More than 12 years since a skull was discovered in Mendocino County, advanced DNA testing has revealed that the remains belonged to a Napa woman, officials said.
In March 2013, brush cutting workers found the skull among blackberry bushes while working in Redding, near the the Anderson-Cottonwood Irrigation District Canal and the Locust Street Bridge, according to the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office. Redding police, sheriff’s deputies and forensic anthropologists from California State University Chico’s human identification lab responded and searched the surrounding area for days, locating most of the person’s remains, several items of clothing and some personal items.
The county coroner’s office determined the skeletal remains belonged to a white woman likely between 4-foot, 10-inches to 5-foot, 4-inches tall and was between 35 to 70 years old, according to Texas-based lab Othram, which later assisted with DNA testing. Investigators determined thick brush had likely hid the woman’s body for many years.
Authorities submitted a DNA sample to the California Department of Justice, which did not yield any results for more than a decade.
In 2023, the coroner’s office partnered with Othram, which specializes in genealogical matching, to take a fresh look at the case. The lab created a comprehensive DNA profile for the woman, compared it to possible family lineage and found that a possible match was Velma Louise Silvia Lee, a Napa woman born in 1936 who had never been reported missing, the sheriff’s office said.
Authorities tracked down relatives and eventually Redding police found Lee’s son. He told officers the family had years before hired a private investigator who had tracked Lee’s whereabouts until about 2004. After they could not find further proof of life, she was declared legally dead.
The son also provided a DNA sample, which was sent to Othram for a comparison.
On Sept. 15, Othram officially identified the skeletal remains found 12 years earlier as Lee. Her family was contacted and are working with the coroner’s office to retrieve and bury her.
“Restoring a name to the unidentified is a matter of dignity, justice and human rights,” the sheriff’s office said in a news release. “This identification not only brings long-awaited answers to Velma’s family but also reaffirms the commitment of our local and interstate forensic and investigative professionals to ensuring that no one remains nameless.”
This is the 70th case in California where authorities identified an individual using Othram technology, the agency said.