(Courtesy photo) Images provided by investigators in the Katherine Alston case show, from left, a facial reconstruction done in 1993; another done in 2006; a third done in 2020; and a photo from Alston's wedding announcement in November 1967.

CONCORD – Sometime in mid- to late-summer 1971, the Alston family moved from their native Boston to Texas, where Mr. Alston’s extended family was from.

They arrived at Logan Airport, where they planned to meet “Kathy,” their daughter and sibling, but she never showed up. The family apparently didn’t think too much of it; Kathy, 26, probably changed her mind about moving to Texas with her family.

Neither her parents nor her siblings ever heard from Kathy again.

And nobody ever reported her as missing, authorities said.

But thanks to decades of dogged determination by a long, eclectic list of individuals and agencies from Texas to Virginia and Maine to New Hampshire, the reason nobody heard from Kathy is that she had been deceased since 1971 – the victim, according to authorities, of a homicide they estimate occurred between one and three months before a hunter discovered her body in thick brush off of Kilton Road in Bedford on Oct. 6, 1971.

(Courtesy photo) An undated photograph of Katherine "Kathy" Alston, who was identified Monday as the murder victim whose body was found in Bedford in 1971.

Now, investigators, buoyed by the development they had been seeking for five decades, are turning their attention to soliving mystery number two: Who killed Katherine Ann “Kathy” Alston?

If investigators and researchers apply the same level of determination to tracking down Kathy’s killer as they did in confirming her identity – and there’s no doubt they will – mystery number two will be solved sooner than later.

Despite the case being 51 years old, and, until now, lacking the victim’s identity, quite a bit is known about Katherine Ann “Kathy” Alston.

She was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts, in 1945, graduated from Dorchester High School in 1963 then attended classes at Boston University.

She was 22 when she married a fellow student, Ralph Lawson Garrett Jr., at the Second Church in Newton, Massachusetts, in November of 1967. The couple honeymooned in Jamacia, then moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts. They later divorced.

Alston and Garrett were already divorced when she was killed. Garrett is also deceased, and according to investigators, “there is no evidence to suggest the divorce was not amicable.”

At the time of her death, Alston was living at 36 Beacon St. in Boston. She had a roommate, identified as David Cormier, age unknown. Whether he is still living, and if so, where he is living, is also unknown.

According to a timetable of events in the Alston case, state police and representatives of the Chief Medical Examiner’s office consulted in 1993, and again in 2006, with experts in the field of clay facial reconstruction, a technique that creates an impression of her appearance.

Over time, advances in forensic science and associated technology were such that the state police Major Crime Unit approached the folks at the DNA Doe Project and, in 2020, a partnership was formed.

Using genetic geneaology, the scientists, in 2022, were able to discover a likely genetic match from Alston’s DNA profile with a “direct-to-consumer” DNA test that had been submitted by a member of Alston’s family from Texas.

Now that the identification is confirmed, authorities said that members of the Cold Case Unit are seeking assistance from the public as they work on identifying Alston’s killer.

Key people investigators would like to speak with include anyone who knew Alston or people with whom she was associated, including Cormier, her former roommate.

They said that people who are most likely to have known Alston or Cormier are those who lived in, or frequented, Boston, Dorchester and Somerville between 1963 and October 1971.

Students who attended Boston University between 1963 and 1967 may also remember Alston from their time on campus, authorities said.

They ask anyone with this information, or any other information regarding Alston’s murder, to contact the state’s Cold Case Unit at 271-2663 or coldcaseunit@dos.nh.gov.

Anyone with information can also use the online tip form at www.doj.nh.doj/criminal/cold-case.†

The same determination with which investigators worked to identify Alston is now being directed at finding her killer, according to Attorney General John Formella.

The work investigators are putting into the case “demonstrates our unwavering commitment to the pursuit of justice for Ms. Alston, her family, and for all New Hampshire crime victims,” Formella said.“We are determined to stay on this case and will work tirelessly with our law enforcement partners to follow any leads that may help us determine who might be responsible for Ms. Alston’s death,” he added.

In a joint announcement last Monday, meanwhile, Formella, the N.H. Department of Justice and the N.H. state police expressed gratitude to the investigators, researchers, scientists, genealogists and law enforcement personnel whose teamwork made identifying Katherine Alston possible.

They also emphasized the critical role of the DNA Doe Project, an all-volunteer, California-based nonprofit founded in 2017 with a mission to identify John and Jane Does and return them to their families.

Officials “extend their deepest thanks to the genetic geneaologists and volunteers of the DNA Doe Project for their assistance in making this identification possible,” they wrote.

Crucial contributions also came from the following.

• The office of state Medical Examiner Jennie Duval

• Dr. Marcella Sorg, a research professor in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Maine

• Dr. Amy Michael, professor of Cold Case and Forensic Anthropology courses at University of New Hampshire

• Professor Joseph Mullins, George Mason University

• Detective Sgt. Amy Erlandson-LaPointe, Boston Police Department Unsolved Homicide Squad

• University of North Texas Health Science Center

• National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

• Astrea Forensics, San Francisco-based forensic genome sequencing service lab

• HudsonAlpha Discovery, Huntsville, Alabama-based genomic research lab

• Saber Investigations, Belton, Texas-based investigations firm

• GEDmatch, San Diego-based public DNA database

• Family Tree DNA, Houston-based commercial genetic testing firm

• Austin, Texas Police Homicide Cold Case/Missing Persons Unit

Dean Shalhoup may be reached at 594-1256 or dshalhoup@nashuatelegraph.com.

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