Nearly 36 years after they went missing, two sisters were found alive and well living in California.
Their mother, Marina Ramos, was found naked and fatallu stabbed in a remote section of the Mohave Desert in Arizona on December 12, 1989, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office. Her identity was unknown at the time and she was called Jane Doe for decades.
Two days later, Jasmin and Elizabeth Ramos were found abandoned in a restroom at a public park in Oxnard, Calif. — but authorities did not connect them with the murder, nor were they able to identify them as Ramos’ daughters at the time. They were just 2 months and 14 months old, respectively.
“A witness walking in the area heard children crying in the women’s restroom. He asked a woman to check the bathroom, and she found the girls laying on the wet floor with no adult nearby,” the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said.
“The girls were eventually adopted by a couple in Ventura County and were raised together in a loving home,” it added.
The case eventually went cold and remained so until February 2022, when authorities submitted the victim’s fingerprints to NamUs — National Missing and Unidentified Persons System — for an FBI examination. It turned up a match for Maria Ortiz, who was arrested and fingerprinted by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office on June 15, 1989.
Authorities reached out to people they suspected might have known her, eventually connecting with her cousin, who told them she only knew of a Marina Ramos.
“It was later learned that Maria Ortiz was an alias used by Marina Ramos,” the office said.
Investigators also discovered that Ortiz had two young daughters who remained missing.
Through additional DNA testing, authorities were able to locate and identify the girls, and the investigation has since shifted to finding their mother’s killer, police said.
“The search for the suspects involved in the homicide of Marina Ramos continues,” the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said.
