Nearly 40 years after a human skeleton was found by a man working in a field near Toronto, police have come up with a positive identity.

A facial reconstruction of the victim who police have identified after receiving a tip from a family member.
(OPP)

Cold case investigators went to the media in November with models and photographs of two suspected murder victims found in different parts of Ontario, but believed to be linked to the same killer.

Ontario Provincial Police now have the name of one of the two victims in this decades-old mystery after receiving a call from a surviving family member.

Insp. Dave Quigley said the OPP are "very excited" about the break in the case.

About 30 tips came in after they unveiled facial reconstructions, which showed two young brown-haired men.

Blood tests showed match

Officers narrowed it down to four solid tips, then followed up by asking at least one apparent family member to submit a blood sample. 

Tests showed the person matched one of the victims.

Police plan to release the name of the victim at a news conference in Orillia on Tuesday afternoon, hoping the public will be able to help them trace the victim's last steps.

The victim's remains were found lying against a wire fence in May 1968 by a man plowing a field in Tecumseth Township near Schomberg, Ont., about 40 kilometres north of Toronto.

In a press release on the case, investigators described the man as between 18 and 25 years old.

Awaiting tests on second victim

Investigators are waiting on DNA tests on blood samples for the second victim as well, and are hoping it might lead to his positive identification.

OPP are waiting for the results on tests that may help identify the second victim, who is shown in the facial reconstruction above.
(OPP)

His body was found in December 1967 in Balsam Lake Provincial Park, about 150 kilometres north of Toronto.

Investigators believe both victims may be linked to attacks in 1967 when two young men were picked up in Toronto's "gay village" area, then taken to rural areas outside the city and molested.

An arrest was made in those cases but no one has been convicted.