The FBI recently matched the fingerprints of a man who killed himself following a police chase in 1997 in Arizona with those of Michael E. Reapp, a Coast Guard Academy dropout who worked as a postman in Mystic and is suspected of murdering his wife and daughter in 1978.

Vermont State Police fear Reapp may have taken to his grave the whereabouts of the former Grace Canto, who grew up in Stonington Village, and her daughter, Gracie, both of whom police believe Reapp killed.

Both investigators and Juliana Woodworth of North Franklin, Grace's sister, held out hope that Reapp might someday be located and divulge information that could resolve the case.

State police in Vermont said Tuesday the identity of a man who killed himself after leading Arizona police on a chase was unknown for years until the FBI recently matched the fingerprints taken from the body with those of Reapp.

Grace Reapp was 32 years old and her daughter, Gracie, was 5 when Reapp reported them missing from their Jericho, Vt., home in 1978. Woodworth and police in Vermont have long believed that Reapp was responsible for their disappearance.

In 1998 the case was classified as an open homicide, and Reapp had been sought for questioning. He was charged in June 2006 with two counts of murder.

Reapp said he discovered his wife and daughter missing when he came home from work on June 6, 1978. Five days later, he reported their disappearance. Ten days later, he filed for divorce, telling his sons, then 11 and 8, that their mother and sister were living with family. He remarried four months after the divorce was final to a woman with whom he had allegedly been having an affair.

Police have scoured the former Reapp property in Jericho for evidence over the years, conducting an extensive search in October 1996. During the search, a reporter phoned Michael Reapp for comment in Florida, where he had moved his family in 1983.

After talking to the reporter, Reapp left his family and fled the area. Several months later, police found his car at a New Orleans airport.

In 2006, police were able to establish enough probable cause to charge him with the murders of Grace and Gracie Reapp, according to Vermont State Police Detective Lt. David Covell, but some of the information on the fingerprint card was mislabeled, and it took a while to match it to Reapp.

"When we felt that we were kind of at a stand-still with what we could do, we asked the FBI for their assistance with it, and they were recently able to track this John Doe in Arizona," he said.

Vermont State Police still believe that the remains of the two victims are on the former 10-acre Reapp property or in the heavily wooded area surrounding it, Covell said.

"Although Mr. Reapp is deceased, this is still an active and ongoing investigation. We remain committed to finding the remains of Grace and Gracie Reapp," Covell said.

Police are working with a team of experts including an archaeologist and an anthropologist to evaluate further searches, which can be labor-intensive.

"Sometimes it just goes back to digging holes in the ground," said Detective Sgt. Ed Meslin.

Information from the Associated Press was used in this report.