LAS VEGAS — A body found lying in the Las Vegas dirt more than 44 years ago has been identified as a Cincinnati 19-year-old.
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department said Tuesday its cold case investigators were able to identify Gwenn Marie Story as the "Sahara Sue Doe" found dead near the former home of El Rancho Vegas Hotel and Casino on Aug. 14, 1979.
Police said a man walking through an open field at Sahara Avenue and Las Vegas Boulevard found Story's body lying in the dirt. The Clark County Coroner's Office determined Story's death was a homicide, but officials could never identify her.
After 44 years, LVMPD Cold Case Investigators have identified a female homicide victim as Gwenn Marie Story.
— LVMPD (@LVMPD) December 20, 2023
Her body was found near Sahara Ave and Las Vegas Blvd in 1979.
Investigators learned she traveled to Las Vegas from Ohio in 1979 with two male friends. pic.twitter.com/53l4zKqtnY
"One of the key components of a homicide investigation is knowing who your victim is. If you want to get a background and a story of who someone was with, where they were supposed to be, how they ended up there — it all starts with identifying the victim, and in this case it took 44 years," said LVMPD Lt. Jason Johansson, who leads the department's homicide unit.
The initial crime scene was investigated as thoroughly as it could be at the time, Johansson said, but investigators were working off all but a single lead.
"They canvassed the area, they met with people, they met with the shop owner who recalled seeing her that night before her murder with another male," he said.
That shop clerk provided investigators with a composite sketch of the unknown man.
In September 2022, cold case investigators were able to identify and contact possible family members, who then gave DNA samples. They used forensic genetic genealogy — DNA processing and comparing technology — to finally identify Story.
"Now here we are today being able to solve a huge component of our investigation," Johansson said.
Just 19 at the time of her death, police said Story left her home in the summer of 1979 to try to locate her biological father in California. Police said Story left with two male friends who, when they returned later that month, told her family they had left her in Vegas.
Story's family told police they never heard from her again.
"They didn't know if she went on to have a life of her own. You're not giving them information that they — very mixed reaction. They had closure in the fact they knew where she was, but it was not how they wanted to hear the end of that story," Johansson said.
The men are likely still alive and could still be in the Cincinnati area, he said. Additional forensic evidence is currently being tested but detectives are imploring the Cincinnati community to aid in furthering the investigation.
"We believe there's likely people in the Cincinnati area from that era when this occurred who know who we're talking about, who know some of the story that happened with this," Johansson said. "And we're now looking for people who knew Gwenn or knew anybody related with this or knew the rumor mill to help us be able to kind of fill in the pieces of what we don't know right now."
Anyone with information on Story or the two men she traveled with is asked to call LVMPD's cold case section either by phone at 702-828-3521 or by email at homicide@lvmpd.com. Anonymous tips can be sent through Nevada's Crime Stoppers at 702-385-5555.
