WHITE HILLS – On December 12, 1989, a female victim was found on Old Temple Bar Road off White Hills Road in Mohave County, approximately 50 miles south of Las Vegas. The victim had been stabbed multiple times and left nude in the desert. It appeared that she had been killed at the scene where she was found. All attempts to identify the victim or suspects involved in her homicide proved unsuccessful at that time, however detectives were able to obtain a DNA profile from the victim which was entered into CODIS.
In February 2022, the victim’s fingerprints were retrieved from the investigative case file by the Special Investigations Unit (SIU) and submitted to NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) for examination by the FBI. On February 23, 2022, SIU was notified that the prints were a match for Maria Ortiz out of Bakersfield, California. The prints were obtained from an arrest for shoplifting. Investigative follow up revealed that Ortiz had been arrested on June 15, 1989 by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office. A records check with the Kern County Sheriff’s Office and the Bakersfield Police Department showed that Ortiz had listed a residential address in Bakersfield along with the name of two friends.
Attempts were made to locate the friends, one of which was located residing in Tennessee. Telephone contact was made, and the question was posed to her if she knew anyone by the name of Maria Ortiz, missing since 1989. She said she did not but stated that her cousin, Marina Ramos, had been missing since 1989. A physical description of Ramos matched the physical description of the Jane Doe victim. It was later learned that Maria Ortiz was an alias used by Marina Ramos. Investigators were also notified that at the time she was last seen, Ramos was in possession of her two young daughters, Jasmin (2 months) and Elizabeth (14 months).
Since 2023, SIU has put out press releases, social media posts, and utilized broadcast television to obtain information on the homicide investigation and to find out what happened to the two daughters. Family members of Ramos provided DNA buccal swabs for entry into CODIS and completed commercial DNA kits in an attempt to locate the girls.
On August 27, 2025, investigators located a woman with a high DNA match to a Ramos family contributor. Analysis by a forensic genetic genealogist revealed a high probability that the woman was one of the missing girls. She was contacted by Investigators and during the phone conversation it was learned that she and her sister were abandoned in a park in Oxnard, California in December 1989. A call to her sister confirmed the information provided to investigators. The sister was able to provide Investigators with newspaper articles and photos of the incident.
DNA buccal swab samples were obtained from the sisters and sent to the lab for analysis and comparison to the DNA provided by the Ramos family. The results confirmed the two women to be Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos, daughters of homicide victim Marina Ramos.
Investigators conducted follow-up with the Oxnard Police Department and were provided with a copy of the original Child Abandonment Crime Report. The report revealed that the girls had been left in a park restroom in Oxnard on December 14, 1989, two days after Marina’s body was located. A witness walking in the area heard children crying in the women’s restroom. He asked a woman to check the bathroom, and she found the girls laying on the wet floor with no adult nearby.
Police were contacted and the children were taken to the police station and later placed in the custody of Child Protective Services. The girls were placed into foster care and stayed there for a significant amount of time. The girls were eventually adopted by a couple in Ventura County and were raised together in a loving home.
The search for the suspects involved in the homicide of Marina Ramos continues. A witness in the area told officers that she had observed a woman and two men with the children at the park. They were observed driving a black mini pickup. The witness saw the woman carrying the smaller child in a yellow blanket and one of the males carrying the older child. The woman was described as a Hispanic female wearing a long red skirt and white boots. The two males were only described as Hispanic.
Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to contact MCSO at 928-753-0753, ext. 4408.
