LICKING COUNTY, OH (WCMH) – Licking County Sheriff Randy Thorp says they have identified a woman who was killed in 1990.

According to Thorp, on April 19, 1990, the Licking County Sheriff’s Office began investigating after a woman was left for dead in the rear of a truck stop in the 10000 block of Lancaster Road, in Hebron.  Thorp was one of the original investigators in this case.

“It was April it was a nice day but it was a bad day. It started off bad. I think we got that call around 8:00 a.m. that morning, and quite honestly it has really been on of those cases that’s been frustrating because we couldn’t identify our victim.  If you can’t identify your victim you have very little to go on,” said Thorp.

For nearly 30 years, the woman was unidentified and it was referred to as the Jane Doe case.

However, in October of 2016, a family member filed a missing person report in Louisville, Kentucky. This triggered a DNA sample of a family member to be submitted to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System by the Louisville Metro Police Department, which led to a match and positive identification of the victim as 29-year-old Patrice Corley.

“For the family, I really can’t imagine. I have to imagine that they’re blown away. After all these years to simply submit a DNA sample and then get a phone call to say ‘hey we located her and this is what happened,’ I can tell you for us we were floored as investigators,” said Thorp.

Deputies continue to investigate and are working with Louisville police on the case.