On a warm August afternoon in 1975, 13-year-old Laura O’Malley vanished from her quiet Long Beach, New York neighborhood, leaving behind only a cryptic note: she wouldn’t return as long as her stepfather lived there. Despite her parents’ eventual split, Laura remained missing.
Her siblings never gave up, sharing her photo across Manhattan, hoping she had run away to the city.
Then, in 1995, partial skeletal remains were found in a Santa Cruz County riverbed in California. Initially dismissed as old homestead remains, tests in 2016 confirmed they belonged to a young woman. Further forensic analysis, including DNA and radiocarbon dating, narrowed her age and origin — but no identity.
That changed when Othram, a DNA lab, used advanced genome sequencing and genealogy to match the remains to living relatives. In 2024, they confirmed: the remains were Laura Ann O’Malley.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s Office continues investigating the circumstances of her disappearance and death, still unsure how or why she ended up in California.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the sheriff’s office at (831) 471-1121. Officials hope renewed attention may jog someone’s memory and help solve the mystery.