DNA identifies woman killed in fiery 1987 Pennsylvania Turnpike crash

HARRISBURG (KDKA) - DNA helped investigators close a 35-year-old cold case by identifying the woman killed in a fiery crash on the Pennsylvania Turnpike in Somerset County. 

Police said 26-six-year-old Linda McClure of Indiana, Pennsylvania was a passenger in a tractor-trailer that crashed on the Turnpike in Stoneycreek Township, Somerset County in 1987. 

McClure and the driver, who was immediately identified, died after the tractor-trailer struck the fuel tank of another semi-trailer truck and caught fire, police said. 

Last August, the Pennsylvania Turnpike agreed to pay for forensic genetic genealogy DNA testing. Police said forensic evidence sent to a lab in Texas produced a genealogical profile and investigative leads, which troopers used to find McClure. 

McClure's family told investigators they last talked with her in the late 1980s and she hadn't been reported as missing to law enforcement. Her brother submitted a DNA sample for comparison, which confirmed McClure was the victim of the crash.