In 1983, children found a victim's skull with a distinctive gold tooth. She was finally identified.

A victim whose skull was discovered in a culvert by children in a Southern California town in 1983 has been identified 41 years after his remains were discovered, authorities said.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department on Friday identified the victim as Maritza Glean Grimmett, a Panamanian native who moved to the United States in the late 1970s. Grimmett was 20 years old at the time of her disappearance, police said. authorities in a press release. The investigation involved DNA analysis using Grimmett's remains which helped investigators identify relatives.

After children discovered Grimmett's skull while playing in an area that is now part of Lake Forest, a city about 43 miles southeast of Los Angeles, about 70 percent of his remains were exhumed of the ground.

An initial anthropological examination revealed that the victim was a black or mixed race woman, aged 18 to 24, of small stature and with a distinctive gold tooth. But in the decades since, authorities have been unable to identify the woman.

In 2022, a DNA sample from Grimmett's remains was sent to Othram Laboratories, a Texas-based forensic group, the sheriff's department said. A missing persons program within the U.S. Department of Justice funded the DNA extraction and testing. Authorities then discovered “a direct family lineage” for Grimmett and contacted one of his distant relatives in 2023, they said.

The relative recommended that the findings of the forensic investigation be posted on a Facebook group focused on women who went missing in the 1970s and 1980s, the sheriff's department said. A month after the findings were released, a woman contacted investigators and said she believed she was the victim's missing mother.

The relatives then submitted DNA samples to authorities, who identified the victim.

Authorities said Grimmett married a U.S. Marine in the summer of 1978 and gave birth to a daughter. After the family lived in Ohio and Tennessee, the couple began divorce proceedings in 1979. Grimmett told her sister she was moving to California, but her family never heard from her again. her, authorities said.

Othram said Grimmett's case was the 39th case in California where authorities have publicly identified someone using its technology. Last month, Othram helped identify skeletal remains found in a plastic bag in California in 1985 as those of a woman who born in 1864 and died more than a century ago.

The investigation into Grimmett is ongoing. Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Investigator Bob Taft at 714-647-7045 or [email protected]. Anonymous tips can be submitted to OC Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS (855-847-6227) or occrimestoppers.org.