The Orange County Sheriff's Department has identified a possible homicide victim whose remains were found in a sewer 41 years ago.
DNA testing ultimately helped sheriff's investigators identify the woman as Maritza Glean Grimmett, who was 20 years old at the time of her disappearance.
Orange County Sheriff's Sgt. Frank Gonzalez said it took our investigators “an incredible amount of patience to work on a complex case like this.”
“They do it to close the family; that is what kept them in this particular case,” González said. “She has been a mystery since 1983, when the family last spoke to her. “They have expressed nothing but gratitude to our researchers.”
Grimmett's remains were discovered in 1983 when children playing in a culvert near Canada and Old Trabuco Roads in Lake Forest stumbled upon a human skull, authorities said. An excavation uncovered approximately 70% of a woman's remains.
Although the official cause of death is listed as undetermined, a homicide is suspected, according to the sheriff's department.
An anthropological examination showed that the victim was a black or mixed-race woman, aged 18 to 24, 5ft 3 to 5ft 6, with a slim build and a distinctive gold tooth. Efforts to identify the victim over the years were unsuccessful.
In 1978, Grimmett, a Panama native, married a U.S. Marine, moved to the United States and had a daughter, according to the sheriff's department. The following year, the couple filed for divorce and Grimmett told her sister that she was moving to California. Her family never heard from her again, the sheriff's department said in a statement.
In 2022, a DNA sample from the victim was sent to a laboratory and a genetic profile was obtained with the help of the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, which funded the DNA extraction and testing. A direct family line for Jane Doe could not be established and multiple forensic renderings of the woman were published over the years.
In late 2023, investigators contacted a distant genetic relative of the victim, who suggested that forensic renderings of Jane Doe be posted to a Facebook group for Jane Does and missing women from the 1970s and 1980s, according to the sheriff's department.
About a month after publication, a woman contacted investigators and said she believed Lake Forest Jane Doe could be her missing mother. Grimmett's relatives submitted DNA samples and the sheriff's department was finally able to identify her this year.
Investigators continue to investigate Grimmett's case. Anyone with information about this case is asked to contact Investigator Bob Taft at (714) 647-7045 or [email protected]. Anonymous tips can be submitted to OC Crime Stoppers at (855) TIP-OCCS ([855] 847-6227) or at occrimestoppers.org.
