Remains thought to be man identified 25 years later as missing woman, Arizona cops say

Cold-case investigators have identified a woman whose remains went unnamed and misidentified as a man’s for 25 years, Arizona authorities reported.

The remains were found in 1999 near the Bumble Bee Road exit from Interstate 17 north of Black Canyon City, the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office said in a Feb. 14 news release.

The badly decomposed remains were initially identified as belonging to a man, officials said. No match was found for the body’s fingerprints.

In 2018, cold-case investigators asked the FBI to check the fingerprints again, and this time came up with a match to a missing California woman, the sheriff’s office said.

Investigators contacted her family and recovered DNA to test against DNA from her exhumed body, officials said.

DNA matches confirmed her identity as Judy Glascock of Ventura, California, the office said. Investigators have little information but believe she was in her late 30s.

Her cause of death remains unknown but her autopsy in 1999 showed no signs of violence, investigators said.

Yavapai County is about 100 miles north of Phoenix.

This story was originally published February 15, 2024 at 11:02 AM with the headline "Remains thought to be man identified 25 years later as missing woman, Arizona cops say."