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California Sisters Missing 36 Years Found Alive as Probe Refocuses on Mother's 1989 Killing

Familial DNA confirmed the sisters' identities following a 2022 fingerprint match that named their mother, shifting efforts to her unsolved killing.

The girls were adopted into a loving family in Ventura, Calif.
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The two abandoned girls were found by a passerby in a park in Oxnard, Calif., on Dec. 14, 1989.
Composite sketch of the man known only as “Fernando,” shared by Arizona police, who are trying to determine who killed Marina Ramos in 1989.

Overview

  • Authorities said DNA and genealogical analysis in August and September 2025 confirmed the women as Jasmin and Elizabeth Ramos, who had lived under adoptive names.
  • The sisters were found as infants on Dec. 14, 1989, abandoned on the wet floor of a women's restroom in an Oxnard park, then placed in foster care and later adopted together in Ventura County.
  • Their mother, Marina Ramos of Bakersfield, was found stabbed to death on Dec. 12, 1989, in Mohave County, Arizona, and was identified in 2022 when her fingerprints matched an alias, Maria Ortiz, from a 1989 arrest.
  • Investigators are seeking tips after a witness reported seeing a Hispanic woman in a long red skirt and white boots with two Hispanic men and the children near a black mini pickup, and a composite sketch of a man known as 'Fernando' has been released.
  • The Mohave County Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Unit reopened the cold case, leveraged CODIS, NamUs and commercial genealogy, and is asking the public to call 928-753-0753 ext. 4408 with information.