OC investigators identify possible homicide victim whose remains found 41 years ago

A possible homicide victim whose remains were found in a culvert 41 years ago has been identified by the Orange County Sheriff's Department.

DNA testing ultimately helped sheriff's investigators identify the woman as Maritza Glean Grimmett, who was 20 at the time of her disappearance.

Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Frank Gonzalez said it took “an incredible amount of patience for our investigators to work on a complex case like this.”

“They're doing it for closure for the family — that's what allowed them to continue in this particular case,” Gonzalez said. “It has been a mystery since the family last spoke to him in 1983. They have expressed nothing but gratitude to our investigators.”

Grimmett's remains were discovered in 1983 when children playing in a culvert near the area of ​​Canada and Old Trabuco roads in Lake Forest came across a human skull, authorities said. An excavation uncovered approximately 70% of a woman's remains.

Although the official cause of death is undetermined, homicide is suspected, according to the sheriff's department.

An anthropological examination showed the victim to be a black or mixed-race woman, aged 18 to 24, 5 feet 3 to 5 feet 6 inches tall, with a slight build and a distinctive gold tooth. Efforts over the years to identify the victim have failed.

In 1978, Grimmett, a native of Panama, married a U.S. Marine, moved to the United States and had a daughter, according to the sheriff's department. The following year, the couple began divorce proceedings and Grimmett told her sister she was moving to California. Her family never heard from her again, the sheriff's department said in a statement.

In 2022, a DNA sample from the victim was sent to a laboratory and a genetic profile was obtained with the help of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which funded the DNA extraction and testing . A direct family lineage of Jane Doe could not be established and several forensic renderings of the woman have been published over the years.

In late 2023, investigators contacted a distant genetic relative of the victim, who suggested that forensic renderings of Jane Doe be posted on a Facebook group for Jane Does and Missing Women of the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Department of Justice. sheriff.

About a month after the publication, a woman contacted investigators and said she thought Lake Forest Jane Doe might be her missing mother. Grimmett's relatives submitted DNA samples and the sheriff's department was finally able to identify him this year.

Investigators continue to investigate Grimmett's case. 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 at occrimestoppers.org.

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This story was originally published in the Los Angeles Times.