A human skull found by children playing in an old drain has been identified as the remains of a missing mum who disappeared 41 years ago.
Maritza Glean Grimmett was 20 when she told her sister she was going to California.
It was the last she heard from her.
The young woman, a Panamanian native, had married a US Marine in the summer of 1978 and gave birth to a daughter shortly after, as reported on Need To Know.
READ MORE: $25,000 reward offered for info about woman who disappeared on cruise over 25 years ago
In late 1978, the family moved to the US, but in the summer of 1979, the couple began divorce proceedings.
Maritza told her sister she was moving to the west coast but was never spoken to again.
Bob Taft of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department told local media: “Her family members passed never knowing what ever happened to her.”
Four years later, in April of 1983, a group of children were playing in an old culvert in Orange County, California, when they found a human skull.
Investigators excavated the site and found 70% of a woman’s remains.
An anthropology examination revealed the woman was black or biracial, between 18 and 24, had a slight build and stood between 5ft 3 and 5ft 6. She also had a gold tooth.
The remains were found in what is now known as the city of Lake Forest, so investigators called the woman ‘Lake Forest Jane Doe’.
For years, the quest to identify Lake Forest Jane Doe came to no avail.
But after cold case investigators began working with the FBI’s Regional Genealogy Team, they found a direct family line for the mystery woman.
In late 2023, they posted the details in a Facebook group for Jane Does and missing women found in the 1970s and 80s.
Just one month later, a woman contacted investigators and said it could be her missing mother.
After relatives submitted DNA sample, the victim was positively identified as Maritza.
Police have now opened a murder investigation.
READ MORE: Sale of cooker that costs just £1.50 sparks stampede and brawls at store
