The mystery of who killed a Michigan woman 33 years ago was solved thanks to the help of a new type of genealogy technology.
The Norton Shores Police Department said Stacey Lyn Chahorski of Norton Shores, Michigan, was reported missing by her mother in January 1989 after she last spoke to her on the phone on Sept. 15, 1988.
In a news release, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation said authorities found a woman's body in Dane County on Dec. 16, 1988, near the Alabama state line on Interstate 59.
The identity of the body went unknown for years.
It wasn't until this past March that the body found in Georgia was identified as belonging to Chahorski, the police department said.
According to the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, she was able to be identified by using a new type of genealogy technology.
"Detectives with the Norton Shores Police Department were able to collect a fingerprint card in 2010 from relatives, which ultimately led to her positive identification after being contacted by authorities in Georgia," police said in a news release.
But the next question to answer was, who killed her?
On Tuesday, that question was answered.
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced that they identified Chahorski's killer as Henry Fredrick "Hoss" Wise through genealogy DNA.
According to the bureau, Wise, who was 34 at the time of her death in 1988, was a truck driver and stunt driver.
In the news release, the bureau said Wise died in 1999 when he burned to death after getting into a car accident at the Myrtle Beach Speedway in South Carolina.
The bureau said Wise's criminal history spanned across Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina but his arrests, which ranged from theft to assault, predated mandatory DNA testing after a felony arrest.
