A nurse was last heard from in 1986. Now, her remains have been identified.

USA Today

2 days ago

Remains found at Lake Mead in Arizona have been identified as a California nurse last heard from 39 years ago.
The remains were identified as Carol Ann Riley, who was 42 when she disappeared in April 1986. She was reported missing out of San Diego County, California, and the unidentified remains were found just over a year later, according to officials in Mohave County, Arizona.
Here's how the most recent development in Riley's case came about after a 39-year search.
Missing woman had a date with man linked to multiple disappearances
Riley was a nurse who worked at the Scripps Clinic in San Diego, the Mohave County Sheriff's Office said in a news release. Around that time, she was dating a man she knew as Robert Howard Smith. She was supposed to go on a dinner date with him in April 1986 and told friends she was going to end the relationship.
Investigators interviewed Smith, who said Riley canceled their date, the sheriff's office said. Two days later, Smith left town and 'dropped out of sight,' investigators said.
Detectives investigating Smith later found out his real name was Robert Dean Weeks, and he had a history of going by fake names.
He was also linked to multiple disappearances, including:
None of their bodies have been found.
According to the Mohave County Sheriff's office, television show 'Unsolved Mysteries' aired an episode involving Weeks in April 1987.
Around the same time, a warrant had been issued for his arrest due to fraud and embezzlement charges from his business. Viewers called in tips, and Weeks was located and arrested in Tucson, Arizona, the sheriff's office said.
He was convicted for the murder of his wife, as well as Jabour. He was sentenced to life in prison in Nevada, where he died on Sept. 20, 1996.
How was Carol Ann Riley identified?
On May 16, 1987, just over a year after Riley was last heard from, a person near Bonelli Landing at Lake Mead found a human skull on the ground. Investigators searched the area and found more remains buried in a shallow grave, wrapped in a yellow blanket, the Mohave County Sheriff's Office said.
Based on the remains, investigators believed the woman was between 20 and 40 years old, stood between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-7, weighed about 105 to 120 pounds, and had light brown hair.
While investigators were unable to identify the remains, a forensic odontologist completed a dental report and entered it into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS).
In 2011, investigators in Austin, Texas, reached out to Mohave County detectives and said they believed Jane Doe was a missing person from their jurisdiction, but the dental records weren't a match.
Mohave County then sent skeletal remains to the University of North Texas, where a DNA profile was obtained and entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS), the FBI's national DNA database. About 13 years later, investigators with Mohave County wanted to use the DNA extract to conduct a forensic genetic genealogy investigation, but the sample was too degraded.
Giving Jane Doe a name
In February 2025, Mohave County investigators sent portions of the victim's clothing and the blanket she was wrapped in to an Arizona Department of Public Safety lab to get a DNA sample that could be used for forensic genetic genealogy tracing. This attempt was also unsuccessful, the sheriff's office said.
Investigators also learned her skeletal remains were cremated in 2016, and her ashes were scattered in an unknown location.
This month, the California Department of Justice's Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit confirmed that a forensic odontologist and staff compared dental records for Jane Doe and Riley, who was reported missing over 300 miles away in San Diego County.
The dental records were a match, the sheriff's office said.
Before he died in 1996, Robert Dean Weeks (known to the victim as Robert Howard Smith) was never charged in connection with her murder. He wasn't charged in connection with the murder of Shaw, his missing business partner, either.
Saleen Martin is a reporter on USA TODAY's NOW team. She is from Norfolk, Virginia – the 757. Email her at [e-mail].