The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department used DNA testing and Investigative Genetic Genealogy to identify the woman, whose body was found in 1986
Investigators in San Diego have made a major breakthrough in a decades-old cold case after positively identifying a woman’s remains, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department announced.
Through DNA testing and Investigative Genetic Genealogy (IGG), investigators were able to identify a dead body found near campsites on Los Coyotes Indian Reservation in Warner Spring as missing woman Claudette Jean Zebolsky Powers, the department said in a news release.
Powers’ family members said they last heard from her after her father passed away in September, 1984, and she had been missing for 37 years.
The Sheriff’s Cold Case Team were able to identify her remains by comparing a sample of her hair with profiles available on commercial websites and by researching census records, obituaries and other public information to track down any genetic relatives.
The process led investigators to Claudette’s daughters, sister and mother, and a DNA sample from the family confirmed their genetic match. After being notified, the family said they wanted to search for answers on how she died.
“It’s been really hard on our family,” Claudette’s sister Laura Freese said in the release. “Somebody knows what happened. A neighbor, anybody that knew her knows what happened. If you are still alive and you knew my sister and you knew what happened to her, please come forward. Please, we need closure.”
Now that Claudette has been identified, the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department said that the next step is to put together what happened.
“We have to reconstruct her life back in the ’80s,” San Diego Sheriff’s Office Sergeant Tim Chandler told NBC News. “Where she worked. Where she lived. Who her friends were. Was she dating anybody?”
So far, their investigation has found that she lived with her husband in Washington State in the early 1980s until she left him and then moved to San Diego County around 1983. Police officials said she “likely lived in the San Diego or Escondido area” until her murder on or near February, 1986 and she likely worked in a restaurant in the area.
However, Claudette’s body wasn’t the only one discovered near the reservation. Another male body was found in the same area, and police officials said that the two cases are “possibly” connected.
“They were the same age, they were dressed similar — wearing jackets, thermal jackets,” Detective Lisa Brannan of the sheriff’s office told NBC San Diego. “So we think they may have been together but it’s not an area where you typically find people. It’s a really remote area.”
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is offering $1,000 for information on Claudette’s death that may lead to an arrest. Any tips can be called into the Sheriff’s Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330.