COLD CASE: Jewish Community’s Help Sought to Identify Woman Found Murdered in 1989

Arizona authorities are turning to the Jewish community for help identifying a woman whose remains were discovered nearly four decades ago, after DNA analysis revealed she was 96 percent Ashkenazi Jewish — a genetic profile so distinctive that it has both narrowed the search and complicated it.

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office released new forensic renderings this week of a Jane Doe whose remains were found on November 24, 1989, off Interstate 40 near the Hualapai Mountains in northwestern Arizona.

The victim was a white woman estimated to be between 25 and 30 years old, standing 5-foot-5 and weighing approximately 115 pounds. She was found unclothed, with red polish on her fingernails and toenails. Days later, on December 2, a detective discovered a piece of a handmade white cloth with a blue and purple flower pattern on the ground near a tree at the scene, believed to have belonged to the victim.

Her DNA profile was entered into CODIS, the FBI’s national DNA database, in 2016. In 2021, detectives arranged for a Texas forensic lab to develop a profile suitable for the public genealogy databases GEDmatch and FamilyTreeDNA, both of which work with law enforcement on cold cases.

That is when investigators encountered an unusual obstacle.

“The victim was 96% Ashkenazi Jew, which made it extremely difficult to trace her ancestry and locate family members,” the sheriff’s office said.

The challenge stems from the demographic history of Ashkenazi Jewry. Because the global Ashkenazi population descends from a relatively small founding group that experienced repeated bottlenecks over the past millennium, members of the community share substantially more DNA with one another than members of most other populations do. In genetic genealogy work, that produces an overwhelming number of distant matches who appear to be close cousins on paper but in reality may share a common ancestor many generations back. Cases involving Jewish victims have repeatedly stalled for this reason.

This year, investigators partnered with the Investigative Genetic Genealogy Center, housed at a public college in New Jersey, in hopes of breaking through. The IGG team commissioned a forensic artist to produce updated renderings of the woman based on her skeletal remains, the shirt she was wearing, and the earrings found with her.

Investigators are asking anyone who recalls a young Jewish woman who went missing in the late 1980s — perhaps a relative, a former neighbor, or a member of a shul or community who was never heard from again — to come forward, even with information that may seem minor. A woman in her late twenties who disappeared without explanation around 1989 may have left behind family who never received answers, or who quietly grieved without ever knowing what became of her.

Anyone with information is asked to contact the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigation Unit at 928-753-0753, extension 4044, and reference case number DR#89-4531.