Skeletal remains found almost 40 years ago are identified as those of a woman who disappeared in 1968

The 1968 missing person case was finally closed after authorities were able to positively identify remains that were discovered nearly 40 years ago on a beach in St. Louis.

The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office announced last week that remains found in a shallow grave in Crescent Beach in 1985 have been positively identified as Mary Alice Pultz, a woman who disappeared nearly two decades before the remains were discovered.

“This investigation is a powerful example that we will never give up,” said St. Johns County Sheriff Rob Hardwick. “The combination of highly skilled detectives and advanced DNA technology has given Mary Alice’s family some answers about her disappearance nearly 40 years ago. .”

Pultz was born in Rockville, Maryland, and was 25 years old when she was last seen by her family. She became estranged from her family after leaving home with her boyfriend at the time, a man named John Thomas Fugitt.

Fugitt, who also used the alias Billy Joe Wallace, was convicted of murdering his roommate in 1981 in Georgia. Although he was sentenced to death, he died in prison before he could be executed, according to the sheriff’s office.

Exactly how Pultz died remains unclear, but detectives are investigating his death as a homicide and have named Fugitt as a person of interest in the case.

The remains were found by construction workers excavating in Crescent Beach on April 10, 1985, and the victim was believed to be a white woman between the ages of 30 and 50. .

In 2011, some of the remains were sent to the Florida Institute of Forensic Anthropology and Applied Sciences at the University of South Florida. Experts created a facial reconstruction of the victim in the hope that it might provide some insight, but nothing came of it.

Then in 2023, the sheriff’s office said detectives partnered with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement on the case. The decision was made to send the remains to a private laboratory in Texas, which extracted DNA from the remains and created a DNA profile.

That profile then led genealogists to Pultz’s living relatives, who agreed to provide DNA samples that matched the profile.

Pultz’s remains were examined by medical examiner Dr. Wendolyn Sneed, according to the sheriff’s office. Sneed noted multiple injuries, including fractures to the nasal bones, multiple ribs and lower legs. Some of the fractures had healed, and in addition, there were three surgical holes drilled into Pultz’s skull.

Holes are used by surgeons, according to John Hopkins Medicine, to relieve pressure in the skull due to fluid accumulation. One of the most common reasons for using burr holes is to relieve pressure from a subdural hematoma, or brain bleed, which can occur after a head injury.

Interviews with Pultz’s family indicated the holes were likely made after he disappeared from their lives in 1968, according to the sheriff’s office news release.

“Dr. Sneed advised that these injuries, in addition to the surgical holes, are indicative of severe trauma that would require hospitalization, such as involvement in a vehicle accident or being struck by a vehicle,” the statement said.