Human remains found nearly 40 years ago have been identified as belonging to Frank “Frankie” Little Jr., a member of the R&B band The O’Jays.

According to the Twinsburg Police Department in Ohio, DNA from relatives was used to help identify the remains.

Little’s remains were found on February 18, 1982 in a garbage bag behind a business in Twinsburg. The circumstances behind his death are still unknown, but it is being ruled as a homicide.

Little was raised in Cleveland, according to the news release. In the mid-’60s, he was a guitarist and songwriter for The O’Jays. He worked with lead vocalist and co-founder Eddie Levert on a handful of songs, including 1964’s “Do the Jerk,” 1966’s “Pretty Words,” and 1967’s “Oh, How You Hurt Me”.

“Frankie was a guitarist and songwriter in the very early O’Jays,” the band said in a statement. “He came with us when we first ventured out of Cleveland and traveled to Los Angeles, but he also was in love with a woman in Cleveland that he missed so much that he soon returned back to Cleveland after a short amount of time.”

They added, “That was in the mid 1960s and we had not heard from him after then. Although this sounds like a tragic ending, we wish his family and friends closure to what appears to be a very sad story.”

(Photo: DNA Doe Project)

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