Found Deceased CA - Wendy J. Abrams-Nishikai, 21, Berkeley, 31 October 1989
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Hi j.a.,
I am checking back in on this case from time to time. I noticed today that Wendy's husband filed for dissolution of marriage three years to the day that that Jane Doe in Placerville was found. I have submitted the tip to the Calfornia regional contact at NamUs and will post if I get a response. Fingers crossed.
It has been two weeks since I submitted to NamUs and contacted Berkeley PD again, and I’ve received no response from NamUs.
I received the attached boilerplate email response from BPD. I’ll bug them again after Christmas I guess.
Attachments
She has been positively identified.
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Ugh, this definitely could've been solved earlier. Glad to hear it nonetheless. Rest in peace, Wendy.
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Remains found near Colfax identified as Berkeley woman missing since 1989
The Placer County Sheriff's Office announced a Jane Doe cold case breakthrough on Monday.
www.cbsnews.com
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"There's the closure that we thought we might never have. And for me, it may not sound like it here, but it's like my first time in 35 years to be able to begin to grieve," said Dale Abrams over a phone call with KCRA 3.
Berkeley 21-year-old who went missing on Halloween in 1989 identified from remains in Placer County
Human remains found more than three decades ago in Placer County have been identified as belonging to a Berkeley woman who disappeared on Halloween night.
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Hey have you seen this?
WAY TO GO
www.dailymail.co.uk
WAY TO GO
Online sleuths show up police by solving death of woman
Wendy Abrams-Nishikai was a 21-year-old UC Berkeley student with a young daughter when she disappeared on October 31, 1989.
This is a weirdly painful day. Wendy was a neighbor and childhood friend. She was listed as (and treated as!) voluntarily missing… but among her friends there was always, ALWAYS the understanding that she had been murdered (she would not have left her child willingly). There was always painfully little on her Doe Network entry, and her NamUs entry. They said almost nothing. Nada. No details were supplied… it was maddening.
So, to read today that Placer County *finally* agrees that she was murdered, is a surprisingly tough thing to read.
You know it, and then you really know it. I know I have a lot of company here on WS with this feeling. There is also an unexpected swelling of pride in this forum for the members who found the Jane Doe and who kept the pressure on Berkeley PD and Placer Co. PD to finally get the remains tested.
Rest in peace, Wendy Abrams. You have your name back. And we did not, and will not, forget you.
So, to read today that Placer County *finally* agrees that she was murdered, is a surprisingly tough thing to read.
You know it, and then you really know it. I know I have a lot of company here on WS with this feeling. There is also an unexpected swelling of pride in this forum for the members who found the Jane Doe and who kept the pressure on Berkeley PD and Placer Co. PD to finally get the remains tested.
Rest in peace, Wendy Abrams. You have your name back. And we did not, and will not, forget you.
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Dear getthefax,
I am so sorry you lost your friend. I appreciate you coming to Websleuths to discuss Wendy's case. You all should feel good because you did not let law enforcement forget Wendy. Thank you so much.
Tricia
I am so sorry you lost your friend. I appreciate you coming to Websleuths to discuss Wendy's case. You all should feel good because you did not let law enforcement forget Wendy. Thank you so much.
Tricia
This has always interested me. She was an attractive young woman, a married mother of a 2 two year old daughter, and a student at a major University. (She was separated from her husband and her daughter, who is alive and well today, was evidently not with her when she vanished.) Her background was upper middle class, she went to an expensive private high school. She had family and friends in Berkeley where she was living when she vanished who had the wherewithal to advocate on her behalf.
She fits the profile perfectly of someone who would receive a lot of Law Enforcement and media attention if she were to go missing. Yet she didn’t. She was listed as Voluntary Missing and her case got little attention. Sure, it isn’t uncommon for a College student to take off for a few days without telling anyone but, at some point, concern is raised and it should be treated as suspicious and a possible abduction-murder. But there is no indication that it ever was. The only reason I can see for this is that friend or family provided information that suggested there was still some reason to believe that it was voluntary or a suicide. There is nothing I have read to confirm this but you never know.
I am very familiar with the area the body was found. I don’t know the exact spot but it was six miles or so down a dirt road. The road was definitely drivable for a normal car but rough and slow going. You would not expect someone, looking to dump a body, to drive that far. There would have been plenty of suitable places with in a mile.
Wendy was wearing outdoor type clothes and there was a backpack with a sleeping bag and some warmer clothes found near her. Could she have been hiking/backpacking alone. I’m not certain that the backpack belonged to her but along that road would be a very unusual spot to find a lost or abandoned backpack. This is not a known backpacking area but it is forested with no people or development and minimal traffic. She could have taken a Bus to Colfax and been walking down that road to camp.
Stranger, however, were the insulin type syringes found near her body. Was Wendy diabetic? Syringes suggest drug overdose or possible suicide. The badly decomposed body showed no signs of trauma or possible cause of death and no toxicology screen was reported.
If that backpack belonged to her, she was almost certainly there on her own accord. Going on a backpacking trip by herself during the school year without telling anyone does not sound like normal behavior. Did she have a history of substance abuse, depression or suicidal ideation? This may not have been a homicide.
She fits the profile perfectly of someone who would receive a lot of Law Enforcement and media attention if she were to go missing. Yet she didn’t. She was listed as Voluntary Missing and her case got little attention. Sure, it isn’t uncommon for a College student to take off for a few days without telling anyone but, at some point, concern is raised and it should be treated as suspicious and a possible abduction-murder. But there is no indication that it ever was. The only reason I can see for this is that friend or family provided information that suggested there was still some reason to believe that it was voluntary or a suicide. There is nothing I have read to confirm this but you never know.
I am very familiar with the area the body was found. I don’t know the exact spot but it was six miles or so down a dirt road. The road was definitely drivable for a normal car but rough and slow going. You would not expect someone, looking to dump a body, to drive that far. There would have been plenty of suitable places with in a mile.
Wendy was wearing outdoor type clothes and there was a backpack with a sleeping bag and some warmer clothes found near her. Could she have been hiking/backpacking alone. I’m not certain that the backpack belonged to her but along that road would be a very unusual spot to find a lost or abandoned backpack. This is not a known backpacking area but it is forested with no people or development and minimal traffic. She could have taken a Bus to Colfax and been walking down that road to camp.
Stranger, however, were the insulin type syringes found near her body. Was Wendy diabetic? Syringes suggest drug overdose or possible suicide. The badly decomposed body showed no signs of trauma or possible cause of death and no toxicology screen was reported.
If that backpack belonged to her, she was almost certainly there on her own accord. Going on a backpacking trip by herself during the school year without telling anyone does not sound like normal behavior. Did she have a history of substance abuse, depression or suicidal ideation? This may not have been a homicide.
She was wearing clothing that was too light for the season, in my opinion, but I hadn’t heard of the backpack, so that may have a change of clothes.
I’m from both the area where she was found and the Bay Area. My husband actually started Cal Berkeley, where Wendy attended, that fall.
One thing I just thought of is classes had been cancelled just before she went missing. The Loma Prieta earthquake occurred October 17, 1989. My husband thinks only one day of classes were canceled, though. Just an odd coincidence.
RIP Wendy
Webslueths is directly quoted/linked in the article.
Webslueths is directly quoted/linked in the article.
I spend a lot of time in the foothills at that altitude. Weather can vary a lot. Days can be warm; in the 80’s or higher. Nights can be cool but probably not freezing. I can also be rainy. It would be interesting to know the weather in the area at the time. Oct 31st was a Tuesday. Did she have a car? Where was it found?
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“While her death is still under investigation and the case is ongoing, we hope this identification provides some closure to her surviving family members after 35 years of uncertainty,” the sheriff’s office wrote in its statement.
www.eastbaytimes.com
Three-decade-old human remains identified as woman who vanished in Berkeley
Authorities had been seeking the ID since 1990, when the remains were found in Colfax.
www.eastbaytimes.com
My family still lives in this immediate area near Colfax, and I don’t want to speak for everyone, but as a native Northern California girl, I would never wear a tank top and shorts on Halloween. The highs were in the high 60s this year (lows mid-40s) right where she was found.
It is nowhere near warm enough at that time of year, even midday, and it’s also colder in Colfax than Berkeley at that time of year. I have no idea what it means, probably nothing, but I think the clothing is notably odd for a girl only slightly older than me that lived in the same towns as I. I would not have worn that to go hiking. It makes me think she was not outdoors long. Jmo
MerryMarple
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Hello everyone. This is my first post on Websleuths.
Did Wendy have short hair at the time of her disappearance? The facial reconstruction of Jane Colfax Doe has short hair but all the photos of Ms. Abrams show she had long hair. It appears the unidentified remains had hair as it was listed as brown, but a length was not specified. The discrepancies in the physical description of the unidentified remains as appeared in the 1990 articles and some websites is a little confusing.
Congrats to all the sleuths who remained tenacious in their efforts to alert law enforcement to the identification of Wendy Abrams-Nishikai.
Did Wendy have short hair at the time of her disappearance? The facial reconstruction of Jane Colfax Doe has short hair but all the photos of Ms. Abrams show she had long hair. It appears the unidentified remains had hair as it was listed as brown, but a length was not specified. The discrepancies in the physical description of the unidentified remains as appeared in the 1990 articles and some websites is a little confusing.
Congrats to all the sleuths who remained tenacious in their efforts to alert law enforcement to the identification of Wendy Abrams-Nishikai.
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