In October 1985, partial skeletal remains were found in a plastic bag in the Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, Calif., northwest of Los Angeles. She was Gertrude Elliott-Littlehale, a musician who was born in 1864, lived in San Francisco and died in 1915. And at one point decades ago, her grave was robbed and her skull was taken, according to Othram, the forensic laboratory that announced the identification of her remains last week. The break in the case came after scientists were able to build a DNA profile from the remains. Investigators tracked down living potential relatives and collected a reference sample from one of them, leading to the identification.

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Persons: Gertrude Elliott, Littlehale, David Mittelman Locations: Oxnard , Calif, Los Angeles, San Francisco