Authorities have revealed that a Texas lady whose family reported her missing from Houston has finally been identified from human remains discovered more than three decades ago.
Alisha “Lisa” Marie Cooks, 16, who vanished from the Houston region that summer, was definitively identified as the owner of the skeletal remains found by two hunters on December 16, 1985, according to the Brazoria County Sheriff’s Office (BCSO), which released the information on Wednesday.
“Alisha’s family provided DNA samples that were uploaded to NAMUS, The national Missing and Unidentified Persons System,” the BCSO said in a statement. “The DNA submitted by the family match the DNA profile of the unidentified remains recovered 36 years ago.”
In addition to the formal written statement, the BCSO posted a picture of investigators with Byron Parker, the brother of Cooks, on Facebook.
“Providing closure to the families of victims is not always doable. I am proud to say in the case of Alisha Cooks we have done just that,” the post read.
One of Cooks’ relatives, Sharias Bibben, expressed her gratitude in a comment on the announcement.
“I’ve been waiting all my natural life for this closure you gave me and my family today,” she wrote alongside the hashtag #Justice4Lisa.
Cooks’ death has no known cause of death, but homicide investigators are still looking into the matter. The matter will be the subject of another press conference on October 31.
Cooks’ identification is the most recent in a string of successful investigations into cold cases using cutting-edge DNA technology. Police revealed earlier this month that they had located the remains of Pennsylvania teen Joan Marie Dymond, who had been missing for more than 50 years.
Similar to Cooks’ case, Dymond’s death is still under investigation as a murder.
“After 53 years, the family of Joan Marie Dymond very much deserves closure. We will do everything in our power to see that they have it,” Pennsylvania State Police Capt. Patrick Dougherty said in a statement.
