17-year-old found dead in California vineyard in 1979 is now identified, officials say
The girl left her Pennsylvania home in 1979 under “unknown circumstances,” officials said. A 17-year-old girl found dead in a California vineyard in 1979 has been identified as 17 year old Karen Marie Heverly, identified by the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department. The girl had been found with traumatic injuries and her manner of death was determined to be homicide. In 2023, the department’�s cold case homicide team reopened the case and sent DNA samples from the girl to a lab specializing in forensic DNA testing. Heeverly had left her parents' home in Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania at age 16 and had been identified by police. The investigation remains ongoing.
Published : a month ago by Paloma Chavez in General
A teen found dead in a California vineyard 45 years ago has been identified, officials said.
In June 1979, a worker found a body in a Rancho Cucamonga vineyard, according to an April 3 news release from the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department.
The girl had traumatic injuries and investigators determined her manner of death to be homicide, deputies said.
In 2023, the department’s cold case homicide team worked with the coroner division and reopened the case, officers said.
DNA samples were taken from the girl and sent to a lab specializing in forensic DNA testing, officials said.
After following leads provided by the lab, the girl was identified as 17-year-old Karen Marie Heverly of Jersey Shore, Pennsylvania, officers said.
Heverly left her parents’ home in Jersey Shore under “unknown circumstances” at age 16, deputies said.
“Now this person can have a marked grave. Her family can have somewhere to visit and have some of the answers as to what happened to their loved one,” Lydia Ansel, cofounder of the Las Vegas Justice League and Project Justice, the foundation that helped fund the cold case research, told McClatchy News in a phone interview.
The investigation remains ongoing and anyone with information is asked to call 909-890-4904, deputies said.
Rancho Cucamonga is about a 50-mile drive east of Los Angeles.
Topics: Crime