A woman found dead along a California highway in 1996 has been identified as a mother of four, officials said.
The body found along Highway 60 in Moreno Valley has been identified as Juana Rosas-Zagal of Los Angeles, the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office said in a June 26 news release.
Decades after the woman’s body was found, her identity remained a mystery due to a “lack of investigative leads,” officials said.
Using advances in DNA technology, such as forensic investigative genetic genealogy, investigators were able to find a “close ancestral link.”
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
The “technology uses direct-to-consumer databases to explore the ancestral ties of unidentified homicide victims,” the district attorney’s office said.
By exploring databases, investigators said they found the woman’s four daughters, “who had nearly lost hope” of finding their mother.
In December 2022, the California Department of Justice confirmed the woman found along the highway nearly three decades ago was Rosas-Zagal, who was 41 when she died, according to officials.
“We’ve worked tirelessly on this investigation and are in a constant lookout for new information about Juana,” James Campos, the case’s supervising investigator, said in a video statement from the district attorney’s office. “We’re hoping her identification will bring about new investigative leads.”
Her death was ruled a homicide, but no suspect has been arrested, officials said.
“He destroyed my family. He didn’t kill only one person. He killed all of us,” one of Rosas-Zagal’s daughters said in the video statement. “I really want to know who killed my mother.”
Anyone with information about Rosas-Zagal is asked to contact detectives at 951-955-0740.
Moreno Valley is about 65 miles southeast of Los Angeles.