Updated DNA technology has led Ventura County Sheriff’s officials to solve a more than four-decade-old mystery and identify the victim in what had been a "Jane Doe" case.
On January 21, 1981, the body of a young woman was found in an orchard near Piru. She'd been shot multiple times. Ventura County Sheriff’s detectives were unable to identify the woman at the time, who was believed to be in her early 20s. The case went cold.
Then, in 2023, the Sheriff’s cold case unit began re-examining the case using the latest DNA technology. The results suggested that the victim may have originated from a specific region of Mexico.
Working with a forensic services company, they located potential relatives. After further testing, they identified the murder victim as Maria Belmontes Blancas.
Family members say the 24-year-old woman had moved to the United States from Mexico in 1980, but they lost contact with her.
Detectives admit that while her family has an answer for her disappearance, her killer remains at large. They're hoping that identifying Blancas may help them develop new leads in the case.
