NEW LONDON, Ohio (WJW) – Part of a mystery that is more than a century old has been solved in Ohio.
In 2016, 72 human bones were found inside the garage of a home in New London.
The bones were sent to a lab in Virginia, and DNA was extracted.
The bones have now been identified as belonging to Hallie Armstrong, an 18-year-old schoolteacher who died in 1881.
“We have closed a cold case and ruled out a homicide,” New London Police Chief Mike Marko said.
Armstrong’s cause of death was listed as unknown, according to a press release, and she was reportedly buried at Sugar Grove Cemetery in Wilmington.
“I’m happy to say we’ve helped the New London Police rule out a potential homicide in their town,” says James Renner, founder of the Porchlight Project, a nonprofit that helps with cold cases. “And in the process of solving one mystery, we’ve uncovered a much older one – who was Hallie Armstrong, really, and how did her remains end up in a barn in New London, a hundred years after her death? Hopefully, one day, we can provide an answer.”
Said Marko: “As one door is closed, another opens in the continuing mystery of how her remains ended up here in New London.”
