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USA Today
5 days ago
- USA Today
A nurse was last heard from in 1986. Now, her remains have been identified.
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 sdmartin@
Yahoo
23-04-2025
- Yahoo
Cleveland man who went missing in 1980 identified as Cuyahoga County John Doe
CLEVELAND (WJW) — Advancements in DNA technology helped local officials uncover the identity of a Cuyahoga County John Doe whose remains were found 45 years ago. Sandusky man arrested in ex-wife's 2001 cold case During a press conference Wednesday afternoon, Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson identified the man as Danny Lee Mitchell of Cleveland who was reported missing by his family on April 2, 1980. He was 20 years old at the time of his disappearance and was last seen in the 6300 block of Euclid Avenue. Unidentified skeletal remains were found May 17, 1980 at 2041 East 65st Street in Cleveland, just .13 miles from the location where Mitchell was last seen. 'At that time in 1980, DNA had yet to be used in criminal work so we didn't have any DNA until 1986 and it really didn't become prevalent until about 5 to 10 years later in most places,' said Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner Dr. Thomas Gilson, who led the Wednesday press conference. No cause of death was ever identified with the skeletal remains and the manner of death was left undetermined. However, a cluster of scalp hair was preserved from the original autopsy of the Cuyahoga County remains before they were buried in Potter's Field. In November of 2017, Mitchell's family saw a press conference with Twinsburg Police during which a facial reconstruction of a Summit County John Doe was featured. The family then reported Danny Mitchell as a possible candidate and submitted their own DNA for testing, however it was not a match. Mitchell's case was then submitted to NamUS, a national database of missing and unidentified persons that facilitates comparisons across cities, counties and states. In 2020, the Cuyahoga County Medical Examiner's Office launched an internal initiative to add cold cases into NamUs which led to investigators to discover a possible match between one of the Cuyahoga County unidentified-remains cases and Danny Mitchell's. Finally in February of 2025, following several more years of testing, a DNA profile developed from the hair sample was found to be a direct comparison of the Cuyahoga County John Doe's profile. 'The idea of bringing somebody home to their family never becomes something we'll stop trying to do,' said Dr. Wilson. Mitchell's family members were in attendance during Wednesday's press conference. His sisters Bernice Mitchell and Betty Borden told Fox 8's Rex Smith that while this gives them some closure, they still want to know what happened to their brother. 'We just want closure. I know he was very known. Everybody loved him. Everybody. So the family really don't understand and we appreciate any help that ya'll can give the family,' said Bernice Mitchell. '…and find out what happened. Cause it still bothers me. This is closure, but it still bothers me because I don't know what happened to him,' Borden added. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
10-03-2025
- Yahoo
DNA analysis company hired to help crack 4 of Shasta County's unsolved homicides
One of the unidentified homicide victims was a man killed in Lakehead in 2003, his body found in a shallow grave near a pair of old metal handcuffs that were on the ground. Three other unsolved homicides in Shasta County were reported in 1979, 1990 and 2013. Those people and the perpetrators also remain unknown. The Shasta County Coroner's Office hopes the identities of victims in these four homicides will be solved through its recent partnership with a private company that specializes in investigative genetic genealogy — the study of human DNA to sleuth out information that helps solve crimes. "We partner with law enforcement to be able to solve cases that otherwise would be a DNA dead end," said Kristen Mittelman, chief development officer for Texas-based Othram. 'People shouldn't have to wait 20 years to find out what happened to their loved one or where their loved one is.' Where are they?: Dozens of unresolved homicide cases linger in Redding, Shasta County Law enforcement agencies rely on traditional testing of evidence from a homicide scene that could include strands of hair or fragments of bone. That doesn't always lead to an answer. "We're spinning our wheels on these cases that have undergone every other type of analysis," said Shasta County Deputy Coroner Investigator Hailey Collord-Stalder. After that, "there's nothing left to do" except use investigative genetic genealogy, also known as forensic genetic genealogy, she said. "It's just the combination of DNA analysis and genealogy. So it's got that two-part component, those two parts that really bring it all together," said Collord-Stalder. She said Othram officials contacted the Shasta coroner's office last year about one of the county's unsolved homicide cases the agency had listed in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. That national government database, also known as NamUS, helps investigators match long-term missing persons cases with unidentified remains. Rather than the case Othram originally got in touch about, Collord-Stalder said her agency asked the company to first use its technology to analyze the unsolved Lakehead homicide from 2003. She said: "We haven't been able to do anything about it, which is really unfortunate, simply because we didn't know the identity of the victim. And so when justice is being prevented, simply because we can't ID someone, any means necessary to get them ID'd is really important." As part of their investigation, the coroner's office examined DNA from the scene and sent a sample to the California Department of Justice's index system of DNA. Any matches found there would "have to be really closely related, like a parent or a sibling or a child" of the victim, said Collord-Stalder. But forensic genealogy company Othram "can look at sequences of DNA and match it to potentially somebody like an eighth great grandparent or a fourth cousin who could be related to your unidentified remains or your unidentified suspect sample. And so from there, that genealogist can start to map where this individual may have come from," she said. Vanished: 19 disappearances that are still without answers in Redding, Shasta County DNA repositories at private companies from samples collected from people seeking information about their heritage can also assist agents pursuing hard-to-solve crimes. Those DNA profiles can go into a genetic repository, making the information "useful for law enforcement," she said. Collord-Stalder said forensic genetic genealogy information helped solve the Golden State Killer case: "They were able to match his DNA profile to somebody in his family who had uploaded to one of those sites." Authorities said a father and his adult daughter were setting fox traps in an area off Dog Creek Road north of Lakehead when the father glimpsed a pair of old handcuffs on the ground and then spied a shallow grave that appeared to have been dug up by a bear. The trappers called Shasta County law enforcement, who ruled the man's death a homicide after finding bones, skull fragments and strands of dark hair at the site, in addition to the handcuffs. Traditional investigation methods to sleuth out information failed to identify the man, who had foot-long, straight brown-black hair and was of average to below-average height. It was unclear whether the man was killed where his body was found, or if his body was dumped there, information from Othram said. Othram's services cost about $7,500 per case, an amount typically covered by funders such as the law enforcement agency requesting the service, as well as private donors and money provided by federal government groups that in the Lakehead case included NamUS. The Shasta coroner's division also donated $200 toward the cost of getting the Lakehead homicide case analyzed using Othram's technology, Collord-Stalder said. Mittelman said after Othram gets involved, finishing its analysis and coming back with new leads can take four to six weeks. 'We've already solved dozens of cases in California by using this technology, so we're optimistic we can determine this man's identity,' said Mittelman. Michele Chandler covers public safety, dining and whatever else comes up for the Redding Record Searchlight/USA Today Network. Accepts story tips at 530-338-7753 and at mrchandler@ Please support our entire newsroom's commitment to public service journalism by subscribing today. This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: Shasta County hopes DNA analysis can answer unsolved murders
Yahoo
24-02-2025
- Yahoo
Skeletal remains found in Cumberland County identified as man who went missing in 2022
CUMBERLAND COUNTY, Tenn. (WATE) — The skeletal remains found on Westel Road in Cumberland County have been identified, the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office reported. The remains were identified as Cody Ramsey-Dearing who was reported missing on August 15, 2022 in Cumberland County, a CCSO spokesperson said. At the time, 6 News reported that Dearing had told his family he was going to meet someone, but did not say who. 'First of its kind' drug treatment facility breaks ground in Maryville A report from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUS) lists Ramsey-Dearing's last known location as 1872 Westel Road. His remains were found on February 8 on Westel Road near the entrance of the Mount Roosevelt Wildlife Management Area. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and CCSO worked to identify to remains. An investigation is still underway to determine the cause of death. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
