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Remains of a woman killed by Gary Ridgway, the "Green River Killer" convicted of killing 49 women, were identified 30 years after she went missing thanks to DNA evidence provided by her family, authorities said on Monday, according to Reuters.

Cold case detectives with the King County Sheriff's Department identified the previously unnamed remains of one of Ridgway's victims as Sandra Denise Major, whose body was found in the Mountain View Cemetery in Auburn, Washington, about 30 miles southeast of Seattle on December 30, 1985.

Major was identified through DNA provided by a cousin who contacted the sheriff's office in April after watching a made-for-television movie about the Green River murders.

Major had moved to the Seattle area from Rochester, but her family was unaware of where she had gone.

Major's family said they last saw the young woman in New York in 1982 and "were aware of the lifestyle Sandra lived but she was still part of our family," they said in a written statement issued by the King County Sheriff's Department.

"We received a letter from her in 1982 with a Seattle postmark but no return address," Major's family said. "We never heard from her again and did not know what happened to her."

Ridgway "did confess to this woman's homicide, but he didn't know her name," Ian Goodhew, a King County prosecutor, said. "Evidence does suggest that she was working as a prostitute."