The identities of two California women has ended a 36-year mystery.
In August, authorities found Jasmin Ramos, 37, and Elizabeth Ramos, 36, to be living under new names in their native California 36 years after they vanished. The pair—whose identities were discovered through DNA testing—had been raised by foster parents unaware of their missing person status.
The sisters’ birth mother, Marina Ramos, was discovered dead in 1989 in an Arizona desert. At the time, she was unidentified, referred to as a Jane Doe victim, though in 2022 authorities were able to uncover her identity through fingerprinting technology. After Marina’s identity was confirmed, investigators began the search for her daughters—who were just 14-months and 1-month-old at the time of their mother’s murder—using DNA samples from Ramos’ family.
Three years later, they got a match.
“On August 27, 2025, investigators located a woman with a high DNA match to a Ramos family contributor,” the Mohave County Sheriff Office explained in a Sept. 22 Facebook post. “Analysis by a forensic genetic genealogist revealed a high probability that the woman was one of the missing girls.”
After getting in contact with Jasmin and Elizabeth, the statement explained, authorities found that the girls had been abandoned in a public bathroom in Oxnard, Calif.on December 14, 1989, two days after their mother’s body was found with multiple stab wounds in Arizona.
“A witness walking in the area heard children crying in the women’s restroom,” the Mohave County Sheriff Office added in their Facebook statement. “He asked a woman to check the bathroom, and she found the girls laying on the wet floor with no adult nearby.”
Police were promptly called, and the babies were placed under the care of Child Protective Services before being placed in foster care. They were adopted shortly thereafter and were raised, the Mohave County Sheriff Office reported, “together in a loving home.”
Now that the whereabouts of Jasmin and Elizabeth have been confirmed, authorities are continuing to search for their mother’s murderer, naming three suspects—a woman and two men—allegedly seen with the young girls at the California park where they were found in 1989.
“The woman was described as a Hispanic female wearing a long red skirt and white boots,” the Mohave County Sheriff Office concluded in their post. “The two males were only described as Hispanic.”
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