In 1985, human remains were found on a beach in St. Johns County, Florida. On May 12, police were able to identify those remains as Mary Alice Pultz.

Pultz was born in 1943 and lived in Rockville, Maryland. In 1968, she became estranged from her family and left with her boyfriend, a man named John Thomas Fugitt, according to an announcement from the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office (SJSO). This was the last time that her family saw her alive.

On April 10, 1985, a collection of human remains were found by construction workers who were digging for a beach walkover on Crescent Beach. Though the victim’s cause of death is still unknown, police believe her death was a homicide. The police proposed that the remains belonged to a white woman who was between her 30s and 50s, but the case went cold writes CNN News.

In 2011, the victim’s skull and jaw bone were sent to the Florida Institute for Forensic Anthropology and Applied Science at the University of South Florida, where experts attempted to create a facial reconstruction graphic of what the victim may have looked like. The image that they produced gave officials a few leads, but ultimately the case was unresolved and the body unidentified.

That was until 2023, when a huge break was made in identifying the remains of the body. Detectives collaborated with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Forensic Services Regional Laboratory in Jacksonville. The decision was made to send the remains of the victim to Othram, a lab in Texas specializing in forensic genetic genealogy for further investigation of the body, according to NBC News.

With the assistance of advanced technology at the lab, potential relatives of the victim were identified, which prompted the case to be reopened. SJSO Major Crimes Unit Sergeant Gene Tolbert traveled to North Carolina and Virginia to meet with the potential relatives. The investigation was discussed with the relatives, and they were provided the facial recognition graphic to review. Reference DNA samples were collected from relatives and were sent for comparison.

In January of 2024, detectives received confirmation of a match and the victim was identified as Mary Alice Pultz. Pultz had two living relatives: a son (Norman Jenkins of Yuma, Arizona) and a sister (Patricia Allamong of Winchester, Virginia) who helped make a huge contribution to solving the case. Detectives learned that Fugitt (Pultz’s partner) was sentenced to death for murder of a roommate in a 1981 case. Fugitt died in prison prior to his execution, CNN News states.

Police are unsure if Fugitt had anything to do with Pultz’s disappearance, but he is certainly a prime suspect. Police know for certain that Pultz moved away with her boyfriend but they are uncertain if they were together in Florida. Police don’t have any addresses or records of jobs for Pultz between 1968 when she left Maryland and 1985 when her remains were found. Although a significant amount of time has passed, they are hopeful information developed so far will in the long run bring final closure to the family.