SPRING LAKE — Found in the Cumberland County woods four decades ago, a woman’s skeleton is all but forgotten today.

Hunters found the remains in a wooded area off of N.C. 210 on Oct. 22, 1979. Her cause of death remains unknown.

Interim Spring Lake Police Chief D. Spellman told The Enterprise on March 30 that he’s been with the department for seven years but wasn’t familiar with the case. He said he would check with his detectives.

Washed ashore, unearthed in shallow graves, stumbled upon in the woods, discovered in abandoned houses, killed on busy roads and located in rivers, ponds and along railroad tracks, more than 120 bodies remain unidentified in North Carolina. This is one of their stories.

Medical examiners believe the woman found in 1979 was dead three months prior to discovery. She most likely would have been 25 to 35 years old at the time of her death. She stood 5 feet 2 inches tall at an unknown weight. She had curly black hair; her eye color is unknown.

The woman wore a white half slip; a white tube top, one size fits all; button blouse, which was found close to the body.

She was biracial, predominantly white but with some probable black features noted, according to information from the Doe Network, a volunteer-run international clearinghouse for unidentified and missing persons.

Fingerprints are unavailable, but dental and DNA information is available with mtDNA and nucDNA information kept at the University of North Texas with the reference number 10-3165.

The woman’s case number is 1743 in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

Anyone with information in the case can call the Spring Lake Police Department at 910-436-0350.

Editor’s note: Unidentified is a weekly series examining the more than 120 cases of unidentified human remains discovered in North Carolina. News Editor Lindell J. Kay produces each installment for The Enterprise of Spring Hope and other Restoration NewsMedia newspapers.