Two Sisters Learn Their Mother Was a Jane Doe Stabbed to Death in 1989: 'She Was Taken From Me' By Charna Flam

After nearly 36 years, two women have learned their mother was the murder victim, Marina Ramos, who was fatally stabbed in December 1989, authorities in Arizona said.

In 1989, 50 miles south of Las Vegas, a “Jane Doe” was discovered, fatally stabbed and left nude in the Arizona desert, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said in a Monday, Sept. 22 statement.

Then, in February 2022, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigations Unit (SIU) retrieved Jane Doe’s fingerprints. The SIU then submitted the fingerprints to NamUs (National Missing and Unidentified Persons System) for an FBI examination. That same month, it was revealed that the fingerprints belonged to Maria Ortiz.

The investigation also found that Ortiz had been arrested on June 15, 1989, by the Kern County Sheriff’s Office (KCSO). The Bakersfield Police Department and KCSO then had her address listed in Bakersfield, along with the names of two friends. 

Authorities reached out to the friends, and one answered. When asked about Maria Ortiz, the woman said she only knew of her cousin, Marina Ramos, who had been missing since 1989.

It was then confirmed through a physical description of the Jane Doe victim that it was Ramos. 

Investigators also learned that Maria Ortiz was using Marina Ramos as an alias. Additionally, the investigation uncovered that she was last seen with her two young daughters, Jasmin, 2 months, and Elizabeth, 14 months.

Beginning in 2023, the SIU tried to get information about the homicide and the missing girls through press releases, social media posts and broadcast television. Ramos’ family cooperated and submitted DNA buccal swabs for entry into CODIS and completed commercial DNA kits.

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On Aug. 27, 2025, investigators found an analysis that had a high probability for a match between one woman and Ramos. Investigators then called her and learned that she and her sister were abandoned in a park in Oxnard, Calif., in December 1989. Her sister was then contacted and she confirmed the information by providing investigators with newspaper articles and photos of the incident.

The two sisters, Tina and Melissa, then submitted DNA samples. It was confirmed that they were related to the Ramos family. They were confirmed to be Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos, adopted names Melissa and Tina, respectively. They learned of their adoption in their teenage years. 

Once confirmed, investigators worked with the Oxnard Police Department and discovered the two girls were abandoned in a park restroom two days after their mother’s body was found. At the time, a man heard the young girls crying in the women’s bathroom. He asked a woman to check in, and she saw the girls lying on the wet floor with no adults.

Authorities were alerted, and the two were placed in the custody of Child Protective Services. After spending time in foster care, they were adopted by a couple from Ventura County. 

Tina and Melissa spoke to ABC15 and shared their reactions to learning their mother’s identity. They are both now married with children.

Melissa said as soon as they were contacted, she “had this gut feeling [homicide investigator Lori Miller] knew something about her parents,” adding, “Whether it was my mom or dad, she knew something. And I don’t know, I just ran out of the room and didn’t even know how to process what was being said.”

“I want everyone to know that I’m okay,” Melissa, who lives in Arizona, said. “I’m here. I have lived a beautiful life. I have a wonderful husband.”

“This is what I’ve been searching for and wanting for a very, very long time, and to figure out where I came from and who my family was,” Tina said. “I was sad to know that my mom is gone, and I will never be able to see her.”

“It still hits me a little bit because she was taken from me,” Tina, who now lives in Oregon, said. “But at the same time, I was happy to know that she’s not suffering. She’s not in a bad situation. I was happy to know that all those, like, abandonment issues that I dealt with when I was a kid was, like, automatically released for me.”

“It felt good to know that I did have family out there that cared for me and had been looking for me even though I didn’t know this,” Tina said.

Although the identities of Ramos and her daughters have been uncovered, the investigation into Ramos’ homicide remains ongoing. 

The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said that witnesses reported in 1989 seeing Tina and Melissa with a Hispanic woman and two Hispanic men at Colonia Park in Oxnard, Calif. The witness said they saw the group “get out of a black mini pickup somewhere in the neighborhood alongside the park, and saw them in the park,” Miller said, per ABC15. “She saw that the youngest was wrapped in a yellow blanket, and she lost track of them.”

Miller theorizes that the three people seen are suspects who were “indirectly or directly” involved in Ramos’ death.

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The Mohave County Sheriff’s Office asks anyone with information in the case to call 928-753-0753 ext. 4408.