Mohave County Sheriff’s officials say they’ve discovered the identity of a murder victim at the center of a more than 50-year-old cold case.
This week investigators learned that it was Colleen Audrey Rice who was found in the desert east of Kingman in 1971.
Her identity was revealed through advanced DNA testing and genome sequencing of a relative.
The effort was partially funded by local community members.
Rice was originally from Ohio and it isn’t known how she came to be in Arizona.
She was estranged from her family and few records have been found.
The investigation is ongoing and officials are continuing to search for information about Rice and the circumstances surrounding her murder.