OC homicide victim identified after more than 40 years – Orange County Register

A 2022 forensic rendering of a woman whose remains were found in April 1983 in the area of ​​Canada and Old Trabuco roads in what is now the town of Lake Forest. Investigators with the Orange County Sheriff's Department have now identified her as Maritza Glean Grimmett, a Panamanian native who was 20 years old when she disappeared. (Image provided by the Orange County Sheriff's Department)

More than 40 years after a woman's remains were discovered in what is now Lake Forest, authorities have finally identified the suspected homicide victim, the Orange County Sheriff's Department announced this week.

Children playing in a culvert near Canada and Old Trabuco roads discovered a human skull in April 1983, according to the sheriff's statement.

Excavations uncovered approximately 70 percent of the victim's remains. And an anthropological examination determined that she was a black or mixed-race woman approximately 18 to 24 years old, approximately 5 feet 3 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall, with a slight build and a distinctive gold tooth .

The victim's name remained a mystery for decades.

In 2022, funding from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System allowed for the extraction of a DNA sample from the woman's remains and testing through Othram Laboratories.

The result was the creation of a genetic profile. Sheriff's Department investigators teamed up with the FBI's regional genealogy team and, after years of work, were able to identify the woman's direct family lineage and produce forensic renderings of her appearance.

In late 2023, investigators contacted a person they suspected of being a distant genetic relative of the unidentified woman. This person suggested that the woman's portraits be posted to a Facebook group dedicated to missing women from the 1970s and 1980s. A month later, a woman contacted investigators and said she believed they were of his missing mother.

By comparing the relatives' DNA samples, investigators identified the woman as Maritza Glean Grimmett, who was 20 years old at the time of her disappearance, according to the sheriff's statement.

Grimmett was of Panamanian descent who married a United States marine in the summer of 1978 and gave birth to a daughter. She and her family moved to the United States in late 1978 and lived in Columbus, Ohio and Millington, Tennessee until mid-1979.

Grimmett and her husband began divorce proceedings in July 1979. Grimmett told her sisters she was moving to California. That was the last time his family heard from him.

The circumstances of Grimmett's death are unclear. The sheriff's department said his murder remains under active investigation.

Anyone with information about the case is asked to contact Investigator Bob Taft at 714-647-7045 or [email protected]. Anonymous tips can also be submitted to OC Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS or occrimestoppers.org.