CA CA - Santa Cruz Co, AsianFem 33-39, UP3065, 4'4", long-term abuse, Oct'92

DNA Solves
DNA Solves
DNA Solves

New Posts

Goecke

Goecke

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 24, 2017
Messages
684
Reaction score
2,965
Goecke said:
I apologize if there's already a thread for this woman- feel free to merge.
The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)
1321UFCA
Santa Cruz County Jane Doe (1992)

I just learned about this case today and I really hope this poor lady gets her name back soon.
She was TINY, only 4'4 and 80 pounds. My first thought is that she was a victim of domestic abuse and was murdered by her husband/boyfriend?
Click to expand...

Whoa, she is very tiny! With that description, I would have assumed that she was a child!
 
My first thought was something similar to Peggy Lynn Johnson, that perhaps this woman was mentally disabled and her family abused her. In some Asian cultures (heck, in most cultures even) this wouldn't be too unusual especially when this Doe was born. I don't know... something is telling me she may have been treated like a slave and made to do all the housework, and been tortured when she couldn't do it. The terrible state of her teeth could point to this, too. Though domestic violence is also very possible. I don't know much about mail order brides, is it possible she was one?

Sad that she has no reconstruction. No pictures other than a blurry picture of clothes - and you can't even tell what the clothes are from the picture! It feels like everyone has forgotten about this poor tiny woman.
 
4’4” is tiny but by no means super unusual in Asia. I lived in different parts of North and SE Asia for much of the period 1994-2019. It’s particularly noticeable if a person went through a period of deprivation as a child (survived Khmer Rouge starvation in the early 70s for example). Or like my husband’s family, were just really, really poor. His family basically lived on rice and fish sauce for many years, even an egg was a real treat. Two of my five SIL (the eldest) are about the size quoted and the remaining three are all 5’ or less.
 
I also saw this case come up on the unidentified wiki yesterday, which is where I assume you found it. I grew up in Santa Cruz so this case really bothers me. I had come across it before when I searched all the Santa Cruz Doe cases but I hadn't gotten the abuse information so I assumed her case was one of the bodies that were frequently dumped in the mountains at that time (usually related to drug activity). The fact that she was abused really changes the whole tone of the case for me.

Scotts Valley is a weird place, a lot of people in the Santa Cruz mountains go there to remove themselves from society. In the 70s-90s, it was a well-known dumping ground for bodies and we of course had the three serial killers up there, Ed Kemper being the most famous. I highly doubt she was from the area, the SC area has a very minimal Asian population now, and an Asian community would have been nonexistent in the 90s. It's more likely that she was dumped there and was from somewhere else, maybe San Jose. If she was from the valley, maybe she was a mail order bride or some sort of similar situation where she was not from the local area originally and was abused by her husband. If this was the case she may not have had a support system within the United States or friends that would report her missing.

I'm putting this woman towards the top of my list of cases I follow now, I would hope I could find a way to use my local connection to help with this. Next time I'm in the area I might try to locate her grave. This poor woman clearly didn't have anyone close looking out for her, so it makes it even sadder that her case is so unknown now. I hope that this case will get the attention it deserves even if it's years after. I might write to some local newspapers about it to see if they'd consider talking about it again.
 
Do we know if the remains are buried or were they cremated like many CA does?
 
She wore extremely warm clothing for California in fall. Since she was almost completely skeletal, she likely died the winter before. Or was a transient with no access to seasonally appropriate clothing.
As far as I am concerned, she could as well having been Hispanic. Some hispanic ethnicities (e.g. Guatemalans) tend to be shorter and have heavily Native American features that can be misinterpreted as Asian.
Asian is of course as well a possibility, there were quite a few cases of human trafficking of people from Southeast Asia such as Vietnam and even China. A DNA analyis would help if we knew what happened to her remains.

The poor woman, she obviously had such a hard life and deserves to get justice.
 
Susikatze said:
She wore extremely warm clothing for California in fall. Since she was almost completely skeletal, she likely died the winter before. Or was a transient with no access to seasonally appropriate clothing.
As far as I am concerned, she could as well having been Hispanic. Some hispanic ethnicities (e.g. Guatemalans) tend to be shorter and have heavily Native American features that can be misinterpreted as Asian.
Asian is of course as well a possibility, there were quite a few cases of human trafficking of people from Southeast Asia such as Vietnam and even China. A DNA analyis would help if we knew what happened to her remains.

The poor woman, she obviously had such a hard life and deserves to get justice.
Click to expand...
Her PMI on NamUs said that she'd been dead for six months, which would make it so that she would have died in April '92. I've only been in the Santa Cruz area once in my life and I remember it being quite chilly when I visited in about June, but I have no idea if her clothes were appropriate for spring.
And I agree that she could be Hispanic or Native American as well. I know there's at least one case (also in CA) involving a very small-framed woman who was initially thought to be Asian, but DNA testing revealed she was indigenous Mexican. She was actually just identified earlier this month- Her name was Isabel Sanchez Bernal.
 
Natasha Mullins said:
I also saw this case come up on the unidentified wiki yesterday, which is where I assume you found it. I grew up in Santa Cruz so this case really bothers me. I had come across it before when I searched all the Santa Cruz Doe cases but I hadn't gotten the abuse information so I assumed her case was one of the bodies that were frequently dumped in the mountains at that time (usually related to drug activity). The fact that she was abused really changes the whole tone of the case for me.

Scotts Valley is a weird place, a lot of people in the Santa Cruz mountains go there to remove themselves from society. In the 70s-90s, it was a well-known dumping ground for bodies and we of course had the three serial killers up there, Ed Kemper being the most famous. I highly doubt she was from the area, the SC area has a very minimal Asian population now, and an Asian community would have been nonexistent in the 90s. It's more likely that she was dumped there and was from somewhere else, maybe San Jose. If she was from the valley, maybe she was a mail order bride or some sort of similar situation where she was not from the local area originally and was abused by her husband. If this was the case she may not have had a support system within the United States or friends that would report her missing.

I'm putting this woman towards the top of my list of cases I follow now, I would hope I could find a way to use my local connection to help with this. Next time I'm in the area I might try to locate her grave. This poor woman clearly didn't have anyone close looking out for her, so it makes it even sadder that her case is so unknown now. I hope that this case will get the attention it deserves even if it's years after. I might write to some local newspapers about it to see if they'd consider talking about it again.
Click to expand...

Thank you so much for your insight- It's nice to have a local perspective! Please let me know if you hear back from any newspapers or if you're able to find her grave.
The mail order bride theory crossed my mind as well. Or she could have been an immigrant who came alone and had no other family in the US, or a victim of human trafficking. Someone also suggested she could be Hispanic- Is there a large Hispanic population in the area?
 
Goecke said:
Thank you so much for your insight- It's nice to have a local perspective! Please let me know if you hear back from any newspapers or if you're able to find her grave.
The mail order bride theory crossed my mind as well. Or she could have been an immigrant who came alone and had no other family in the US, or a victim of human trafficking. Someone also suggested she could be Hispanic- Is there a large Hispanic population in the area?
Click to expand...
The Hispanic population is definitely larger than the Asian population in the surrounding areas, but Scotts Valley itself is almost exclusively Caucasian. I think the possibility of her being Hispanic should absolutely be considered. There have been a few cases of Hispanic immigrants being trafficked for labor in the more Northern areas of the county so that's certainly a plausible theory. I'll let you know if I'm able to get involved in the case in some way!
 
Since Arlene Kazuko Tsuji (who has been compared and ruled out) was 5 feet tall, I feel like LE are willing to consider a broader height range than the one listed. Also perhaps the note about long-term abuse indicates not only DV but perhaps someone that was imprisoned?

Just some ideas:

Julie King 599DFFL - Julie Alquisalas King is of Filipino heritage, 4'11" and missing since August-September 1991 though her husband did not report her missing. www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/23364?nav Her Namus doesn't show her being compared to this UID (she's been compared/ruled out to 4 others).

Tham Thi Nguyen last seen in CA in 1990 but there is very, very little detail on her case and the DLC is listed as 1 January which we've previously seen in cases where there is really no idea what date they went missing. Given the lack of other detail I wonder how true her height estimate of 5'2" is?
www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/12161/details?nav
3093DFCA - Tham Thi Nguyen
It's only a 2-hour drive from her missing location to Santa Cruz. Could she have been a victim of DV or worse?
Her Namus doesn't show that she's been compared to this UID.

Anna Jovita Mallari (not in Namus), 5 feet tall, missing from TX since 1988 with very few details. www.doenetwork.org/cases/675dftx.html
 
Melt71 said:
Since Arlene Kazuko Tsuji (who has been compared and ruled out) was 5 feet tall, I feel like LE are willing to consider a broader height range than the one listed. Also perhaps the note about long-term abuse indicates not only DV but perhaps someone that was imprisoned?

Just some ideas:

Julie King 599DFFL - Julie Alquisalas King is of Filipino heritage, 4'11" and missing since August-September 1991 though her husband did not report her missing. www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/23364?nav Her Namus doesn't show her being compared to this UID (she's been compared/ruled out to 4 others).

Tham Thi Nguyen last seen in CA in 1990 but there is very, very little detail on her case and the DLC is listed as 1 January which we've previously seen in cases where there is really no idea what date they went missing. Given the lack of other detail I wonder how true her height estimate of 5'2" is?
www.namus.gov/MissingPersons/Case#/12161/details?nav
3093DFCA - Tham Thi Nguyen
It's only a 2-hour drive from her missing location to Santa Cruz. Could she have been a victim of DV or worse?
Her Namus doesn't show that she's been compared to this UID.

Anna Jovita Mallari (not in Namus), 5 feet tall, missing from TX since 1988 with very few details. www.doenetwork.org/cases/675dftx.html
Click to expand...
Julie King seems like a good possibility but the distance seems a little off. Unless her husband has ties to California- Him not reporting her missing makes me suspicious.

Tham Nguyen also seems promising but also very hard to compare since there's NOTHING on her- No fingerprints, dentals, or DNA, not even a picture.
 
Natasha Mullins said:
Scotts Valley is a weird place, a lot of people in the Santa Cruz mountains go there to remove themselves from society. In the 70s-90s, it was a well-known dumping ground for bodies and we of course had the three serial killers up there, Ed Kemper being the most famous. I highly doubt she was from the area, the SC area has a very minimal Asian population now, and an Asian community would have been nonexistent in the 90s. It's more likely that she was dumped there and was from somewhere else, maybe San Jose. If she was from the valley, maybe she was a mail order bride or some sort of similar situation where she was not from the local area originally and was abused by her husband. If this was the case she may not have had a support system within the United States or friends that would report her missing.
Click to expand...
RSBM~
I'm mixed Asian and a lot of my Asian family grew up in and still lives in Santa Cruz. I'm not from Santa Cruz so not trying to hijack this but from everything I know, there's a small but present Filipino community there that my family is and was involved with (we're Filipino). My Lola ran with a group of older Filipino ladies in Santa Cruz - by no means a huge group but definitely there. I'd be curious to know if this Jane Doe was Filipino.
 

Santa Cruz Sentinel​

The Santa Cruz Sentinel - Santa Cruz, California · Tuesday, November 03, 1992, pg 3.
1669783526575.png

Whoever did this to her was a monster.

Additional clothing details: T-shirt with "Hawaii" on it. Underwear was K-Mart brand.

She's possibly South East Asian, LE states Laotian or Hmong. I think Filipino and Cambodian could be a possibility as well.
 
Last edited:
Census Data for California - 1990

Notable Northern Cal counties with Asian-American Populations:

San Francisco - 29.1%
Santa Clara - 17.5%
San Mateo - 16.8%
Alameda - 15.1%
Solano - 12.8%
San Joaquin - 12.4%
Contra Costa - 9.6%
Sutter - 9.4%
Sacramento - 9.3%
Yolo - 8.4%
Yuba - 8.4%
Monterey - 7.8%

Full population breakdowns available at the link.
 
Natasha Mullins said:
I also saw this case come up on the unidentified wiki yesterday, which is where I assume you found it. I grew up in Santa Cruz so this case really bothers me. I had come across it before when I searched all the Santa Cruz Doe cases but I hadn't gotten the abuse information so I assumed her case was one of the bodies that were frequently dumped in the mountains at that time (usually related to drug activity). The fact that she was abused really changes the whole tone of the case for me.

Scotts Valley is a weird place, a lot of people in the Santa Cruz mountains go there to remove themselves from society. In the 70s-90s, it was a well-known dumping ground for bodies and we of course had the three serial killers up there, Ed Kemper being the most famous. I highly doubt she was from the area, the SC area has a very minimal Asian population now, and an Asian community would have been nonexistent in the 90s. It's more likely that she was dumped there and was from somewhere else, maybe San Jose. If she was from the valley, maybe she was a mail order bride or some sort of similar situation where she was not from the local area originally and was abused by her husband. If this was the case she may not have had a support system within the United States or friends that would report her missing.

I'm putting this woman towards the top of my list of cases I follow now, I would hope I could find a way to use my local connection to help with this. Next time I'm in the area I might try to locate her grave. This poor woman clearly didn't have anyone close looking out for her, so it makes it even sadder that her case is so unknown now. I hope that this case will get the attention it deserves even if it's years after. I might write to some local newspapers about it to see if they'd consider talking about it again.
Click to expand...
thats exactly what happened to reina sweirski.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

DNASolves

Who is DeKalb County John Doe (2022)?

Members online

... and 148 more.
Total: 3,343 (members: 149, guests: 3,194)

Online statistics

Members online
149
Guests online
3,194
Total visitors
3,343
Totals may include hidden visitors.

Forum statistics

Threads
604,262
Messages
18,169,781
Members
232,243
Latest member
sleuth-nado
Back
Top