Investigators have identified the body of a woman found over 50 years ago

Investigators have identified the body of a woman found over 50 years ago in New Hampshire as a Massachusetts resident who was supposed to see her family off at the airport as they prepared to move to Texas, but never showed up. Forensic testing and assistance from the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit that uses investigative genetic genealogy, helped identify Katherine Ann Alston, 26, of Boston, the New Hampshire attorney general’s office said Monday. Her remains were found on Oct. 6, 1971, in the woods in Bedford, New Hampshire. She had been dead up to three months. Investigators said her death was a homicide, but they haven’t determined the cause. No records show that anyone had reported Alston as missing. She was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, graduated from High School in 1963 and attended classes at Boston University. She married fellow student Ralph Lawson Garrett, Jr. in Newton in 1967, but they later divorced. Garrett has since died, and “there is no evidence to suggest the divorce was not amicable,” the attorney general’s office said. The parents are deceased and Alston’s family did not wish to comment. Alston was reportedly living on Beacon Street in Boston with a male roommate at the time of her death. New Hampshire Cold Case Unit investigators are trying to find him and anyone else associated with her.