Credit: DDP/Redondo Beach Police Department
More than two decades after a woman’s body was found at a construction site near Los Angeles, police have identified her as a mother who last had contact with her family in 1981.
On August 22, 2001 construction workers uncovered a plastic bag in the backyard of a new home site in Redondo Beach, California. The bag contained a partial skeleton. Following an autopsy, an anthropologist reported the remains were of a Caucasian female, 20-50 years old. Based on the location of the skeleton and the infrastructure on that plot of ground, authorities believed the victim died sometime between 1974 and 2001.
However, DNA Doe Project's early analysis indicated that she was actually of Sub-Saharan African ancestry. “Redondo Jane Doe's” dedicated team of investigative genetic genealogists was able to narrow down her family tree and identify relatives who provided DNA profiles for comparison to further zero in on the correct branch of the family.
After two years of painstaking research, the team offered a name to the Redondo Beach Police Department: Catherine Parker Johnson of Memphis, Tennessee, who went missing in 1981. Catherine was 23 years old at the time of her death.
The last time her family was in contact with Parker-Johnson was May 1981 in the Lennox area of Los Angeles. She had not been reported missing.
There is now an active homicide investigation into Parker-Johnson’s death, officials said.
Republished courtesy of DNA Doe Project. Associated Press contributed to the report.