A torso found at a Wright City rest area in 2004 has been identified as Deanna D. Howland, a 35-year-old Alton, Ill., woman.Warren County Sheriff Kevin Harrison released the woman’s identity Tuesday. The Major Case Squad of Greater St. Louis has been activated and authorities from both Missouri and Illinois are currently investigating the case.DNA samples taken from relatives of Howland helped identify the torso, Harrison reported.“It wasn’t that there was a big break but persistence on the part of investigators,” Harrison told The Record. “We had a detective in Madison County (Ill.) still tracking down leads on a missing person. We had (Lt. Matt) Schmutz on our end looking. . .there was a whole lot to filter through.”The headless, handless and legless torso was found June 28, 2004, by a maintenance worker trimming brush in the westbound Interstate 70 rest area.She was last seen in the spring of 2004 and had been estranged from her family and friends, according to Harrison. She was also known as Deanna Denise Barker, Deanna Denise Kinnear and Deanna Denise Froehl. She had worked as a prostitute.Over the years authorities have speculated that the woman was killed elsewhere and then her body was dumped at the rest area. Harrison said that belief still remains due to the violent dismemberment of her body.“It was a clean crime scene,” he remarked. “We know that was not the crime scene where that happened.”The woman’s head, arms and legs have never been found, authorities said. The only clues authorities had to use was that the woman had a C-section and appendectomy scars.She was referred to as “Jane Doe” and buried at an undisclosed location in the county. In 2005, then Warren County Coroner Roger Mauzy was named the woman’s next of kin.“I’m really happy it worked out,” Mauzy told The Record. “It bugged me for the last 12 years. We have the identification, now let’s see them go to work and find a suspect who mutilated this young lady.”When the torso was discovered, the Major Case Squad spent several weeks tracking down leads. It was activated two other times to reevaluate the case and process new leads and information, Harrison said.Finally in 2014 Schmutz, a Warren County deputy, reopened the case and began tracking missing persons cases. He began communicating with a detective from Madison County, Ill., about a possible missing person case there.An initial DNA test showed similarities between two samples from the torso and Howland’s sibling. Additional tests were conducted from samples obtained from other family members to confirm the woman’s identity, Harrison said.Anyone with knowledge of Howland or any possible circumstances surrounding her disappearance are encouraged to call the sheriff’s department at 636-456-4332, the Madison County Sheriff’s Department at 618-692-0871 or the St. Louis Regional Crime Stoppers Hotline at 1-866-371-8477.Deanna Howland