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New York State Police identified the victim as Anna L. Papalardo-Blake, of New York City. She was 44 years old at the time.
Papalardo-Blake’s headless body was discovered in Dutchess County in March 1980 at the Hudson View Apartments in the town of Fishkill.
Both of her hands had also been removed, according to police.
The Dutchess County Medical Examiner concluded that she had been killed just days before her remains were found.
Due to the technological and forensic limitations of the time, however, her identity would remain a mystery for the next four decades.
During that time, police pursued hundreds of leads in the case, but none could answer who the woman was or who had killed her.
In 2011, the case was entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
Another 11 years would go by before the FBI provided forensic evidence to Othram, a private lab specializing in forensic DNA analysis, in 2022.
Using a process called genome sequencing, scientists were able to come up with a comprehensive DNA profile that could be given to police and used in a genealogical search.
The FBI’s Investigative Genealogy Team was then able to use that profile to generate leads, which were relayed to New York State Police.
Finally, in May 2022, the agency’s Troop K Major Crimes Unit was able to make a positive identification based on those leads, police said.
Papalardo-Blake was working as a receptionist at Vidal Sassoon when she was last seen leaving work on Tuesday, March 18, 1980, according to investigators.
No suspects have been named in her killing.
Anyone with information in the case is asked to contact New York State Police at 845-677-7300 and reference case number 3020974.
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