(Des Moines, IA) — After 46 years, the remains of a 15-year-old Iowa girl, Helen Renee Groomes, have been identified.
Discovered by a Missouri hunter in the Mississippi River in 1978, the case remained unsolved until recent DNA evidence and forensic analysis confirmed her identity. Groomes went missing from Ottumwa, Iowa, in 1977, and her brother confirmed her identity through a tattoo on her arm.
The Wapello County Sheriff’s Office has reopened the investigation into her death.
