GRANBY, Mass. - Patricia Ann Tucker has now been identified as the "Granby Girl." Her remains were found in the woods off Amherst Road in Granby in 1978.

"The medical examiner estimated that it was a female between the ages of 19 to 27 and that she had been shot in the temple, but other than that, we really didn't know anything about her," said First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne. "Did not have her identity and somewhere along the way, someone just dubbed her the 'Granby Girl.'"

Police began investigating in the area using traditional methods for the time, like going door-to-door looking for information, but it did not yield many results. The remains had been collected and preserved, but it became more difficult to examine over the years due to the DNA degrading over time.

Recent advances in forensic genetic genealogy allowed scientists to eventually profile the DNA left behind and discover a connection to a distant niece living in Maryland.

"Authorities contacted the niece," said Gagne. "She told us that her aunt had gone missing in the late 70s and that her aunt had two sons. We got in touch with one of those sons and comparing his DNA to the DNA extracted by Othram. It was a 100% parent-child match."

Police soon identified Gerald Coleman as Tucker's husband at the time of her death and he is also now a person of interest in the case. Tucker was last seen with Coleman dropping her child off at a friend’s home in Chicopee.

"When you combine sort of who she was married to at the same and then you also look at the circumstances under which she disappeared, the fact that he was one of the last people who was seen with her, the fact that he never reported his wife missing, which is a big red flag in terms of investigators," Gagne said.

Gagne said it's been difficult to identify whether someone in the community had reported Tucker as missing back then, but they have information to believe family out of state had contacted investigators. 

"We do know that after some passage of time, her parents hadn't heard from her," Gagne said. "They lived in upstate New Jersey and there are some indications that they may have reported her missing to the authorities in that area."

Tucker’s husband died while in prison on unrelated violent crime charges in the 1990’s. Police are asking anyone who may have information on the case to contact them.