PITTSBURGH — State police are waiting for a positive DNA match from an unidentified body discovered in Westmoreland County.
In October, forensic anthropologists and the Westmoreland County Coroner’s Office unearthed the remains of an unidentified child from a pauper’s grave in the county.%
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The remains have been sent to Texas to extract DNA.
“We are currently waiting on their DNA analysis on the unidentified so it can be compared to the DNA of the sisters,” said Pennsylvania State Trooper Brian Gross.
After receiving the DNA analysis, the groundwork begins for an investigation.
“Then we can start trying to work on the rest of the case,” Gross said. “Where was she last seen? Who was she with? Then we’ll see if those people are still around.”
The young girl was taken from grave number “A-608." Her body had been found in a Salem Township landfill in 1967.
“I always felt and thought that if we can identify this girl, there may be parents that were looking, or siblings, aunts, uncles and grandparents looking for her,” Gross said.
A woman called Trooper Gross about her sister Theala Thompson, who disappeared from Homewood back in 1967.
“If we have a DNA profile, we have a way to search it against, so just that’s been huge,” Gross said.
Trooper Gross turned to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for help.
“We also provided resources after she got exhumed, like facilitating the DNA submission, getting a local hospital to get a CT scan completed so a facial reconstruction could be done,” Gross said.
Like Gross, the Thompson family anxiously awaits those DNA results to get closure.
The University of North Texas will test the DNA from the remains against of DNA collected from the sisters. Results are expected to return in the coming weeks.