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Body Found In 1994 Identified As Runaway

POSTED: Wednesday, April 2, 2008

A body found 14 years ago in southern Flagler County has been identified as that of a 17-year-old girl who ran away from her Stewartville, Minn., home in the summer of 1993.

The remains were discovered Feb. 2, 1994 by a dump truck driver carrying fill dirt in a field along U.S. Highway 1 near county Road 200. There were no signs of trauma or foul play on the body. An autopsy found cocaine intoxication, but never determined a cause of death.

The remains were eventually buried in an unmarked grave in the Espanola Cemetery.

The case became active again last year when the Olmsted, Minn., Sheriff's Office opened a missing persons investigation into the disappearance of Heather Ann Schmoll. The family believed she took her father's car and headed to Florida with her boyfriend.

Officials said she was not reported missing at the time because of undisclosed family problems. The last time anyone reported contact with Schmoll was on New Year's Day 1994, when she called a family friend saying she was in Daytona Beach. She was crying, begging for help and asking for money to get back to Minnesota.

A Flagler County Sheriff's Office detective found that tattoos and photos of the missing girl posted online matched those in the file from the 1994 investigation. DNA testing on a sample of tissue retained from the remains matched that of Schmoll's mother and father.

Based on that testing, the Tri-State Medical Examiner's Office in St. Augustine on Monday identified the remains as that of Schmoll.

The medical examiner's report indicated that "it is greater than 2 million times more likely that they would be the parents than if an untested random man and woman from the general population were the biological parents of the unidentified woman."

The Schmoll family was notified of the results of the DNA testing and will made a decision about moving her remains back to Minnesota.

"We pray that she may now rest in peace knowing she is back with her family that loves her and me may now begin the healing process," the Schmoll family said in a statement.

Flagler County determined the death to be noncriminal and has closed its investigation.

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