Boy found dead on California street in 1978 is identified through DNA: "Identifying his killer is the next step"

A teen boy found dead on a Southern California street 44 years ago has been identified as runaway whose disappearance was never reported, police said.

The body was discovered in a residential neighborhood of Long Beach on June 3, 1978. Investigators were unable to identify the teen and he was dubbed "John Doe 1978," the Long Beach Police Department said in a statement Wednesday. The homicide case eventually went cold.

Police said recent advances in DNA technology allowed authorities to finally identify the boy as Kenneth Nevada Williams, who was 15 years old when he ran away from his home in La Puente, east of Los Angeles, in 1978.