By Dominique Debucquoy-Dodley, CNN

updated 7:35 PM EDT, Tue September 25, 2012

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- DNA evidence links a now-dead American convict to the murder of a Canadian teenager who disappeared in 1974, authorities in British Columbia said Tuesday.

Bobby Jack Fowler, who died in an Oregon prison in 2006, is responsible for the murder of 16-year-old Colleen MacMillen, Inspector Gary Shinkaruk of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police said at a news conference.

Authorities said while the case is closed on MacMillen's death, investigations continue into the abductions and killings of other women in the same region of Canada, and the search is still on for information in those cases.

"Today's announcement and public plea for assistance is a significant milestone in our commitment to solving a series of missing and murdered women investigations in British Columbia," said Deputy Commissioner Craig Callens, commanding officer of the RCMP in British Columbia

On August 9, 1974, MacMillen disappeared near Highway 97 in Lac La Hache, British Columbia, according to Shinkaruk. She was found dead 47 kilometers (about 29 miles) south of her last known location.

A DNA profile of an unknown male was established in 2007 from evidence in her case, but Canada's National Crime Scene Databank did not turn up a match, Shinkaruk said. A higher quality sample was submitted to INTERPOL in 2012, and the new sample was matched with Fowler.

The development brings a close to one of 18 open cases in British Columbia involving women who went missing, with some later found murdered, stretching back to 1969. The cases are being investigated by a task force named Project E-Pana.

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Canadian police: DNA links now-dead U.S. prison inmate to 1974 murder of teen