A positive identification was made through DNA testing at a Pennsylvania laboratory this week and the results sent to the Maine Medical Examiner's Office and detectives Thursday, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said.
The Maine Medical Examiner's Office determined that Wardwell's death was a homicide, but the cause is not being made public at this point in the investigation, he said.
Kitty Wardwell was 29 when she disappeared 28 years ago. Her body was found inside an unplugged freezer in a storage locker rented by Lewiston resident Francis "Frank" Julian since 1992.
Wardwell and Julian shared her No. 3 apartment at the Greenwood Gardens Apartments on Route 1A in Holden in 1983, McCausland said.
He died at the age of 80 on Oct. 1, and Wardwell's body was found Oct. 22 at Moore Self Storage on Lisbon Street when relatives cleaned out Julian's rented locker.
Positive ID was made using DNA testing at a laboratory in Pennsylvania. Maine Public Safety Spokesman Steve McCausland says Wardwell's family was told Friday morning.
The storage unit was rented by Wardwell's boyfriend, Frank Julian. He died in October at age 80. Police say Julian was the last person to see Wardwell alive.
Wardwell was 29-years-old when she vanished in 1983.
State Police say detectives are going to continue to interview Julian's relatives to try and find out where the freezer came from and when he put it in the storage unit. Julian began renting the storage space in 1992.
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