After four decades, the mystery surrounding human remains discovered on a Florida beach has been solved.
The remains have been identified as those of Mary Alice Pultz, a Maryland woman who vanished in 1968, allegedly with her then-boyfriend.
The St Johns county sheriffs office in Florida confirmed last week that the remains, unearthed in a shallow grave on Crescent Beach, 50 miles south of Jacksonville, in April 1985, belonged to Pultz. Although investigators had long suspected the case to be a homicide, they were unable to identify the victim until recently.
The breakthrough came when the sheriffs office sent bone samples to Othram, a private lab in Texas, for DNA profiling. The resulting profile matched Pultz through a genealogy database, linking her to her son in Arizona and sister in Virginia.
In a press release dated May 8, the St Johns county sheriffs office stated, The initial investigation revealed the victim was a white female, possibly between the ages of 30 and 50 at the time of her death. Due to the circumstances, the manner of death was determined to be homicide.
The remains were discovered by construction workers building a walking bridge on the beach. Pultz's death may be connected to her then-boyfriend, John Thomas Fugitt.
St Johns county sheriff Gene Tolbert, in an interview with Fox News, said, The belief is that Mary Alice and he went by Tommy had kind of moved off together, potentially to either Florida or Georgia.
Fugitt, who was known to use the alias Billy Joe Wallace, is considered a person of interest in the case. However, he died in prison after being convicted for the 1981 murder of his roommate in Georgia. The sheriffs office stated, Detectives learned that Fugitt was sentenced to death in Georgia related to a 1981 murder of a male roommate. Fugitt died in prison prior to his execution.
The exact cause of Pultz's death remains uncertain. Medical examiners found burr holes in her skull, suggesting she underwent brain surgery after 1968. Detectives believe she was involved in some type of event that caused the traumatic injury and would have required hospitalization, possibly a car accident.
The sheriffs office described the resolution of the homicide investigation as a powerful example that we will never give up. They credited the combination of skilled detectives and advanced DNA technology for providing Pultz's family with answers about her disappearance nearly 40 years ago.
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