Nearly five decades after a teenage girl’s body was found buried in a rural Kern County vineyard, investigators say they have finally restored her name: Michelle Louise Collier, a 15-year-old from Fresno whose killing remains unsolved.
The Kern County Sheriff’s Department announced the identification during a Tuesday news conference. Collier was last seen in February 1978, months before a tractor operator discovered her remains that June in a shallow grave in an Arvin vineyard.
“When the unidentified remains were recovered in 1978, DNA technology did not exist. Identification depended primarily on fingerprints, and dental records,” the sheriff’s office said, adding that the evidence available at the time was not enough to determine who she was.
For 48 years, the case sat among Kern County’s unresolved homicides, until advances in forensic DNA testing and genetic genealogy gave investigators a new path forward.
“In 2007, Coroner personnel discovered DNA samples had not been collected in 1978, leading to the exhumation of the remains to obtain a DNA sample,” the sheriff’s department said.
That DNA profile was entered into an existing database, but no immediate match surfaced. The major break came later, authorities said, when one of Collier’s relatives submitted information to a commercial genealogy database, allowing investigators to make the long-sought connection.
At the news conference, family member Cynthia Dunbar spoke about the emotional weight of finally knowing what happened and being able to bring home the girl they knew as “Shelley.”
“To our sister Shell. You didn’t deserve to die this way, Shelley,” Dunbar said. “Barely 15 years old, still a child with your whole life ahead of you. I’m sorry that we didn’t protect you.”
The family also had a message for Collier’s killer.
“Your cowardice act affected our entire family — but make no mistake, law enforcement will find you and hold you accountable,” Dunbar said.
“Whether you are already incarcerated or dead, you will be found. May God bless your soul, because you are going to hell, if you’re not there already,” she added.
The sheriff’s department said the investigation will continue.
“We at the Kern County Sheriff’s office are grateful to finally reunite Michelle with her family after 48 years and to finally restore Michelle’s name and provide her family with long-awaited answers,” the sheriff’s office said.
Michelle’s case remains open and authorities are asking for anyone with information to come forward.
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