Human remains found in a California river have been identified as being a 13-year-old New York girl who vanished 50 years ago.

The partial skeletal remains were first discovered in a riverbed off a highway in Watsonville almost exactly 30 years ago, but the case ran after initial DNA testing only showed they were of a female.

But more advanced testing has now confirmed the body was Laura O’Malley, a 13-year-old Queens girl who was reported missing in August 1975, the Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office announced this week.

However, “it is not known when, or under what circumstances, Laura O’Malley arrived in California,” the sheriff’s office stressed.

It was also unclear how she is thought to have died.

The young teen was identified when the cold case was reopened in 2019, with additional forensic testing — including carbon dating — now showing the decedent was likely born in the 1960s and died between 1977 and 1984, cops said.

Source: NYPost