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#Post#: 786--------------------------------------------------
RIVERSIDE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 70-85 - Found in open desert near
Chiriaco Summit, CA - March 9 1994 *Patricia Cavallaro
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 9, 2020, 12:39 am
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/712UFCA1.jpg
HTML https://www.namus.gov/UnidentifiedPersons/Case#/7042
Found in shallow grave (partially exposed) in remote area of the
desert. She was wrapped in a blanket
#Post#: 787--------------------------------------------------
Re: RIVERSIDE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 70-85 - Found in open desert
near Chiriaco Summit, CA - March 9,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 9, 2020, 12:39 am
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HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/712ufca.html
HTML http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/images/712UFCA.jpg
Date of Discovery: March 9, 1994
Location of Discovery: Chiriaco Summit, Riverside County,
California
Estimated Date of Death: Six weeks prior
State of Remains: All parts recovered.
Cause of Death: Homicide
Physical Description
Estimated Age: 70-85 years old
Race: White.
Sex: Female
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 100 lbs.
Hair: White; thin and tied in a pony tail; about 5 inches long.
Eye Color: Unknown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: She had decubitus ulcers present;
5 cm stage 1 on the left posterior hip, 6 cm stage 1 on the
right buttock, and a 3 cm stage 1 on the right posterior hip.
Identifiers
Dentals: She did not have any teeth or dentures in her mouth.
Fingerprints: Unknown
DNA: Unknown
Clothing & Personal Items
Clothing: She was wearing a pink robe only over a disposable
diaper. The robe had no name or labels.
Jewelry: No jewelry was found.
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Circumstances of Discovery
The victim was found in open desert west of Cottonwood Springs
Road in Chiriaco Summit, California on March 9, 1994. This
location was found by hunters and is several miles from any
paved roadway.
Investigating Agency(s)
Agency Name: Riverside County Sheriff's Department
Agency Contact Person: N/A
Agency Phone Number: 951-443-2300
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: #79546 (U94-013)
NCIC Case Number: Unknown
NamUs Case Number: 7042
Information Source(s)
#Post#: 788--------------------------------------------------
Re: RIVERSIDE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 70-85 - Found in open desert
near Chiriaco Summit, CA - March 9,
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: February 9, 2020, 12:40 am
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HTML http://gcvcc.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/chiriaco-summit-california72.jpg
HTML https://www.desertusa.com/desert-people/photos/L77.jpg
DesertUSA
Chiriaco Summit, CA Airport
#Post#: 9974--------------------------------------------------
Re: RIVERSIDE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 70-85 - Found in open desert
near Chiriaco Summit, CA - March 9, 1994
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: January 3, 2022, 10:21 pm
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Identified as Patricia Cavallaro, 57, of Bellflower, CA.
[img]
HTML https://www.gannett-cdn.com/presto/2021/12/30/PPAS/847a310e-d8ba-478c-959e-6269df2b3ea1-Cavallaro.PNG?width=300&height=348&fit=crop&format=pjpg&auto=webp[/img]
#Post#: 9975--------------------------------------------------
Re: RIVERSIDE COUNTY JANE DOE: WF, 70-85 - Found in open desert
near Chiriaco Summit, CA - March 9, 1994
DIR By: Scorpio
Date: January 3, 2022, 10:23 pm
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HTML https://www.desertsun.com/story/news/crime_courts/2022/01/03/la-county-woman-missing-30-years-identified-das-investigators/9057008002/
Woman found in Thousand Palms shallow grave in 1994 identified
by cold case team
A woman in her late 50s found wrapped in a plastic sheet and
buried in a shallow grave near Thousand Palms in 1994 has been
identified by authorities nearly three decades later.
The Riverside County District Attorney's Office announced Monday
that the remains belonged to Patricia Cavallaro, 57, of
Bellflower, after her DNA was matched with one of her surviving
children.
DA Supervising Investigator Ryan Bodmer, who manages the
county's Regional Cold Case Homicide Team, said Cavallaro's
remains are among about 700 his team hopes can be identified if
more people who are missing a relative contribute DNA profiles
to databases investigators can access.
"With a cold case, genetics are really the only way to move the
investigation forward," Bodmer said. "This tool creates an
environment to do real detective work in a case where there are
no leads."
Senior Investigator Mike Thompson, who is working the open case,
said most homicide investigations start with identifying the
body, interviewing relatives and identifying suspects from
there. Typically, he added, homicide victims are killed by
someone they know.
But this investigation couldn't progress along those lines until
the body was identified, Thompson said, which proved to be
difficult.
Riverside County Sheriff's Deputies found the remains on Oct.
24, 1994, about a half-mile north of Varner Road between Date
Palm Drive and Ramon Road.
"There was no evidence that immediately identified her,"
Thompson said. "When you don't know who they are or where they
came from, it becomes very difficult. It quickly became a cold
case."
Thompson said the autopsy determined she had died from homicidal
violence. The lack of evidence near where she was found
indicated she had likely been killed elsewhere and buried in the
desert. And for about 30 years, her identity remained a mystery.
Joseph DelGiudice, chief of the DA's Bureau of Investigation,
and Bodmer established the multi-agency cold case team in 2020,
with Thompson and investigators from the sheriff's department
and Riverside Police Department. The team collaborates with
federal and state authorities to utilize databases of genetic
information belonging to missing persons.
"If we can find someone we think is a relative, and do a direct
DNA search of them, then we could confirm the identity of the
remains," Bodmer said.
The team sent a small sample of the woman's remains to a
laboratory in Texas, called Othram Inc. With her genetic
information, investigators started the time-consuming work of
sketching out a potential family tree.
Thompson described the process as giving Patricia Cavallaro her
identity back by tracking evidence of her life until it
disappeared. She was born in 1937 and had family in Western New
York, he said. She moved to California sometime in the 1960s,
was his best guess. She lived in Bellflower, in Los Angeles
County, and had two children and a husband, records showed.
Her husband died in 2017, he added. And only one of her
children, her son, could be located. She was reported missing in
2001, he said, adding her husband told police she "walked away"
from home and was never seen again.
"You follow the evidence and you see she was there, and then she
just stopped existing in 1994," Thompson said. "After that,
there's no evidence that she's alive or dead, no marriage or
divorce records, no death certificate."
So the team spoke with her son to get more information. He
declined to comment for this story. Bodmer said her son had
expected she had died, but didn't know the circumstances.
He agreed to provide a DNA sample and the California Department
of Justice said its analysis indicated a strong likelihood that
the remains were Cavallaro's.
"How she got from Bellflower to Thousand Palms is a mystery,"
Thompson said, adding the investigation is still open.
DelGiudice and Bodmer emphasized that if the team is to make
similar progress on the hundreds of other cold cases in the
county that have been identified as being solvable with genetic
profiling, the public's help will be critical.
"We have quite a number of unidentified bodies that clearly died
under suspicious circumstances," DelGiudice said.
Private DNA services, like 23andMe and Ancesty.com, have grown
in popularity in recent years, Bodmer said, but law enforcement
can't access the data they own. Services such as GEDmatch.com,
however, can take the same DNA profiles and make them available
to broader search, including cold-case investigators.
Bodmer said there are several other cases that are close to
similar breakthroughs, like Cavallaro's, if more genetic
information was made available by people who have a missing
relative.
He provided the example of a woman found dead of a violent
attack in 1996, in her late 30s who had a Cesarean scar
indicating she had at least one child. Bodmer said it's likely
she was a first-generation immigrant with few records to help
identify her.
"Someone alive knows who she is," Bodmer said. "Her child or
children are probably in their late 20s."
A DNA sample from a direct relative, a brother or daughter,
rather than a distant cousin can provide the genetic match
needed in such a case that would otherwise likely remain
perpetually unsolved.
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