The Washington PostDemocracy Dies in Darkness

Genealogy tests give answers to family of woman missing for 47 years

Police now know that remains found in a ditch in McLean, Va., belong to Choubi Gildawie, who went missing in 1975, but they still haven’t found her killer

September 26, 2022 at 5:00 a.m. EDT
Veronique Duperly holds a photo of her sister, Patricia Agnes Gildawie, who went missing in February 1975. (Bill O'Leary/The Washington Post)

Veronique Duperly spent most of 1975 plastering posters of her younger sister’s high school yearbook picture onto street corners all around Fairfax County.

Next to the photo, she typed: “Missing 17-year-old Choubi Gildawie.”

“God, I remember putting them things up,” said Duperly, now 66. “Nobody ever called.”

Duperly said she lost hope decades ago that she would reunite with her sister, Patricia Gildawie, who went by the nickname “Choubi.”