Florida police use DNA, genealogy to ID remains of teen missing 50 years

June 2 (UPI) -- Police in South Florida announced Thursday that they've used DNA and genealogy to identify the remains of a teenage girl who went missing 50 years ago.

Detective Bill Springer said the skeletal remains, which were found tied up to a tree on Singer Island in 1974, belonged to Susan Poole. The remains were found in a swampy area of of the island located in North Palm Beach.

"She appeared to be tied up in the mangroves with wire to a tree. She was skeletal remains, totally nothing left of her except the bones," Springer said during a news conference held by the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office.

"Detectives did their job, but they didn't have any of this new technology."

Poole was reported missing at the age of 15 from adjacent Broward County in 1972.

Springer said investigators entered DNA from the remains into the National Data Base for unidentified people.

"In December of 2021, they contacted me and said they would be able to possibly do genealogy on old cases," he said. "It was decided by the sheriff's office and my supervisors we would send up the unknown remains of this girl from 1974."

The sheriff's office said Poole's mother is still alive and in her 90s. Springer said he wants to interview some of the girl's friends to determine who killed her.