CA CA - Indio, MultFemale, 35-45, UP7218, hands cleanly removed at wrists w/ sharp instrument, burned, Feb.'77

[citizen_sleuth]

NamUs #UP7218

Demographics
Sex: Female
Race/Ethnicity: White / Caucasian, Hispanic / Latino
Estimated Age Group: Adult - Pre 50
Estimated Age Range (Years): 35-45
Estimated Year of Death: 1977
Estimated PMI: 1 Day
Height: 5'4" (64 inches), Measured
Weight: 150 lbs, Estimated

Circumstances
Type: Unidentified Deceased
Date Body Found: February 25, 1977
NamUs Case Created: May 24, 2010
ME/C QA Reviewed: N/A
Location Found: Indio, California
County: Riverside County
Circumstances of Recovery: This body was found on a dirt frontage road nineteen miles east of Indio. The body was nude, both hands amputated at the wrists, and burned. The body was partially concealed with brush and debris. This investigation has been unable to establish her identification.
Inventory of Remains: One or both hands not recovered
Condition of Remains: Not recognizable - Decomposing/putrefaction

Physical Description
Hair Color: Black
Head Hair Description: It is believed that she had shoulder length black hair, possibly longer. With the fire it was difficult to determine
Distinctive Physical Features: Both hands had been removed at the wrist with a sharp instrument leaving a clean incision

Clothing and Accessories
- None

 

[heartanium]

27 February 1977 - The San Bernardino County Sun, pg 26

27 February 1977 - The Sacramento Bee, pg 9

28 February 1977 - The Desert Sun, pg 2

Interesting that the PMI says one day on Namus while reports 3 weeks.

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Approx. location

 

[iulia]

#1977-38247 | Riverside County Sheriff, CA

This female body was found in the open desert north of I-10 freeway and east of the Cactus City rest stop area, concealed under brush that had been set afire.

www.riversidesheriff.org

Circumstances: This woman had been shot to death, her hands removed at the wrists with a sharp instrument, and her body burned. It is believed that she was not killed where she was found. No identification has ever been found for her and no missing person has been associated with her case.

Features or distinguishing marks: The body had been burned and no scars, tattoos or disfigurements could be seen. She does have extensive dental work (see below).

Her Doe Network page: 1378UFCA

 

[FlyOfDragons]

Jane Doe's NamUs page was updated for the first time in a little over 2.5 years yesterday (Jan. 29, 2026). There are no new exclusions listed, and there don't seem to be any publicly visible changes. It should also be noted that at least a couple other Does in Riverside County also had their NamUs pages updated yesterday

 

[Richard]

The newspaper accounts posted earlier by heartanium speak of two unsolved murders. I do not see any direct connection between them, except that they occurred within a year of each other and both were at the time still unsolved.

The unknown woman whose body hands were cut off and then her body burned in the desert is somewhat similar to the case of Lompoc Jane Doe who was murdered about July 1969 by multiple stab wounds and left in a quarry near Lompoc, CA. A possible suspect in that murder was a guy named Manuel who traveled from Salinas, CA to Phoenix, AZ about the time of her death.

Manuel was never charged with murder in California (or in Michigan where he had also lived), but he was closely associated with John Norman Collins, a convicted murderer and suspect in a series of murders of young women. See John Norman Collins thread in the Serial Killer section of Websleuths.