It's possible one has STR DNA and the other mitochondrial DNA, which aren't compatible. If Elms has family reference samples, depending on the relationships and the number of samples, it might have indicated the possibility of a match but not certainty, in which case they would have had to follow up to either confirm the identity through other channels or locate additional family members who might be able to give additional samples.
Sometimes there are budget issues, backlogs, no personnel available to work on cold cases, etc. A friend in LE has told me there is little if any money available in his department for DNA testing except for active major felonies. The missing persons cases he has been working on won't be touched until the middle of next summer. Unless there's a family member pushing for an identification, it's pretty common for something like this to be pushed onto the back burner.
