DNA sequencing/testing.Photo: Getty
A woman who was found decapitated and with her blood drained in a posed position in a California vineyard more than a decade ago has been identified as 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan, according to authorities.
Kaplan’s body was discovered in March 2011 and initial efforts to identify her were unsuccessful, according to a cold case identificationbulletinfrom the Kern County Sheriff’s Office in Bakersfield, Calif.
She had been decapitated, Ray Pruitt, a former Kern County Sheriff’s Department official, toldKGETin 2018.
“The crime scene itself was very clean. Honestly it looked like somebody had taken a mannequin, removed the head of the mannequin and posed it on the dirt road,” he said.
For nearly a decade, the case went cold, according to the Kern County Sheriff’s Office bulletin. In 2020, the Kern County Medical Examiner’s Office began collaborating with the DNA Doe Project to restart the investigation, leading to a “time-intensive task” that traced back eight generations of Kaplan’s ancestors to eventually identify her, according to the DNA Doe Project’s statement.
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With three of Kaplan’s four grandparents being immigrants, the identification process also involved looking into Eastern European records and bringing in Jewish genealogy experts, the statement said.
Two potential family members were located in July and investigators were able to use their DNA samples for a match that identified Kaplan,KGETreported, citing officials.
After Kern County Sheriff authorities spoke with her family, they learned that Kaplan was never reported missing, according to officials, the outlet reported.
Other circumstances — such as a suspect in her death — remain unknown and the case is still under investigation,The Bakersfield Californianreported, citing authorities.
source: people.com
