A body found in a New York cornfield in 1979 has been identified as that of a Brooksville teenager.

Tammy Jo Alexander, who was born in 1963, went missing between 1977 and 1979. Alexander was a student at Hernando High School.

Alexander's family had never reported her as a missing person to any law enforcement agency.

Officials said her disappearance was finally reported in August 2014, when a former classmate and friend, Laurel Nowell, who now lives in Arizona, called the Hernando County Sheriff's Office to report her as missing.

Investigators contacted Alexander's stepsister, Sharen Nelson of Lakeland, and confirmed that Alexander was missing and that her family had never reported it to authorities.

Deputies said Alexander's half-sister, Pamela Dyson of Panama City, was also contacted and confirmed that her half-sister had been missing since sometime between 1977 and 1979.

Officials said investigators entered Alexander's information into the Florida Crime Information Center database and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

On Jan. 7, deputies were notified of an unidentified deceased female whose DNA matched that of Alexander.

According to the Livingston County Sheriff's Office, the body of a female between the ages of 13 and 19 was found on Nov. 10, 1979 in a cornfield, and that she had been the victim of a homicide.