DNA Identifies Hanson Mother Sandra Crispo’s Remains Found in Plymouth

DNA has done what six years of searching could not: it identified the remains found in Plymouth last year as Sandra Crispo, the Hanson mother and grandmother who disappeared in August 2019. The match, confirmed by FBI testing through CODIS, shifts the case from an unidentified-remains mystery to a confirmed death investigation.

The breakthrough began on March 6, 2025, when a hunter found part of a human skull on a deer trail near Route 3 North in Plymouth, close to the breakdown lane between exits 13 and 14. The Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, the FBI, and investigators with the Plymouth County District Attorney’s Office worked the remains through forensic testing until the DNA hit finally came back as Crispo.

Crispo was 54 when she was last seen on August 7, 2019, and she was reported missing two days later, on August 9. She had recently moved from Quincy to Hanson, about three months before she vanished, so she could be closer to her daughter, Laina McMahon, and her three grandsons. That family connection made the disappearance hit differently from the start: this was not a woman who drifted away from a disconnected life, but someone anchored to a tight circle of relatives who knew something was wrong fast.

The scene at her home at 47 Spofford Ave. only deepened the alarm. Family members found the lights and air conditioning still on, the back door unlocked, and her dog inside without food or water. Boston 25 reported that her son-in-law was the last known person to see her alive, after dropping her off on August 7, 2019, following a stop at a local mechanic. Surveillance also captured Crispo at a Cumberland Farms buying cigarettes before she vanished.

Hanson police said in 2019 that they did not suspect foul play, but the family kept pressing hard questions about what happened in those final hours. Earlier reporting noted that Crispo had no cell phone or computer, making her silence even more out of character, and her daughter has said the identification at least brings hope that the family may still learn more about the final sequence of events.

For investigators, the identification opens a narrower path. The remains are no longer a nameless fragment in a lab file. They are Sandra Crispo, and that means the next phase can focus on cause, circumstance, trace evidence, and whether the 2019 timeline needs to be re-read from the start. Officials say the case remains active, with searches, interviews, forensic testing, and records reviews still part of the file.