Thanks to DNA analysis and genealogy investigation, a decapitated, handleless body found in a travel trunk by a garbage in the Hudson Valley over four decades ago has been identified as a missing hair salon employee.
The body found on March 20, 1980 in the Hudson View Apartment Complex in Fishkill was identified as Anna Papalardo-Blake on Friday by the New York State Police.
The 44-year-old Papalardo-Blake was last seen leaving the Vidal Sassoon salon on Fifth Avenue, where she worked as a receptionist, around six o’clock in the evening on March 18, 1980. She later went missing and was reported to the police.
The decapitated and severely mutilated female body was discovered in Fishkill, roughly 65 miles north of Manhattan, two days after Papalardo-Blake vanished.
Investigators initially thought the victim was a female in her 20s, standing around 5’6″ tall and weighing 135 pounds.
In an effort to identify the victim over the past four decades, State Police stated that investigators have pursued hundreds of leads. However, their efforts have been impeded by what the agency called “technical and forensic restrictions of the time.”
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System received the case in 2011.
The FBI’s Genealogy Team was eventually able to get a valid DNA sample from the remains earlier this year because to advancements in genetic science.
The victim’s entire genealogical profile was created using the sample, according to a statement from Othram, a private lab that specializes in cutting-edge forensic DNA analysis, and it was then given to the FBI.
