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.

 

[JennyJukes]

Wellll I've been emotional all day about this and couldn't hop on and watch 'til now (special educator life). You all know I've been waiting for this for years. ENDLESS THANK YOUS to Carl, of course, and all members of her DNA Doe team for bringing her home. Her case is a good example of amazing people tackling what appears to be an insurmountable task. Not only is she finally able to rest peacefully, this also, I believe, will bring in a new era of Does with complex genetic genealogy cases being identified. I am thinking especially of our Hispanic and Latino Does since their genealogy can be tough, there's a LOT of them, and Latinos in general are already so underrepresented in DNA databases.

For anyone who didn't watch the press conference or didn't catch all the details, here's what was discussed: Maricela was a mom of a 2 y/o at the time of her death (Accounting for previous pregnancy history), and was of course expecting her second child then. Maricela was born in Mexico, and was living in Los Angeles when Wilson Chouest took her life. She was working as a waitress during the day and attending nursing school at night. Her family realized she was missing when she didn't bring a cake (which she had planned to do) to her younger sister's birthday party. Tragic and terrible, not only for the world to lose someone in such a violent way, but for the child who lost their mother, the family who lost their loved one, all her friends and everyone who cared for her...and for Maricela herself for her suffering.

Say her name - MARICELA - and let her be at peace at long last.

oh wow! i wonder if her family know she was pregnant? she was 5 months right and probably showing? and the father didn't know she was pregnant? i wonder what the family knew about it.

rip maricela - so glad she has been identified!