GRANTS PASS, Ore. – Skeletal remains found nearly half a century ago in the woods outside Grants Pass, Ore., have finally been identified as an Aberdeen girl who disappeared or ran away from home a few months earlier, officials said Thursday.

Anne Marie Lehman, who was 16 years old at the time of her disappearance and would have turned 65 this year, was identified through a confirmed match with her sister’s DNA.

In August of 1971 a father and his son discovered the scattered skeletal remains of a young female in the woods.

At the time, Josephine County sheriff’s investigators did all they could to identify who the remains belonged to, but when all leads were exhausted, the case was deemed “inactive” and the remains were placed in storage and listed simply as “Jane Doe.”

In 2017, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children funded and sponsored a case study of the investigation into Jane Doe’s death through the “DNA Doe Project.”

After weeks of research, a potential match was found with a sister living in Washington state. She provided a DNA sample and a confirmed match was made.