The skeletal remains of a missing girl have been identified nearly a decade later thanks to advancements in DNA testing.
Remains that were shown to belong to Mary Sue Fink – who was between age 2 and 6 years old at the time of her death – were found in Hawaii in June 2014, nearly six decades after she died, according to KHON Honolulu.
Fink’s remains were sent from Honolulu to Othram Labs for further DNA testing in August 2024, when investigators were able to build a DNA profile from existing evidence to identify a possible relative – which led to a match.
After that relative agreed to testing, the DNA profile of the two were compared – leading to the positive identification of Mary Sue Fink, born on April 29, 1959. She would have been 65 years old today.
“That one piece of the puzzle that was sent in is responsible in part for the resolution and identification of this Jane Doe baby,” Dr. Robert Mann, Professor of Anatomy & Pathology at the University of Hawaii Medical School, told KHON Honolulu.
“What could not be done 50 years ago was being done 30 years ago, and what wasn’t being done 30 years ago is being done now,” Mann told the outlet. “And so this really … shows us that a cold case does not have to remain cold forever.”
It wasn’t immediately clear how Fink died or why it took six decades to find her remains.
A request for comment from the Honolulu Police Department was not immediately returned.
The decade-old case was cracked as part of Othram’s Project 525 initiative, which aims to solve 525 juvenile cases in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. To date, more forensic genetic genealogy cases have been solved with Othram’s forensic-grade genome sequencing technology, used in Fink’s case, than any other method, the lab said in a statement.
Fink’s case is only the second in Hawaii where officials have publicly identified remains using Othram-developed technology. The lab added its sequencing technology has been “instrumental in solving numerous active and cold cases for local, state, and federal agencies across the United States and internationally.”
Roughly a quarter of the 24,400 active missing persons cases in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System involve minors, Othram said.
