Thanks to DNA technology the skeletal remains of Patricia Agnes Gildawie were finally identified. Patricia also known as Choubi, moved with her family to the U.S. from France at just 8 months old. Her family settled in Fairfax, Virginia.
She was last seen in the city of Fairfax on February 8, 1975. She was 17-years-old, at the time she disappeared.
Her family had no answers for 47 years.
Skeletal remains
Fairfax County Police confirmed in a press release that the remains found in a drainage ditch in 2001 were the missing girl.
On Sept. 27, 2001, city workers discovered the skeletal remains of a young woman in a ditch behind an apartment building.
The medical examiner determined the victim had been killed by a gunshot to the head. And she was identified as “likely an African American female in her late teens to early 20’s.”
Then the case went cold until 2022.
DNA testing reveal answers
With advances in DNA forensics cold case detectives sent DNA samples to Texas-based Othram, Inc.
According to its website, “ Othram operates at the intersection of molecular biology, population genetics, and bioinformatics. Bridging 20th-century population genetics and 21st-century data science, we are the first and only forensic laboratory to vertically integrate a DNA test and human ID solution that can identify victims, find missing persons, and reveal perpetrators of crimes.”
