The body of a young woman found in a shallow grave in Sacramento on July 21 has been identified as that of Susan Marie Lynch, 22, daughter of Mrs. Ruth J. Major, of 8450 San Carlos Drive, San Diego.
The identification was made Thursday by the Sacramento County coroner’s office from fingerprints.
John V. Petry, a San Diego County deputy coroner, notified Mrs. Major of the death Thursday. Greenwood Mortuary here will be in charge of funeral arrangements.

FOUND BY BOYS

Boys playing in a dry creek bed in an undeveloped area of Sacramento found the body, which was on the ground but covered with sand. The body was clad in cutoff jeans, tennis shoes and a vest-type blouse.
James C. Hosand, chief deputy coroner of Sacramento, said the only injury found in an autopsy was a dislocated jaw. Tests determined the girl was alive when covered with sand and she died of suffocation, he added.
Hosand said the girl had been living in Nevada City, northwest of Sacramento, but had gone to Santa Cruz to see friends sometime in July and was hitch-hiking to Nevada City.

DEAD THREE DAYS

The girl had been dead about three days when the body was found, Hosand said, and remained unidentified as there were no fingerprints on file with the FBI or state agencies. Dental charts were circulated and news articles were published attempting to identify the body.
A Santa Cruz woman supplied Sacramento officials with Miss Lynch’s name, stating she was missing, and a thumb print from the girl’s drivers license was compared to make the identification.
Petry said Mrs. Major reported she had last heard from her daughter seven weeks ago and said the young woman had been visiting friends in Northern California. Attempts had been made to report her as a missing person, but because she was 22 no reports were taken by Northern California officers.

(My husband Frank graduated with Susan and cut out this newspaper article in about 1971. It's been in his yearbook all this time, and I remembered because it was so sad to hear about a fellow Crawford student -- Roberta Goss Marino '70)