The mysterious death of a woman in the US almost 50 years ago has been linked to New Zealand after DNA taken from her body matched some Kiwis.
On August 19, 1971, the skeletal remains of a female were found in the woods off a highway near the border of California and Oregon.
A bloodied hunting knife was found nearby and authorities ruled her death a homicide.
She was never identified and is known only as Annie Doe.
But investigators are closer to finding out her true identity after her DNA was successfully extracted, allowing researchers to track down he family.
A team of volunteer genealogists from The DNA Doe Project are now working with "numerous" matches and hope to put a real name to Annie Doe in the near future.
The project is a new initiative that uses genetic genealogy to identify John and Jane Does.
According to its website, the group have become "a go-to organisation for law enforcement agencies and medical examiners across the country, helping them solve their most intractable cases".
"We have had amazing success even with cases where the DNA was highly degraded or of low quantity."
They revealed on Facebook this week that some of the matches for Annie Doe were from New Zealand.
The matches are being found on GEDmatch.com - a website that provides DNA and genealogical analysis tools for amateur and professional researchers and genealogists.
People all around the world can upload their DNA information which can then be searched to connect families.
"We're encouraging anyone from NZ who has tested to upload their results to GEDmatch.com," said a project spokesperson.
"We don't know that Annie herself was from NZ, but it seems that at least one or more branches of her family ended up there.
