An elderly Scottsdale woman whose strangled body was found in Pinal County 36 years ago has finally been identified.

Thanks to the DNA Doe Project, the woman has been identified as Evelyn "Dottie" Lees, age 88 or 89, according to the Pinal County Sheriff's Office.

Lees’ body was found on June 28, 1988, in a remote area along State Route 79 just south of the U.S. 60.

“There was evidence to show the woman was likely a victim of homicide due to strangulation. The woman was believed to have died within the previous year and was buried in a clandestine grave,” PCSO stated Thursday in a press release.

Using the resources available at the time, detectives were unable to identify the body and the case went cold.

Earlier this year, PCSO was approached by the DNA Doe Project to assist with identifying Lees’ body through private DNA labs and genetic genealogists, “something that would otherwise have been cost-prohibitive for our agency,” PCSO stated.

“Mrs. Lees, who had been living in Scottsdale at the time of her death, was never reported missing and there is no death certificate on file. Investigative leads were identified; however, those individuals are also now deceased,” the PCSO release continued. “This investigation revealed this may have been a case of pension fraud, as there is evidence to suggest the investigative leads continued to collect Mrs. Lees’ benefits for almost 10 years after her death.”

Lees’ living relatives have been located and notified, PCSO stated.

“For an elderly grandmother to be the victim of a violent crime, and then to remain unidentified for 36 years is a tragedy,” Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb stated in the release. “We are grateful to the DNA Doe Project, its donors, and Dr. Bruce Anderson with the Pima County Office of the Medical Examiner who all helped give this woman some peace in death.”

The DNA Doe Project is a national 501(c)3 nonprofit corporation founded in 2017 to identify John and Jane Does using investigative genetic genealogy, the organization’s website stated.