Identified! CA - Westlake Village, HispFem 18-30, UP11249, pregnant, in parking lot, Jul'80. Maricela Rocha Parga

[Friday Fan]

I'm glad that her family is in the US. With the way the DNA was going, I was afraid, it wouldn't be that way. It's good to know that she was working and going to school etc. If she had just been here alone from Mexico, I don't think we would have known much more about her than her name and a few pictures. Likewise, if her family was in Mexico, they may not have known what she was up to in the US.


I'm wouldn't be surprised if Chouest met her while she is working as a waitress...

The coffee shop that Chouest said he picked a woman up was at W Sunset and LaBrea.

 

[Friday Fan]

Sotera is Maricela's great grandmother. Her mother Catarina passed away when Sotera was 5 years old. Her father Martin passed away when she was 12. Somewhere around then, Sotera was adopted by her maternal aunt Paula Montellano, and Sotera's surname was changed to Hernandez. All subsequent records mentioning her name referenced her as Sotera Hernandez, daughter of Vicente Hernandez and Paula Montellano.

Well, that's totally confusing!!!!

I noticed that in Family Search, Martin Parga had some sons and I thought maybe that was the relationship.

You guys must have had to go to Mexico or something like that to figure this out!

 

[CarlK90245]

Well, that's totally confusing!!!!

I noticed that in Family Search, Martin Parga had some sons and I thought maybe that was the relationship.

You guys must have had to go to Mexico or something like that to figure this out!

We knew it wasn't one of the sons due to some very technical issues with how x-chromosome segments pass from generation to generation. X Chromosome segments cannot pass from father to son. They can only pass from father to daughter, mother to son, or mother to daughter.

An x chromosome segment originating from Martin Parga's mother (Maria de Jesus Lira) could not pass from Martin to a son, so the subsequent ancestral generation below Martin had to be female.

The records are all available in FamilySearch. However, in the birth records where grandparents are named, the grandparents' names aren't indexed, and are not searchable. Only the person born and his/her parents are searchable. You have to actually read the documents to get the names of the grandparents.

 

[EmiliaRT007]

Her name is Maricela Rocha Parga. She was 22 years old at the time of her death.

I can’t believe it… I was thinking about her recently, actually. I was wondering if any progress was made on her case… glad there was! Rest easy, Maricela, and may your unborn child rest easy too.