Remains Identified As PA Teen Missing Since 1969: Police

WILKES-BARRE, PA — Pennsylvania State Police on Tuesday confirmed that human remains found nearly 10 years ago in Luzerne County have been identified as a Wilkes-Barre teenager who went missing more than five decades ago.

The remains of a girl previously known as Jane "Newport" Doe were discovered in November 2012 in a former Newport Township coal mining operation by people digging for relics, police said. Ten years later, the remains have been identified as 14-year-old Joan Marie Dymond.

According to state police, Dymond disappeared from Andover Street Park in Wilkes-Barre on June 25, 1969.

Police are now asking for the public's help in providing information that might lead to her killer.

"We never stopped pursuing answers, and this investigation remains very active," Captain Patrick Dougherty, commanding officer of Troop P, said in a news release. "After 53 years, the family of Joan Marie Dymond very much deserves closure. We will do everything in our power to see that they have it."

According to police, earlier examination of the remains determined they belonged to a female estimated to be in her mid-teens to early 20s. Authorities also determined she died of suspicious or "foul play" circumstances and likely died in the late 1960s.

State police submitted the victim's DNA profile to national databases for comparison to other profiles on record, but received only negative results. The remains were later submitted to Othram Inc. in March 2022 to undergo genetic genealogy testing.

Othram then provided troopers with possible family members of Jane "Newport" Doe, including the family of Joan Marie Dymond, who later provided DNA samples. When authorities compared those samples to the DNA profile of the remains found in 2012, lab results indicated that Jane "Newport" Doe was Dymond, police said.

Anyone with information regarding Dymond's disappearance should call the Pennsylvania State Police Shickshinny station at 570-542-4117.