ST. PAUL — Investigators in Minnesota say they’ve finally identified a woman slain by a state trooper nearly 35 years ago.

The body of 18-year-old Michelle Yvette Busha was identified over the weekend thanks to DNA testing. Busha has been buried anonymously in Riverside Cemetery in Blue Earth, in southern Minnesota, for the past three decades.

Busha, of Bay City, Texas, was hitchhiking when she was assaulted and slain, with her body dumped in a ravine along Interstate 90 near Blue Earth. She had been strangled.

Authorities said Robert Leroy Nelson, a Minnesota state trooper at the time, confessed to Busha’s death. He is serving a life sentence in Texas.