‘Granby girl’ was found buried under leaves 44 years ago. She’s now been identified

In the fall of 1978, a woman’s body was found beneath a blanket of leaves on a logging road in rural Massachusetts. She had been shot in the head.

Unable to identify the victim, police referred to her simply as “Granby girl,” after the small town in which she was discovered. Her remains were buried under a gravestone marked “Unknown.”

Now — 44 years later — advances in DNA testing and the persistence of investigators have led officials to identify the woman, according to a March 6 news release from the Northwestern District Attorney’s Office.

“Unsolved cases sometimes seem to go cold, but investigators never give up,” Northwestern District Attorney David Sullivan stated. “The Massachusetts State Police, Granby Police and Northwestern District Attorney’s staff worked collaboratively for years to achieve this breakthrough in the investigation, and— most importantly—provide some answers to (the) victim’s family.”

The woman was identified as Patricia Tucker.

Born July 28, 1950, Tucker turned 28 the year she was killed.

She had been married three times and was known as Patricia Coleman at the time of her disappearance and death, officials said.

Following the discovery of her body, the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner determined she had been killed by a bullet to the temple and estimated she had been dead for months. The identity of the victim, however, eluded officials for decades.

But a breakthrough came several years ago when Massachusetts officials provided Tucker’s DNA profile to a private forensics laboratory in Texas.

The company, Othram, used forensic genetic genealogy to identify a Maryland woman who was most likely related to the victim, officials said.

“Police contacted that woman, who in turn led them to Tucker’s adult son,” officials said. “Comparison of his DNA to Tucker’s DNA resulted in a 100% parent/child match.”

Tucker’s son Matthew Dale was 5 years old at the time of her disappearance.

Upon further investigation, officials learned that at the time of her death, Tucker’s husband was named Gerald Coleman. The pair had been married a year earlier and lived in a lakeside home in East Hampton, Connecticut.

Coleman never contacted police about his missing wife and is considered a person of interest in Tucker’s killing, officials said. He died in 1996 in a Massachusetts prison.

“I would like to say thank you to everyone in trying to identify my mother and wrapping your arms around her, especially the community of Granby,” her son wrote in a statement. “Thank you for never giving up on her. At least I have some answers now after 44 years. It’s a lot to process, but hopefully, the closure can begin now.”

The decadeslong investigation will continue until Tucker’s killer is identified, officials said.

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