MERIDEN (AP) -- New DNA testing has solved the mysteries of a skull found in Waterbury in 1981 and a man fatally struck on Interstate 91 in Meriden in 2008, State Police said Friday.

State police and other officials announced the new findings at the state crime lab in Meriden, saying they identified the two men as people reported missing by their families.

Both men's identities were confirmed by DNA testing done over the past few weeks, said Lt. J. Paul Vance, a state police spokesman.

Authorities said the skull belonged to Kenneth LaManna, of Waterbury, who was 30 when he went missing in 1980. The state's chief medical examiner, Dr. H. Wayne Carver II, said LaManna shot himself to death.

The new information in LaManna's case was developed after a detective in the state police Missing Persons Unit and a Waterbury police detective noticed similarities between the skull being found in 1981 and the missing person case of LaManna from 1980.

Forensic scientists then obtained DNA samples from the home of LaManna's mother, and they matched samples from the skull, state police said.

Police identified the man struck on the highway in 2008 as Phat Quy Mai, who was 50. Authorities have said he was struck while lying motionless on the roadway, and what exactly happened remains unclear.

Detectives couldn't identify Mai's body immediately after the accident, but sent information to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

State police received new information from the system in April and began investigating.

A detective met with Mai's family in Massachusetts and obtained DNA samples that matched samples from the man killed on the highway.

Continued here:
DNA testing solves two cold cases