Authorities have finally linked remains found in Florida in 1974 to a teen girl who was reported missing in 1972 — 50 years after her disappearance was reported.
Palm Beach County's Detective William Springer explained to reporters, "She was tied up in the mangroves with wire to a tree. She was skeletal remains, totally nothing left of her except bones."
Susan Poole's DNA was submitted to a national missing person's database in 2015, but that yielded no results. Eventually, a forensics lab based in Texas was able to turn up the name of Susan's mother and her siblings, all of whom are still alive.
Susan's mother provided her own DNA sample, which ended up matching that of Susan's remains.
Susan disappeared near Christmas in 1972. At the time, she split her time living with her family and with a friend.
Detective Springer explained that despite the grim news, Susan's family was relieved to know what happened. He said, "The family was happy to know what happened. You know it’s been a long time waiting to see what happened to their sister."
Authorities also believe that Susan Poole might have been another victim of Gerard Schaefer, who was found guilty of killing two teen girls in April 1973. He had been implicated in nearly 30 other killings. He was killed in prison by another inmate in 1995.
Springer went on to add that the biggest reason why Schaefer is the prime suspect is that the other two teen girls were found in similar circumstances as Susan Poole. As he put it, "Other than the MO that she’s in the mangroves and she’s tied up in the mangroves. I mean not many people were doing that in the ’70s except him."
