#unidentified-remains

#unidentified-remains

On Aug. 13, 1998, the decomposed body of a female in her 30s was found in shrubbery in a ravine off the 1300 block of Avocado Avenue in El Cajon, a suburb of San Diego. The woman was found wearing a blue "Woodruff Warriors 20-year reunion 1971-1991" T-shirt, black shoes, white socks, and a silver herringbone bracelet. She was described as a 5-foot-2-inch white or Hispanic female weighing 110 pounds. The case was determined to be a homicide, but efforts to identify her were unsuccessful.

In 2013, a Redding cleanup crew discovered a human skull in a patch of blackberry bushes along an irrigation canal. Despite a rigorous investigation, the remains were left unidentified for over a decade - until last month, when a laboratory identified the skull as that of a Bay Area woman whose family hadn't heard from her in years. The skull was found by workers in March 2013 near the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District canal, according to a statement posted by the Shasta County Sheriff's Office on social media Friday.

Despite a five-year investigation and a comparison of the skeleton's DNA against the national DNA database, detectives have not been able to confirm her identity. Bone-mineral tests were also conducted in a bid to try to determine a rough location for where she grew up. A number of theories are still being considered, including that she was illegally exhumed after a possible family inheritance feud or some kind of personal grudge.

Police are asking New Yorkers for help identifying skeletal remains found along the Jackie Robinson Parkway in Brooklyn's Cypress Hills area earlier this month. Department of Transportation workers found the human remains off a grassy area near the Jackie Robinson Parkway westbound Exit 1 on Aug. 6, according to the NYPD. Police described the victim as female, possibly Black or Hispanic and approximately 20 to 30 years of age.

"After more than 40 years, using advanced DNA testing and forensic genetic genealogy, the remains have been positively identified as Patricia Ann Hertel, who was presumed drowned in 1981."