The body parts found on a Florida beach many years ago have been recognized as those of a woman from Maryland.
In April 1985, the body parts were found in a shallow hole on Crescent Beach by people who were building a walking bridge.
A white lady between the ages of 30 and 50 was found dead. That was all the detectives knew at the time.
The facts, however, were enough for police to say it was a murder.
The investigation stopped because there wasn’t much proof.
The St. John’s County Sheriff’s Office sent parts of the body to a private lab in Texas called Othram in 2023 so that they could make a DNA sample of the victim.
When the profile was finished, it was put into genealogy databases, which let people look for their ancestors by sending in DNA.
They finally got the big break they were hoping for.
DNA from the bones led to the discovery of two possible cousins.
Detectives went out of their way to meet them and tell them about the case.
Each person agreed to have their DNA matched to the bodies, which showed a match.
That’s how the cops knew for sure that the body was that of Mary Alice Pultz, who was from Rockville.
The police then found her sister in Virginia and son in Arizona.
In 1968, Pultz is said to have left town with her boyfriend at the time, John Thomas Fugitt, who also went by the name Billy Joe Wallace.
It turned out that Fugitt died in jail after being found guilty of killing his Georgia flatmate in 1981.
Police are still looking into Fugitt as a possible suspect in Pultz’s death, but they aren’t ruling out anyone else.
It’s still not clear how Fugitt was killed. She would have been 80 or 81 years old.
The Medical Examiner’s Office said Pultz had serious injuries in the past, probably from a car accident, but they couldn’t prove a direct link between those injuries and her death.
“This investigation is a strong sign that we will not give up.” “Highly skilled detectives and cutting edge DNA technology have helped Mary Alice’s family figure out what happened to her almost 40 years ago,” said St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick.
