The skeletal remains of a woman found in Plymouth last week were identified Wednesday by the Hennepin County Medical Examiners Office as those of a former University student.
Alise L. Mayer disappeared in May of 1980. She was 21 years old when she was last seen.
Sgt. Joel Franz of the Plymouth Police Department said identification listing her name was found with Mayer’s remains. The medical examiner’s office then positively identified the skeleton using dental records.
The cause and time of Mayer’s death have not been determined, according to medical examiners, but they and the police are still investigating.
Her remains were discovered June 5 by a boy looking for his brother’s stolen bicycle. The skeleton was covered with a thin layer of dirt in a heavily wooded area.
“The problem is that it’s a runoff area and we don’t know if she was buried or if the dirt just washed over her,” Franz said.
Mayer grew up in Illinois and moved to Minnesota in 1974. She had not been in contact with her family for several years before her disappearance. Sgt. Franz said that Mayer had a brother and a sister, but the police would not release any more information about her family.
Nina Sheperd, assistant director at University News Service, said Mayer was a sophomore in the College of Liberal Arts when she was last enrolled in the spring of 1978. She enrolled several more times, the last time in the fall of 1979, but each time cancelled her classes.
Mayer lived in the Uptown area when she was a University student, and police believe she still lived in the Minneapolis area when she disappeared. Police have no last known address for Mayer.