Wisconsin police have cracked the 65-year-old cold case of a missing Michigan boy thanks to DNA evidence.

The boy's adpotive mother admitted to killing her son, but investigators could not tie the case to skeletal remains found in 1959 until now.

A cold case from 1959 involving a missing 7-year-old came to a conclusion last week through DNA identification, decades after charges against the boy's adoptive parents were dropped for lack of physical evidence.

Authorities in southeastern Wisconsin have identified the remains of a child found in 1959 in a Wisconsin culvert, closing a 65-year-old cold case with the help of genetic genealogy. The Ozaukee County Sheriff’s Office announced that the remains belong to Chester A.

The case also is one of the latest examples of how DNA identification has become a powerful tool worldwide for law enforcement to close old cases.