Photo of the victim. Credit: Sacramento County Sheriff
On March 29, 2008, the Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office received a call regarding the discovery of possible human remains in the area of Tyler Island and the Georgianna Slough, located in Sacramento County.
Patrol deputies arrived to the location and determined the remains appeared to be human and requested Sheriff’s Homicide Investigators respond to the scene. Over the next three days, homicide investigators, criminalists from the Sacramento County District Attorney’s Laboratory of Forensic Services and the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office processed the scene and exhumed the remains. The coroner classified the case as a homicide and determined the victim was most likely killed in the fall of 2004.
Over the next 13 years, Sheriff’s Investigators and the Coroner’s Office have worked to identify the victim. The investigation included reviewing hundreds of missing persons reports, providing the media with photographs of clothing and jewelry found with the remains, as well as a composite drawing of what the victim may have looked like. A facial reconstruction, using the victim’s skull, was also released to the media at the time but the victim remained unidentified.
In 2021, investigators began a genetic genealogy investigation. As a result of this investigation, the victim has been identified as Shannon Vielguth (born in 1969). Her identity has been confirmed using the DNA of a close family member.
Vielguth used several last names, including Judkins, Hutchings and Joyce. Investigators learned Vielguth was transient for about 6 months prior to her murder, staying in Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Colorado, Nevada, and California. Based on law enforcement records, Vielguth was most likely in Reno, Nevada and Sacramento in October 2004, which coincides with the time she was most likely killed.
Republished courtesy of Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office.