The Riverside County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau has positively identified previously unidentified human remains as Thelma Gaston, resolving a case that began in 1981 when a passerby discovered a shallow grave containing the remains of a severely decomposed female near Sugar Loaf Mountain in Riverside County, California. Despite extensive identification efforts over the years, the victim’s name could not be established.
With funding support from the Bureau of Justice Assistance’s Missing and Unidentified Human Remains (MUHR) Program, Riverside County investigators revisited the case and exhumed the decedent‘s remains for additional forensic testing in 2022. The remains were submitted for Forensic Genetic Genealogy (FGG), which generated new investigative leads.
Following completion of the FGG work, investigators conducted an offline search of California Department of Justice‘s records and located antemortem dental records associated with the missing person. Those records were compared to postmortem dental information from the unidentified remains by a forensic odontologist. The dental comparison, combined with the genetic evidence, resulted in the positive identification of the decedent as Thelma Gaston.
The identification was achieved through the collaborative efforts of the Riverside County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau, the Riverside Cold Case Homicide Team, forensic specialists, and DNA analysts. After more than four decades as an unidentified homicide victim, Thelma Gaston’s identity has been restored, and arrangements are now being made for her to be laid to rest near deceased family members.
