The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s office has identified partial skeletal remains that were discovered in a riverbed off Highway 129, east of Rogge Lane, near Aromas, 30 years ago.
After remaining a mystery for decades, the remains have finally been identified as belonging to 13-year-old Laura O’Malley from Queens, New York.
The remains were first discovered on March 22, 1995. DNA testing was able to determine only that the remains belonged to a female.
In 2019, further forensic testing was done, and carbon dating determined that the remains belonged to someone who was likely born in the 1960s and died between 1977 and 1984. From 2022 to 2023, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff-Coroner’s Office partnered with Othram, a forensic DNA analysis company, to identify the remains as O’Malley’s.
O’Malley was reported missing in New York in August 1975. Her family has not seen or heard from her since. The sheriff’s office said it’s unknown how or when O’Malley arrived in California.
The circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation. Anyone with information is urged to call the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office at 831-471-1121.
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