Human remains linked to woman's death in 1978 homicide

The remains of Joan Shirley Joyce, born in 1936, were found in a shallow grave in 1978.

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The sheriff's office said Tuesday that DNA testing positively identified Joyce.

On June 3, 1978, Joyce's body was discovered in a shallow grave on a dirt road near State Road 29, a half-mile south of Alligator Alley, the sheriff's office said. The Collier County Medical Examiner's Office determined Joyce died of blunt force head trauma.

A DNA sample extracted from Joyce was submitted to Othram Inc., a Texas-based laboratory specializing in forensic genetic genealogy, as part of a grant for genealogical testing.