Melodie Rowe was a quiet 17-year-old when she went missing from her Syracuse, N.Y., home in September 1972. Her family told detectives that Melodie had trouble making friends and had left to run an errand for her mother.

THOUSANDS UNIDENTIFIED: 14,000 sets of human remains with coroners, medical examiners (USA Today: Report: Authorities have about 14,000 sets of human remains)

Melodie stayed missing for nearly 35 years. Last month, scientists at the University of North Texas used new genetic research and state-of-the-art DNA sampling methods to link her to bones that had been recovered 30 years earlier from a makeshift grave near Syracuse.

New York state police are re-investigating Melodie's disappearance as a homicide. Long listed as belonging to "Jane Doe," the bones have been reburied under Melodie's name.

"I hope to God I never have to find out what the word 'closure' means," says Arthur Eisenberg, who directs the university's DNA identification lab.

"But we can hope to give families information that maybe can help in the grieving process," Eisenberg says. "Even in the worst case, they don't have to get up every morning wondering."

Tools developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and Hurricane Katrina in 2005 have made it easier to identify remains, even those degraded by fire, flooding or explosions. Federal grants have helped scientists identify new genetic markers that are impervious to disasters. Post-9/11 research has catalogued tiny DNA sequences that cluster in families, enabling investigators to identify John or Jane Does through a relative's DNA.

Read the full story by Richard Willing at USA Today