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Remarkable Discovery: DNA links family to missing DC woman

Her case was cold until a DNA match led to a remarkable discovery.

WASHINGTON, D.C., USA — They called her Jane Doe nearly two decades ago. Now, that woman has a name: Allean Logan.

The mother of two vanished in 1999 and her family had not seen her since.

Her case was cold until a DNA match led to a remarkable discovery.

“This just devastated our family. I mean even coming in 18 years later, it still seems like it happened yesterday,” Henderson Long said.

The last place Logan was seen was at her home in Southeast D.C.

“Allean was very caring, she loved her kids,” Long recalled. “The family just loved Allean. Allean was loved by so many people.”

Long is Logan’s nephew and said his family searched and worried about the mother of two for nearly two decades.

“It’s so painful. What made it even more painful— what my aunt told me — was she really just lost hope,” Long told WUSA9.

WUSA9 Reporter Janice Park spoke with family members last year after Logan’s sisters gave detectives their DNA and hoped for a match.

In January 2019, the family got a match.

Long said police found his aunt’s body near DC’s Barnaby Terrace neighborhood in 2000 which was one year after Logan disappeared.

Logan’s remains were found about a mile and a half away from where she was last seen.

“This is another kicker, Mike. Allean— we know that Allean was murdered, but her death has been ruled undetermined,” Long said. “The body didn’t speak to homicide. They couldn’t — no trauma to the body. No signs or evidence of a struggle because they were all just remains. It was a year later when they found them.”

Police have not confirmed foul play to WUSA9, but Long believes his aunt’s disappearance was suspicious because she witnessed a murder.

“It was right after she talked about the homicide to detectives — that’s when she went missing,” he said.

Long said DNA technology put his family a step closer to closure as they now work toward answering the next question: what happened to Allean Logan?

The family is working to raise enough money to give Logan a proper memorial service.

CLICK HERE if you would like to donate or leave a message for the family.

If you would like to register your DNA in the database to find a missing family member, CLICK HERE.

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