Identities of Two Sisters Found in Oxnard in 1989 Revealed Following Leads in Homicide Cold Case

Two sisters abandoned in an Oxnard park restroom in 1989 have been identified as the daughters of an Arizona homicide victim, closing one half of a decades-old mystery while reinvigorating the search for her killer, authorities said.

The case began on Dec. 12, 1989, when a nude woman was found stabbed to death off Old Temple Road in Mohave County, Arizona, about 50 miles south of Las Vegas. Investigators recovered a DNA profile and later entered it into CODIS, but they could not identify the victim or any suspects at the time, according to a press release.

Two days later in Oxnard, a passerby heard crying inside a public restroom at a park. Police found two girls on the wet floor without any adult present and placed them into Ventura County foster care; the sisters were later adopted together and raised in a local home, officials said.

In February 2022, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office (MCSO) investigators submitted the victim’s fingerprints to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System for FBI analysis. A match linked the prints to a June 1989 shoplifting arrest in Kern County for a woman using the name “Maria Ortiz.”

Leads led detectives to a Tennessee contact who said “Ortiz” matched her cousin, Marina Ramos, who disappeared in 1989. Investigators determined “Maria Ortiz” was an alias for Ramos and learned she was last seen with her two young daughters: 14‑month‑old Elizabeth and 2‑month‑old Jasmine.

After years of public appeals and family DNA submissions, investigators in August 2025 located a woman with a strong DNA connection to Ramos’s relatives. During a call, she said she and her sister had been abandoned in an Oxnard park in December 1989. Her sister corroborated the account and provided old newspaper clippings and photos. DNA samples confirmed the women—known by their adoptive names Tina and Melissa, according to SFGATE—are Ramos’s daughters, Elizabeth and Jasmine.

Detectives are now focused on finding Ramos’s killer. A witness reported seeing Ramos—a Hispanic woman in a long red skirt and white boots—at the Oxnard park with two Hispanic men and a black mini pickup truck; one man was carrying a child wrapped in a yellow blanket. MCSO previously released a composite sketch of a man known only as “Fernando,” but no arrests have been made.

“Finding the daughters alive and well was overwhelmingly satisfying and a victory in a case that has continued to be a challenge,” lead investigator Lori Miller told SFGATE. “Now the challenge becomes to identify Marina’s killers.”

Anyone with information is urged to contact the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office at 928-753-0753, ext. 4408.