By Mark Woolsey

Cobb police Cold Case Unit investigators report significant progress in a more than 40-year-old homicide investigation.

Police say the body of an unidentified white female was discovered in a Southwest Cobb County wooded area near the Chattahoochee River on May 10, 1984. The Cobb Medical Examiner’s subsequent autopsy classified the cause and manner of death as undetermined.

DNA testing was submitted to several agencies, including the GBI and the University of North Texas, seeking her identity, but no match was found for decades.

After cold case detectives re-opened the matter more recently, Othram Labs was consulted to develop a genetic genealogy profile, which turned up distant relatives of the victim, but that wasn’t sufficient for identification.

More investigating led to a possible half-sister of the dead woman, and authorities got a DNA sample from her. Police say DNA confirmation, the genealogy profile and interviews with the family led to the ME identifying the victim as Veronica Jane Miller of Mableton, who would have been about 20 at the time she died.

Miller’s family has been notified of the developments.

Cobb Police say the case has now been classified as a homicide and that they’re continuing to look at it. They ask that anyone with information give their Major Crimes Unit a call at 770-499-3945.