LAS VEGAS (KLAS) Two sisters, discovered abandoned and crying in a park restroom in 1989, have now learned the names their birth mother gave them, a woman they likely do not recall.
A murder case that stalled for 33 years saw significant progress in February 2022 when forensic experts were able to obtain fingerprints in an attempt to identify a woman who was discovered stabbed in the desert approximately 50 miles south of Las Vegas. This was supplemented by DNA evidence obtained in 1989, leading to the identification of the victim as Marina Ramos.
Following the discovery, investigators continued to follow leads after a relative disclosed that the deceased had left behind a 2-month-old and a 14-month-old daughter at the time of her disappearance.
The saga involving Ramos and her daughters, Jasmin and Elizabeth, is still developing. Last week, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office announced that two women have been confirmed as Ramos’s daughters through DNA matches.
The case’s narrative reveals that the two little girls were found roughly 400 miles from where their mother’s body was located. They were discovered on a wet restroom floor in Oxnard, California, on Dec. 14, 1989, just two days after their mother’s body was discovered on Old Temple Bar Road off White Hills Road in Mohave County.
Investigators reported that a passerby heard the sounds of crying children coming from the women’s restroom and asked a woman to investigate. She discovered the girls on the floor without any adults in sight. The children were subsequently taken to the police and later placed in the care of Child Protective Services.
After that, the girls were placed into foster care and stayed there for “a significant amount of time.” The girls were eventually adopted by a couple in Ventura County and were raised together.
Few details were released about the grown sisters. One lives in Tennessee. They kept newspaper clippings and photos from the Oxnard Press-Courier. An article about the case was posted on MissingKids.org.
8 News Now has followed the case, posting stories about Marina Ramos’s identification in 2023 and a story containing “age-processed” images of the girls last month.
Updates on the case have come through the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office Special Investigations Unit.
Investigators did not say how they were able to connect the two women to the case. It’s possible that they saw media reports about the effort to find the daughters.
“While we are excited to announce that one part of this 36-year-old mystery has been solved, the search for the suspects involved in the homicide of Marina Ramos continues,” according to the sheriff’s office.
“A witness in the area told officers that she had observed a woman and two men with the children at the park. They were observed driving a black mini pickup. The witness saw the woman carrying the smaller child in a yellow blanket and one of the males carrying the older child. The woman was described as a Hispanic female wearing a long red skirt and white boots. The two males were only described as Hispanic,” the sheriff’s office said.
Anyone with information on this incident is encouraged to call the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office at 928-753-0753 ext. 4408.
