The last time Rosalinda Vega saw her sister was in June 1980. Two weeks later, Maricela was supposed to show up with a birthday cake at a family party, but she never came.
"We were waiting for her, and she never showed up. So another week passed. She didn't show up then, and two weeks. So we started looking for her," Vega explained.
For years, Vega says she searched, made reports, and she says she would look everywhere for her missing sister.
"Years passed, and we didn't know nothing about her. You know, every time that I go to the streets and see a homeless person, I was looking to see if they were her. I thought, maybe she fell down, or she had an accident or something, and she just forgot everything...but nothing," said Vega.
Her body had been found on July 18, 1980, in the parking lot at Westlake High School, but she was not able to be identified. For 45 years, Maricela Rocha Parga’s whereabouts were a mystery to her family, and known as Jane Doe to Ventura County detectives.
She was finally identified earlier this year.
"It's like a miracle to find her after all these years," said Vega.
Vega and family received a resilience award from Ventura County District Attorney Erik Nazarenko on Wednesday, as part of National Crime Victims' Rights Week. He said the family has had to live with many unanswered questions for decades.
"What happened to my sibling? My niece? What happened to our daughter?" he asked. "We now know it's tragic and horrific, but there is some answer, some measure of justice in saying we didn't give up. We have to be unrelenting and dogged."
There were also honors for the cold case investigation team, prosecutors, and the non-profit volunteers called the DNA Doe project, who played a pivotal role in piecing together the family tree and leading detectives to identifying her.
"My investigators work tirelessly. They take these cases home with them on the weekends and evenings. And to see the family get this closure and the identity of their sister back is extremely rewarding," said Craig Hennes, who is part of the county's cold case team.
The man who killed Marisela had attacked others. William Chouest was convicted in 2015 of her murder and sentenced to life in prison. The family never got to see him on trial, because they didn’t know Jane Doe Ventura County was their sibling.
Nothing can take away the pain of their loss, but they say they are grateful that she’s now back, in some way, with her family where she belongs.
