Mexico City.- The Fort Worth Police Department (state of Texas, USA) announced on Thursday the results of the official DNA test and confirmed that it has found the identity of Melissa Highsmith, whose whereabouts have been unknown for more than 51 years. reports the Fort Worth Start-Telegram, a local newspaper.
The woman had been kidnapped by a babysitter in 1971, when she was 21 months old. During these more than five decades she was known as Melanie Brown and she spent most of her life in Fort Worth, unaware that her birth family lived 20 minutes away and she was looking for her.
The Highsmith family was finally reunited with their daughter last November, after locating her thanks to a DNA testing program that helps find relatives.
“Although the criminal statute of limitations expired 20 years after Melissa’s eighteenth birthday, the Fort Worth Police Department’s Major Case Unit continues to request the public’s assistance in obtaining any additional information regarding Melissa’s abduction, which occurred over 51 years,” police said in Thursday’s update.
This Saturday a demonstration was held in the center of the city where the case took place to demand that the Fort Worth Police Department provide more resources to the Cold Case Unit.
The unit has more than 1,000 cold cases, according to protest organizers, and there is only one full-time detective assigned to it.
