TWINSBURG, Ohio — Skeletal remains found nearly 40 years ago have been identified as those of a guitarist who once played with the R&B group The O’Jays and also co-wrote a few of their songs, investigators said.

Authorities used DNA and genealogical research to identify the remains of Frank “Frankie” Little Jr., which were found in a garbage bag in a wooded area behind a business in 1982, said Summit County Medical Examiner Lisa Kohler.

His death has now been ruled a homicide, but who killed him remains unknown, she said.

Little, who was born in Cleveland in 1943, played with the the O’Jays in the mid-1960s. He was not a founding member of the group that began in Canton, Ohio, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2005.

“Part of the mystery is over with, but we have no idea how he got there, how he disappeared or where he lived toward the end of his life,” Twinsburg detective Eric Hendershott said.