Ending a mystery that began in 1989, authorities identified the dismembered body dumped beside a rural road in western Massachusetts as those of Constance Bassignani, a former resident of Franklin, and called her now-dead husband, William Bassignani, as a person of interest in her murder.Her identity had eluded investigators since the remains were discovered in Warwick, just south of the New Hampshire border, despite the efforts of generations of investigators. The announcement was made Thursday by the Northwestern District Attorney’s office along with State Police investigators.Bassignani’s identity was discovered with the help of Othram, a laboratory in Texas that was able to match DNA from the remains to a distant relative. Police confirmed her identity by comparing her DNA to that of a daughter of hers living on the West Coast. WCVB was given behind-the-scenes access to parts of the investigation on the condition that Bassignani’s identity be first revealed by authorities.“Even if we never identify who did this to Constance, at least she's not just human remains. She's a person. She has dignity. People loved her. So to whatever extent we can bring some measure of closure or justice to them, that's what motivates us,” First Assistant District Attorney Steven Gagne told 5 Investigates before the press conference.The process to identify the Warwick remains started around last August, when the DA, along with the State Police Crime lab, sent a piece of bone to Othram, a lab in Texas specializing in forensic genetic genealogy.Othram had a report on the Warwick case in November, and WCVB was there in December when when investigators talked through the results in a video call.Othram had found a distant cousin, explained the lab's founder and CEO, David Mittelman. It was someone whose DNA was in the same family tree as the person whose remains were left in Warwick.Using publicly available databases, Othram constructed as much of the family tree as they could, going back to the 1870s."We used those matches to trace back to a common ancestor," Mittelman said on the call.The genealogical research performed by Othram also found a potential clue."We did actually come across somebody that is unaccounted for," Mittelman said. "The person Constance."They were referring to Constance Holminski, born in Hawaii in 1924. But she seemed to have disappeared. There was no evidence that she was still alive, and there was no record of her death."We can't tell you for sure this is the person, but that this person was unaccounted for, and at one point or another was documented as having been in Massachusetts. There's speculation she may have relocated but no record, and more importantly, no death records to document anything about when she may have died," Mittelman said.It could mean the records are incomplete, he continued. Or, "This could be a candidate for a person who has gone missing and it could be the person to which you have found the remains." The investigators had a question, though. An expert with the medical examiner's office estimated that the remains belonged to a woman younger than Constance, who would have been around 65 years old."The anthropologist opined back in the late 1980s that the approximate age was, I think, 30 to 51, I believe," Mass. State Police Capt. Jeffrey Cahill said.Mittelman said to believe in the science."The promise of genetics here is that you get precision," he said.To know for sure if the remains were Constance's, police would have to get a DNA sample from a close relative. Working off the family tree sketched out by Othram, police were able to find a daughter of Constance's from her first marriage in Hawaii and get a DNA sample from her that confirmed her identity.They also tracked down other relatives who pieced together more of the family history.Constance married William in Hawaii in 1945, and they lived for a time in his native Franklin. At some point the couple moved to an apartment in Woonsocket, Rhode Island. That's where she was living when she disappeared in 1989.A grandchild remembered seeing her around the time of Memorial Day weekend of that year – the last time she was known to have been seen, Gagne said.After being told about her fate, Gagne said the family’s reaction was mixed.“Obviously being upset — it’s very disturbing to hear that someone did this to her, but also I think it sort of cleared up that cloud of mystery that why would she just up and leave? I think her family never thought that was like her. She was a very loving and very involved person. In fact, one of her grandchildren reports that she would write letters to him almost daily or weekly. And that suddenly and abruptly stopped in 1989," Gagne said.The conversations with family members also yielded a potential clue.They recalled her husband telling people that she had left to go back to the West Coast or Hawaii “and that, according to him, they wouldn't be seeing her again,” Gagne said.“His claims that Constance had left for the West Coast, certainly, were ominous and misleading. So that would at least make him a strong person of interest in Constance’s death,” Gagne said.William Bassignani’s obituary indicates he was an Army veteran and union ironworker. The obituary, written four years after his wife’s disappearance, said he was “survived by his wife Constance K. Holminski of California.” He died in 1993.The remains were identified thanks to forensic genetic genealogy, which combines cutting-edge DNA technology with genetic research and police investigations. By being able to find potential matches between a DNA sample from, say, a crime scene, with the DNA of even a distant relative, it can give investigators a family tree from which to find the individual they are trying to identify.It holds promise to identify perpetrators of crimes like rape and murder, where there is no direct match to identify the offender’s DNA, as well as to identify human remains.It has already been used in Massachusetts to identify alleged rapist Matthew Nilo and convicted serial rapist Ivan Keith, and identify the human remains found in Provincetown in 1974, known for decades only as The Lady of the Dunes, as belonging to Ruth Marie Terry.The same DA’s office and state police investigators who announced the identity of Bassignani had used forensic genetic genealogy to solve a similar mystery last year, identifying remains found in 1978 and known as Granby Girl as being Patricia Ann Tucker.“Now that we know Constance’s identity, who she was married to at the time she disappeared, and where she lived, we are hopeful there may be someone out there who knows something, no matter how seemingly small or insignificant, that could help push this investigation forward," Gagne said. Anyone with information or tips should call the MSP Detective Unit attached to the Northwestern DA’s Office: 413-512-5361