Abandoned daughters of 1989 cold case homicide victim found

MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. (TCN) -- Investigators recently found the two daughters of a cold case victim who was found fatally stabbed and nude nearly 36 years ago.

According to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office, on Dec. 12, 1989, the victim's body was discovered on Old Temple Bar Road. Investigators determined she had been killed at the scene. Despite investigators' efforts to identify the victim, her identity remained unknown, and the case went cold.

Authorities retrieved the victim's fingerprints in February 2022 and found they were a match for Maria Ortiz out of Bakersfield, California. The sheriff's office noted that the prints were obtained from a shoplifting arrest.

The Kern County Sheriff's Office reportedly arrested Ortiz in June 1989. A friend of Ortiz claimed that her cousin, Marina Ramos, had been missing since 1989, and investigators learned Ortiz was an alias used by Ramos. According to the sheriff's office, a physical description also matched the physical description of the cold case victim.

Authorities said that at the time she was last seen, Ramos had two young daughters, 2-month-old Jasmin and 14-month-old Elizabeth. According to the sheriff's office, investigators worked to locate the girls, and family members of Ramos provided DNA buccal swabs.

On Aug. 27, officials found a woman who was a likely match and contacted her. She reportedly said that she and her sister were abandoned in a park in Oxnard, California, in December 1989. The sheriff's office said they called her sister and corroborated the statement. The sisters submitted DNA buccal swabs for comparison, and it was confirmed that they are Elizabeth and Jasmin, the daughters of Ramos.

Upon further investigation, the sheriff's office also learned the girls were left in a park restroom two days after Ramos' body was discovered. A witness reportedly heard the children crying, and they were found on the wet floor with no adult nearby. Child Protective Services took custody of the victim's kids. They were later placed into foster care and adopted by a couple in Ventura County, where they were "raised together in a loving home."

The sheriff's office noted that the search for a suspect continues. A witness in the area told authorities that she saw a woman and two men with the victim's children at the park.

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