LEWISTON — State police said Friday that the body of a woman found in a freezer inside a Lewiston storage locker in October is that of Kitty Wardwell, who disappeared in 1983.

A positive identification was made through DNA testing at a Pennsylvania laboratory this week and the results sent to the Maine Medical Examiner’s Office and detectives Thursday, Stephen McCausland, spokesman for the Maine Department of Public Safety, said.

The Maine Medical Examiner’s Office determined that Wardwell’s death was a homicide, but the cause is not being made public at this point in the investigation, he said.

Kitty Wardwell was 29 when she disappeared 28 years ago. Her body was found inside an unplugged freezer in a storage locker rented by Lewiston resident Francis “Frank” Julian since 1992.

Wardwell and Julian shared her No. 3 apartment at the Greenwood Gardens Apartments on Route 1A in Holden in 1983, McCausland said.

He died at the age of 80 on Oct. 1, and Wardwell’s body was found Oct. 22 at Moore Self Storage on Lisbon Street when relatives cleaned out Julian’s rented locker.

When she disappeared, Julian told police in Salem, N.H., that he left her at a motel there after they got into a fight. An investigation led police to believe that Wardwell was likely the victim of foul play.

According to his online obituary, Julian attended John Bapst High School in Bangor where he played football. He later moved to Lewiston where he owned Julian’s Discount, a novelty store at 272 Main St.