Human remains identified as mother who was not reported missing for 6 years: police

RURAL HALL, N.C. (WKRC) – Skeletal human remains discovered in a wooded area in 2019 were reportedly identified as a mother who was not reported missing for over six years.

The remains were discovered on September 10, 2019 by a hunter travelling through a wooded area, according to a release from the Forsyth County Sheriff’s Office. No identifying evidence was discovered near the remains, but a forensic anthropologist determined the bones had likely been in the woods for around seven months.

On December 31, 2025, over six years after the remains were discovered, the DNA Doe Project identified the remains as 43-year-old Maria del Socorro Medina Trejo, a mother who lived “just a short distance from where her remains were found,” per the release.

During a press conference attended by local outlet WXII, Forsyth County Sheriff Sergeant Chris King said that Trejo had not been reported missing in the six years since her death. He did not provide further information about her disappearance or the ongoing investigation into her death.

In a press release from the DNA Doe Project, the organization said that the discovery came after it contacted someone who may be related to the previously unidentified remains, but that person said they didn’t know about missing family members.

“A few months later, he was at a family function when he learned about a distant relative who had gone missing,” the release read.

Trejo’s cause of death, the circumstances surrounding her death, and the reason she was not reported missing were not revealed.