyber and Forensics Bureau, told WRC-TV.
A construction crew found Gildawie's skeletal remains along with some clothing behind an apartment complex in McLean on Sept. 27, 2001.
An initial review of the remains by the state medical examiner and an anthropologist found the woman died of a gunshot wound to the head. The report indicated that the remains were likely of a Black woman in her late teens to early 20s.
But when detectives connected with Ortham this year, they learned the remains were of a white woman.
“Identifying this young woman solves a mystery that has been more than 47 years in the making,” O’Carroll said in a statement. “Our community should take comfort in knowing that our detectives never stop working these cases. Advancements in technology have given my Cold Case detectives an opportunity to pursue fresh leads and bring some relief to families that have been long suffering with the unknown.”
Police said the funding for the testing and identification process was provided by an anonymous donor through DNASolves.
No charges have been filed in Gildawie's case. Investigators are asking anyone with information to contact the Fairfax County police.
