DNA Links Sisters Abandoned In 1989 To Woman Brutally Murdered In Arizona Desert

Investigators in Arizona made an astonishing announcement in one of the state’s oldest cold cases. Two sisters missing since 1989 were found alive in California after their mother was murdered in the desert more than 30 years ago. The shocking end of the 36-year-old case reopened investigators’ efforts to find the killer or killers of Marina Ramos.

In the pre-dawn hours of December 12, 1989, a young woman’s body was discovered in Mohave County, Arizona. She had been stabbed multiple times in the neck, left nude off Old Temple Bar Road, about 50 miles south of Las Vegas. The woman was unidentified, and the case went cold quickly. No one knew at the time the woman was 29-year-old Marina Ramos, from Bakersfield, California – nor that Ramos had disappeared with her two young daughters, Elizabeth, 14 months, and Jasmin, 2 months, until days later when a passerby heard crying coming from a public restroom at a local park. A woman who entered the restroom found two baby girls on the wet bathroom floor, with no adult in sight. The babies ended up in protective custody and eventually adopted together by a couple in Ventura County, having first been placed in foster care.

For years, Marina’s body remained a Jane Doe, and her daughters were listed as missing. In 2019, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office created a Special Investigations Unit to examine unsolved cases. In 2022, detectives revisited the Jane Doe case and resubmitted the woman’s fingerprints (preserved at the time of her murder), to NamUs, for FBI analysis. The prints matched those of a woman arrested by Bakersfield police in 1989 and using the alias “Maria Ortiz.” Digging deeper, detectives discovered that Ortiz was actually Marina Ramos. Jane Doe had a name, but her daughters were still missing.

Investigators made public appeals since 2023 using press releases, social media campaigns, and television coverage to generate any possible leads. Ramos’s family members also submitted DNA samples for analysis. However, this summer everything changed when investigators located a woman in California who was a strong DNA match to Ramos’s family. In a phone call with detectives, the woman explained that she and her sister had been abandoned in the restroom of a park bathroom as infants in December 1989. The woman’s sister corroborated the account and produced clippings from newspapers at the time. DNA testing later confirmed investigators’ hopes, and women known in their adoptive family as Tina and Melissa, were in fact Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos.

While the discovery of the sisters is a relief for investigators, Ramos’s murder is still unsolved. A witness in 1989 remembered seeing her in the Oxnard park with her daughters, two Hispanic men, and a Hispanic woman. The group was spotted near a compact black pickup truck. Detectives also released a sketch of a man they only know as “Fernando,” though no one has ever been arrested.

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office stated: “While we are excited to announce that one part of this 36-year-old mystery has been solved, the search for the suspects involved in the homicide of Marina Ramos continues.” Those with information can call 928-753-0753 ext. 4408.