The Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team is having a good start to their year. Last week, they successfully identified a woman missing since 1977. This week, the cold case unit accepted a $535,000 federal grant.
Identification
Partial skeletal remains, including a skull, were found in 1986 down an embankment along the Ortega Highway in Lake Elsinore. A Cal-Trans crew doing survey work located the remains and notified the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department. Investigators at the time determined that the victim had been shot in the head. However, they were unable to identify the victim or any suspects in the potential murder case.
In August 2021, the Cold Case Homicide Team, which includes the Riverside County Coroner’s Office, had several bodies/skeletal remains exhumed in cold case homicides. The skull found in 1986 was among those and it was sent to a Department of Justice lab for possible DNA comparison.
Last week, it was determined that the person whose remains were found in 1986 are those of Linda LeBeau, maiden name of Durnall, who had a DOB of April 10, 1950. The identification was done through a familial DNA match in the Department of Justice’s Missing Unidentified Persons database.
Investigators found that Linda LeBeau Durnall, who was divorced, was reported missing by her boyfriend to the Tustin Police Department in 1977. Tustin police investigators had maintained an active investigation into the missing persons, possible homicide case, since her disappearance, continuing to follow up on leads, but had not been able to bring the case to resolution.
Grant
According to the Desert Sun, the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday authorized Riverside County District Attorney Mike Hestrin to accept a $535,000 federal grant to aid in solving or prosecuting cold case violent crimes. The grant aims specifically to cover costs incurred from DNA analysis.
“Provided that DNA attributed to a known or unknown suspect who has been identified, funding support includes investigative activities and crime and forensic analyses that could lead to prosecuting violent crime cold cases and decreasing the number of violent crime cold cases awaiting prosecution,” said the DA’s office in a statement posted to the board’s agenda.
The Regional Cold Case Homicide Team comprises members of the DA’s Office Bureau of Investigation, the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner Department, the FBI, and the Riverside Police Department. The team is available to assist in the investigation of cold case homicides for all Riverside County law enforcement agencies.
Republished courtesy of Office of the District Attorney, County of Riverside.