Transcription
Missing daughters of a murdered woman have been found alive 36 years after their mother was found murdered. This case is occurring right now. These two girls have just found out about their past, about their biological mother, and I'm going to bring you the story of what occurred, how these two girls survived all of that time, and also where the investigation is with the homicide of their mother.
You are such a genuine gem. Thank you for clicking on my video. I am Brooke McKenna and I am very grateful you are here. If you want to join our community where we focus on the victims and the survivors over the perpetrators and the killers, then go ahead and subscribe down below. We also have a genuine gym newsletter where you can sign up and I can send you my videos personally. I have a passion for telling survivor stories. I have a whole playlist down below. It is so incredible to find that in the true crime genre, there is stories of hope. These two girls went through so much in their very young lives and now are only finding the truth when they're in their 30s. But even then, not all of those answers have been found.
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Now, let's get back to the story. So, this was all the way back in 1989 when a woman's remains were located in Arizona. This was on December 12th and this woman was found by tourists who had gone off into this remote area and they actually believed she was a dead animal. Now, they called the police and upon closer inspection, they would find human remains. This Jane Doe was on Old Temple Bar Road near White Hills Road in Mojave County, which was this remote area about 50 miles south of Las Vegas. Now, this Jane Doe was wearing zero clothing. It appeared as though she had been stabbed several times, and the Mojave County Sheriff's Office determined that she had been killed at this scene less than 24 hours prior. They were finding her body right away. Now, she was deemed the White Hills Jane Doe, and this area where she was located was actually determined to be a dumping ground for other victims. She was actually the fourth homicide victim found in Mojave County in that year.
Well, she was the fourth and there were three others. I was only able to find two of those other Jane Does. But I think that the information behind those were very important. So I wanted to tell you about their cases as well because they often are mixed up with the White Hills Jane Doe. So there was the Mojave County Jane Doe who was a different woman than the White Hills Jane Doe. Mojave County Jane Doe was actually found 1.5 miles south of Kingman, Arizona on November 24th of 1989. So just a few weeks before this is only 35 minutes from where White Hills Jane Doe was located. A couple was walking their dog when they found these skeletal remains. This Jane Doe was believed to be from 25 to 30, about 5'1" to 5'5", and 115 to 120 lbs. Her body was already mummified in this thicket of brush, and she appeared to just have been left there. She was not even buried. She may have been of Jewish descent. She had her hair dyed red, but she did have blonde roots. Her fingers and toes were painted red and she had diamond and gold earrings. A floral print blouse and sunglasses were found near her body. This Jane Doe was ascertained to have been killed about 3 to 6 months prior to being located and her remains had been pulled all over the area by animals. There was a nearby motorcycle tire track and an indication of a strobe was found at the scene and with her remains. Her autopsy showed that her nose had been broken prior to her death and she had a possible hematoma on the back of her skull. It was determined that she had been beaten and blunt force trauma was a probable cause of death, though this could not be confirmed.
Now, an APB was sent out all over the state about missing person's cases that could possibly match the Mojave County Jane Doe, but none were a match to this woman. And another Jane Doe, the Jane Bullhead City Doe, was found on May 15th of 1989, so a few months prior to these two Jane Does. This was in Bullhead, Arizona, which was still in Mojave County. And a construction crew had actually located the skeletal remains buried in a vacant lot. It was believed that this girl was young. She was around 17 to 19 years old, believed to be a white female with dark or medium brown hair. She had extensive dental work done. Her upper two teeth were actually missing and replaced by a partial denture plate. One earring was found of a multicolored owl. And investigators believe that this Jane Doe could have died as early as 1979, 10 years prior. She was nicknamed Castleberry Kate. And a reconstruction photo was made by National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Even with the facial reconstruction, there were no matches to this Jane Doe. So all three Jane Does remained nameless for decades.
However, in 2022, the Mojave County Sheriff's Office Special Investigations Unit took a fresh look at a few cases, and that included the fourth homicide victim in 1989, which was the White Hills Jane Doe, the first Jane Doe we ever talked about. This woman was the one found stabbed to death the same day she was found. While reopening her case, investigators were able to use the updated fingerprinting technology through the federal and missing person's database, and they were able to identify this Jane Doe through her fingerprints as Maria Ortez of Bakersfield, California. These fingerprints had been obtained after a shoplifting arrest of Maria. Except even though they had this name, no one was claiming Maria Ortez as their family member. However, this was 33 years later and it was unknown if she had any family that were still alive. Detectives began to search for anybody who might have known this woman. They began working with the Bakersfield Police Department to lead them to anyone in the area who knew of her. And that is when they came to an alleged associate of this Jane Doe. They were able to contact them and they claimed they didn't know a Maria Ortiz, but they did know a woman named Marina Ramos who had vanished in 1989. So other family members were contacted of this Marina Ramos and they got their DNA sent in for testing. So in December of 2022, the White Hills Jane Doe got her name back. She was Marina Ramos. She had been born April 19th of 1961, and was 28 at the time of her disappearance. Marina's family were also able to inform investigators of a possible suspect. They claimed that the last person known to be with her was a man named Fernando and he might have lived in Ontario, California. This was a man who believed to be in his late 30s to 40s at the time. But that wasn't the most shocking information the family had because they would inform investigators that Marina was a mother. She had two small children who were 2 months and 14 months at the time she vanished. When she vanished, so did they. However, no children had been found near White Hills Jane Doe back in 1989. There was no evidence of any children ever being there. Family said the last time Marina was seen was in August of 1989. She was picking up her daughters in Bakersfield, California from her cousin Esther, who was watching the two while she was in jail for that shoplifting arrest. So, she picked up her daughters, Elizabeth and Jasmine, and they were all in a black SUV with a Hispanic male named Fernando. They were seen driving away from Bakersfield, headed for Ontario, California to start a new life. Now, Bakersfield, California was about 350 miles from where she was found murdered, and it was much further east than Ontario, California would have taken them.
By February 2023, the Mojave County Sheriff's Office announced that the White Hills Jane Doe had been identified. However, they were still needing help identifying this Fernando and even added a composite sketch of what he may have looked like back in 1989. This description was given by Marina's cousin Esther who back in August of 1989 was watching those girls and then was there when Marina came and picked the girls up and left with this man. Now, investigators did not know the nature of the relationship between Marina and Fernando and if there was a possibility of assault before she was killed. They spoke about looking for Marina's missing daughters who would have been 33 and 34 by that time. Investigator Lori Miller announced in an interview that the family would like to know what happened to those two girls and they hoped that they were just raised by somebody else and were still alive and thriving somewhere. The way in which she was killed and how she appeared, no human being deserves any of that. And so it just makes you a little bit more determined to try to get her some justice. She was right about right about in here. Like I said, her head was this way and her feet were this way. What I don't understand is why she was killed here. Even by today's standards, it's considered desolate. It's just a dirt road over near a windmill farm and a mobile home community. Talking to her her brothers and her sisters, her cousin. There was a little bit of wanderlust in her, a little bit of adventure, but at the same time, she lived in this small farming community and she wasn't exposed to the big world and what was lurking in there. And so, I think that's what happened. She just came across some people who provided information or had a demeanor that she felt that she was safe and turned out that she wasn't safe.
Investigator Miller stated that finding the status of these daughters have contributed to the urgency they have felt in resolving this longtime cold case. But the reopening of the investigation led investigators to believe that two individuals may have been involved in Marina's murder, possibly one standing anywhere from 5'10" to 6'2" and the other between 5'4" and 5'8". We located the biological father of the youngest girl, Jasmine, and we were able to interview him. To his knowledge, he had never had any contact with her after September of 1989. He had gone to Mexico. His mother had died. He's from Mexico. And when he returned, Marina was waiting for him with the two little girls and that there were two other gentlemen there. She told him that she was going to go to Puerto Rico because there had been a disaster there and that she was leaving with the two little girls. He described one of the guys as a male, Hispanic, brown hair, clean shaven, about 6' tall, muscular, as if he had just gotten out of prison. And the other gentleman, he couldn't describe because he remained in the car that they all got into what he believed was a red car and they took off and um he never saw her again. We were able to get his DNA which we have been able to put into the database. So now if any of the if the youngest girl if her DNA shows up for any reason anywhere that we have his DNA also he has been excluded as a possible suspect in this case. We showed that sketch to Jasmine's biological father. He had never seen him before. We do now have DNA of a male contributor unidentified on her body that we know had to be tied to her murder. It hasn't come up with a tie to anyone yet. Marina also may have traveled between Bakersfield, Los Angeles, Ontario, and Las Vegas, in the weeks before her death because this was about 4 months between the last time that she had been seen and when she was killed. Now, investigators also believe that Marina may have left her girls with someone she trusted, and they were unknowingly raised under different identities.
2 years later in August of 2025, just a month ago, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children released the first ever age-progressed photos of Elizabeth and Jasmine and what they may look like today at 37 and 36. Unfortunately, they were only working off of one old photo of Elizabeth with her mother and no known photos of Jasmine, who was only a month old at that time. Now, Marina's sister, Margaret, gave a message to the NCMEC, saying, "This has been a hard time for me and my family as we always wondered where the girls may be. We all have been hurting as a family for well over 30 years, not knowing where my wonderful, innocent baby nieces ended up. We just want to bring our family together again and get to know our nieces' family members. I hope by finding them, this will allow my sister to finally rest in peace knowing her sweet babies are safe here in this world and living wonderful lives. We hope you can please help us. If you have any information, please come forward."
"Doubt that she has been gone for 30 some years, you know. It's it's it's crazy. It's something that that I don't know. You can't find a word for it. It's like how, you know, we just want to find out what happened to the girls, you know? Yeah. We want to know where they're at. We want to look for them. They're not by themselves. They have family. I would like to meet them, you know, and he's it's part of my sister and I would like to even if they don't want to be around us because they don't know us, but at least if I stand far away and see them, I can see my sister, you know, sad. Yeah, it hurts."
Just weeks after that, there was a breakthrough in this case. Detectives had been using advanced genetic genealogy and located a woman whose DNA closely matched the Ramos family. But on August 27th of 2025, a forensic genealogist confirmed that the person that they found was most likely one of the missing sisters. Investigators then went to contact this woman 36 years after these sisters vanished. They would find that not only was this girl alive and well and one of the sisters, but her other sister was also alive and well. Their names were Melissa and Tina, but DNA confirmed they were the missing sisters Elizabeth and Jasmine. They had no idea their mother had been murdered. You see, back on December 14th of 1989, only a few days after their mother was murdered and found, these two girls had been discovered in Oxnard, California. A passerby at a public colonial park heard the sound of crying coming from the woman's restroom and alerted a nearby woman who ran inside and found two little girls lying on the wet floor with no adult in sight. They appeared to be completely abandoned with no way to figure out their identities. Neither could talk. The local police began searching to try to find their parents. The newspaper wrote an article titled, "Baby's Identities Sought County Searches for Parents" with a photo of the little girls. It then read that two weeks after this, no information had been found regarding the identities or why someone would leave these two healthy babies. It was stated that these children were placed in a foster home. They were receiving toys and gifts from several charities, but if their parents were not found soon, they could be put up for adoption. It was believed that these two girls were healthy. Nothing appeared to be wrong with them, and it didn't appear that they had been left in that bathroom for very long at all. But after many searches for their biological parents or any family members, the girls were placed in the foster care system in California, and they were later adopted by a couple in Ventura County, California. They were able to grow up side by side in a healthy loving environment, but without any knowledge of what happened to their biological family, especially not the murder of their mother. But due to the nature of this murder, it may have been better that they had no idea. They either could not remember or they were not there. They did eventually learn of their adoption in their teenage years, but their adoptive parents did not know any more about their past to tell them. All they knew was that they had been found abandoned in this park. The girls did not know that they were missing and that so many people were searching for them through the years.
ABC15 were actually able to get in contact with Melissa, who was originally Elizabeth, and Tina, who was Jasmine. Tina, who was the younger sister, had actually uploaded her DNA to the genealogy website, saying that she had been searching and wanting to find out about her biological family for such a long time. Tina now lives in Oregon, Melissa, in Arizona. And Melissa spoke about how when she was contacted by the investigator, Lorie Miller, who described herself as a homicide investigator, Melissa had a gut feeling it was about her parents. But both of the sisters were shocked at how similar the age-progressed photos had been based on one photo of them and photos of their mother.
"I grew up with the name Tina and just recently I found out my real name is Jasmine Ramos." "Didn't even know how to process what was being said. I didn't know what I was looking at at first and my husband was like, 'That's supposed to be you.' To learn that your mom was a victim and that she didn't leave you in that California park that that it was someone else. I was sad to know that my mom is gone and I will never be able to see her. Sorry, it still hits me a little bit. I was happy to know that all those like abandonment issues that I dealt with when I was a kid was like automatically released for me. You're reading this story of these two little girls who got abandoned and you're like, 'Supposedly, I don't really know how are you supposed to feel about that. It's like I was a baby so I don't remember. I want everyone to know that I'm okay. I'm here. I've lived a beautiful life. I have a wonderful husband. I would like to meet the family in person. As much of them, like I said, is that they would like to meet me. From there, it would just be how we feel together. I'm excited to do this. I'm excited to learn who I am, you know, learn who Jasmine Ramos is. We're doing good. And may the search continue for the next missing person."
"We always wanted to find them alive and it did happen. You don't know how much I pray. Now that we found the girls. Now we want to know who did this to my sister. It has now only been a month since the sisters discovered this news about their past and their mother. Both are now mothers themselves, and it has been an emotional process learning the truth. But the whole truth has still not been uncovered. Investigators were able to find that at the park where the sisters were abandoned, a witness had recalled seeing a Hispanic woman in a long red skirt and white boots and two Hispanic men near the children at the park. They were driving a black mini pickup truck with the woman carrying a young child wrapped in a yellow blanket while one of the men were carrying an older girl. Investigators believe that they could be suspects in the case, but they were never able to locate these individuals. It was unknown if either of the males matched the composite sketch made of Fernando. But the sheriff's office were so excited to announce that this part of the 36-year mystery has been solved. But the search for the suspects involved in the homicide of Marina Ramos continues, and anyone with information is urged to call 928-753-753 at extension 4408.
But what about the two other Jane Does who were found in that area and were also unsolved for years? Well, there was information that came out about the Mojave County Jane Doe found on November 24th of 1989, who was the Jane Doe that was found in the middle of the other two. And this had occurred 2 years later. So, in 1991, a witness had come forward stating that a few months after she was located, there was a man at a party in Kingman, Arizona, which is where that Jane Doe was found, who began stating that he killed a girl that was all over the news and had been found dead. This was allegedly a group of bikers. They were at this well-known house having this party. They were talking about war stories and horrific things that they had been through or they had done. And it was unknown if this was a true statement or just a rumor. But the man was only identified at that time by a nickname and allegedly could not be identified by police to be questioned.
"1989 time is approximately 11:45 hours. This will be homicide scene. Body at this time is lying with the left arm underneath the body extended with the right arm extended out. The carcass was pulled to this location by animals. Of all appearances, this area in here is where the fight occurred." "A person came into detectives and it it was it was probably a year later with some pretty specific information leading to a possible suspect. He said that he had indicated that he had killed her. Man is a small town where everybody knows everybody that quite possibly there would have been somebody out there that could have provided information for them to follow up on."
The case remained cold after that. Then in 2014 in the files of the case that had since gone cold, new detectives began looking into this case and following up about this witness of the man at the party. By then, it had been 26 years, and it was going to be even harder to get information. Investigator Lorie Miller was able to talk to two people who knew this man, this person of interest who claimed to have killed this Jane Doe. These two people were said to corroborate some of the same information as the original statement of the party. But this person of interest allegedly has a criminal past. He is allegedly still alive. But since so much time has passed, investigators have been unable to get a search warrant in order to locate possible evidence at his home.
"They shared with me some pretty substantial information that corroborated what the original gentleman said in 1991." "Unfortunately, by the time I had it, it was considered not good enough. It was considered stale and I could not get a search warrant as a result. His background fits the profile. His physical stature fits the profile."
Now, the Mojave County Jane Doe does have a DNA profile made for her at this time, which has been uploaded to the public genealogy websites, but there have been no matches thus far on her identity. Mojave County Sheriff's Office is asking for anyone with knowledge about the Kingman party back in 1989 or this person of interest to come forward. They're giving $2,500 in reward money and you can call them at the same number as the White Hills Jane Doe or Marina Ramos.
But the other Jane Doe, Jane Bullhead City Doe or Castleberry Kate found on May 15th of 1989, has not had any updates since her discovery. Again, investigators believed that she was dead and buried from a few years to 10 years prior to when she was found. Her dental records have been submitted, but no matches have been found to identify her. Multiple missing women have been compared to Castleberry Kate, and they have all been ruled out. Nobody knows who this young woman was or what happened to her.
This case is a beautiful outcome for these two sisters, these two daughters of the murdered woman. But there is still so much to be done in the homicide investigations of all three Jane Does and the identity of two of them. While I searched for the fourth homicide victim in the area of Mojave County during 1989, I was unable to locate them. Please let me know if you know down below who this was and hopefully they have been identified and their case solved. Maybe that is why I could not find much information. I hope it is not yet another Jane Doe. But it is very strange that four homicide victims, three confirmed Jane Does were found in one year. Is this due to the remoteness of this kind of desert area?
Do you think that this Fernando had anything to do with Marina Ramos's homicide? Did he take her with the girls determined to kill her? Did something go wrong? That was four months after they left. Did they ever go to this Fernando's alleged house that was in Ontario, California? Did they ever make it there? And if so, were the girls with them this entire time? How did she end up in Mojave County near Las Vegas? I feel like Marina did not abandon her children. I feel like there is no way that she would have left them behind anywhere unless it was to keep them safe, which was my original thought was that maybe she had left them in this bathroom in the park, hoping that somebody would find them. It was a public area in the woman's restroom, which a woman would be more likely to help, be nurturing, have that motherly instinct to get these girls help. But after hearing that a witness saw these three Hispanic people and Fernando was described as a Hispanic man, I wonder if it was possibly Fernando and maybe even family members of Fernando that placed them there after Marina was killed. I wonder if maybe they had killed Marina, didn't know what to do with the girls, thankfully did not harm them, and left them somewhere to be found.
Either way, I'm so happy that this is a survival story, and I love how Marina's family was stating that now she can rest in peace because her daughters have finally been reunited with the family and they all know that they are safe. So happy that cases do end up like this. It gives hope to so many people and parents of missing people because even after 36 years of not knowing if these girls were alive or dead or if they had been killed the same time as Marina and it turned out that they were living a good life. They had a good family. They were raised together. That is something that you know with a foster system you don't always get to stay with your sibling. And so it is beautiful that this couple adopted them and raised them together and also allowed them to know that they had been adopted and about their past and allowed them to seek those answers for themselves. I bet that this is extremely excruciating. And if they're watching this video, I want to send all of my love about learning all this stuff because even though they had survived, this news is not the most amazing for them. They do get to know who their family is, but they also now know that they do not have a biological mother who is alive to speak to. I bet it's kind of a double-edged sword. They know that they were not abandoned by her. Her life was taken and she was not able to raise them. And I'm sure that that is kind of a relief. But then on the other hand, knowing that your mother suffered, that you won't ever get to speak to her again. I can't imagine the pain. But I am just so happy that these girls have gotten answers, that the family has gotten answers, but now I think what they all need is the truth about how she was murdered and who did this and for justice to be served. I think that that is the closing chapter of this incredible case. I I just have this peaceful feeling in my heart that Marina Ramos is looking down on her girls and so incredibly grateful that investigators didn't give up and that finally they know who they are and they know their mother. But I just want to remind Melissa and Tina that it is okay if this is a lot for you and it is okay if you need to take all of this information and absorb it slowly. If you need to take time to process it and I can't even begin to imagine everything that they are thinking and feeling. So please leave some nice comments down below for them. Leave some encouraging words and leave some support because I think that that is what they really need right now. Thank you so much for listening to another survival story. I will leave the playlist down below. Also, don't forget to download June's Journey down below and get excited for their 8th year anniversary surprises. Don't forget to speak up. Your voice is powerful enough and I love you to absolute pieces. See you next Sunday. Bye. Oh, and also, if you didn't catch it, I uploaded a midweek video, another Breaking with Brooke, where we covered a few cases that have gone crazy in the media, and I have a lot of misinformation surrounding them. So, I cover the facts and what is just rumored in that case. I will link that below as well. Okay, bye.