Cold case takes grim turn after remains identified as runaway teen; homicide investigation underway

Authorities announced a major breakthrough in a decades-old cold case, identifying human remains found nearly 49 years ago in North Carolina as belonging to a runaway 15-year-old girl who disappeared from Maryland.

The skeletal remains were discovered more than six months after Cindy Marcell Blizzard went missing in the spring of 1977, according to the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation (SBI).

Authorities said the manner of death remained undetermined, but the case was being investigated as a homicide.