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In December 1989, tourists got lost in Arizona A shocking discovery was made in the desert – a woman’s body, naked and covered in blood.
Separately, about 400 miles west, What appear to be two abandoned girls Found in a park toilet, no clues were found as to their origin.
These mysteries, formed just two days apart, remained completely unrelated cases for 36 years – a woman murdered in a most brutal manner, and two children who could never be found.
But earlier this year, a cold case detective Arizona Were successful in identifying the woman. The search uncovered a series of clues spanning the country, and ultimately revealed the heritage of the two girls in what investigators called a “miracle”.
talking to USA TodayDetective Lori Miller said the case of Jane Doe, found with her throat cut in the Arizona desert, was the first she took on after joining the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office in 2019.
She resubmitted the fingerprints collected at that time to the FBI and received a possible identification match, a woman named Maria Ortiz from Bakersfield, California. Working closely with Bakersfield police, she managed to locate someone listed as a “friend” of Ortiz, who lived in Tennessee.
When she called the woman, she said she did not know Maria Ortiz, but that she had a cousin named Marina Ramos, who had been missing since 1989. Ramos, she said, had two young daughters who had not been seen for 36 years.
The investigation of Miller’s unsolved murder has now also become a missing persons case. he told USA Today People told her that she would never find the two young girls, who were presumed dead.
“But this was my white whale,” she said. “I never stopped working on it.”
Eventually, Miller was able to locate Ramos’s sister and a daughter who was five years older than the missing girls and who was raised by her grandmother. While sifting through DNA tests, three years ago she came across news she never expected – a half-sister, one of the girls found on the floor of the park’s restroom all those years ago.
“My heart stopped,” Miller said. USA Today“I thought, ‘Holy cow.’
The girls, who were adopted and named Tina and Melissa, were called and informed about their rediscovered identities under their birth names Jasmine and Elizabeth Ramos. He was told that he was adopted in his teens, but had always assumed that his mother had abandoned him, leaving no clue as to his heritage.
“I told them, ‘No,’ she was a murder victim two days earlier,” Miller said. “That brought them some comfort.”
Ramos’ family called it a “miracle”, after which they are now planning a family reunion with their long-lost relatives.
But Miller is determined to track down the killer who so cruelly left Ramos in the desert. Little evidence was collected at the scene, but a clue was found in the toilet where the girls were left.
according to USA TodayA few days after Ramos was found, witnesses reported seeing two Hispanic men and a Hispanic woman get out of a black mini pickup truck with the girls and were later seen leaving without them.
“I’ve got the girls, but now I want justice for Marina,” Miller said. “I have to find out who did this terrible thing to him.”