Two women who were dumped in a park as toddlers finally discovered their real identity after cold case investigators found their mother had been murdered.

Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos revealed that they knew they had been found in a park in Mohave, Arizona, in 1989, but were unaware their mother Marina Ramos, 28, was brutally killed.

Their mother’s nude body was found on the morning of December 12, stabbed multiple times and left in a remote stretch of scrub where she was believed to have been killed.

Investigators said the two young girls were found alive two days later in a park restroom after they were spared by the killer, but the truth over what truly happened remained a mystery as they were placed in foster care.

The case went unsolved for decades as investigators were unable to identify the victim, until DNA from the body was entered into the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in February 2022.

The system was able to name her as Maria Ortiz, a Bakersfield, California woman who was on the DNA database because she had been arrested for shoplifting six months before her death.

Law enforcement tracked down her old roommates, who said they did not know a Maria Ortiz – but one recalled their cousin, Marina Ramos, went missing in 1989.

A physical description matched Ortiz, and investigators found that Ramos had been using the name Maria Ortiz as an alias at the time of her death.

Two women, named recently as Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos, who were dumped in a park as toddlers, discovered their mother had been murdered after investigators finally solved the decades-old cold case
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Two women, named recently as Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos, who were dumped in a park as toddlers, discovered their mother had been murdered after investigators finally solved the decades-old cold case

The sisters said they were unaware their mother Marina Ramos, 28, was brutally killed in 1989
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The sisters said they were unaware their mother Marina Ramos, 28, was brutally killed in 1989

The circumstances around Ramos’s murder remain unsolved, and investigators have never made an arrest or named a suspected killer.

Ramos’s loved ones said that following her arrest in June 1989, they discovered she was dating a man named only as ‘Fernando’, and were told they had plans to head to Ontario, California to start a new life.

Fernando has never been identified, but in 2022 Ramos’s cousin provided a description for a police sketch. Detectives said they are still actively trying to speak with him.

Jasmin was two-months-old and Elizabeth was 14-months-old at the time of their mother’s murder, and investigators had worked to find them ever since the CODIS system identified their mother’s DNA.

All investigators had to work with was a witness description from Ramos’ murder that alleged two Hispanic men and one Hispanic woman were seen carrying the girls at the park where they were later found.

The mix-up between Ramos’s real name and her alias Maria Ortiz meant that the toddlers were lost in the foster care system when they were taken in by the state as infants.

They were later adopted in California and named Melissa and Tina, but said they had always wondered about their biological family.

‘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,’ Jasmin said after her mother was finally identified.

Investigators have never made an arrest or named a suspected killer, but are actively trying to locate a man named only as 'Fernando' who was dating Ramos at the time of her murder
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Investigators have never made an arrest or named a suspected killer, but are actively trying to locate a man named only as ‘Fernando’ who was dating Ramos at the time of her murder

Ramos's nude body was found on the morning of December 12, stabbed multiple times and deserted in a remote stretch (pictured) where she was believed to have been killed
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Ramos’s nude body was found on the morning of December 12, stabbed multiple times and deserted in a remote stretch (pictured) where she was believed to have been killed

Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos revealed that they knew they had been found in a park in Mohave, Arizona , in 1989, and even had newspaper clippings from the time they were discovered
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Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos revealed that they knew they had been found in a park in Mohave, Arizona , in 1989, and even had newspaper clippings from the time they were discovered

After Ramos’s DNA was a hit on the CODIS system, Ramos’s family members provided DNA swabs to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office’s Special Investigation Unit to help track down the girls.

Over two years later on August 27, 2025, a woman with a high DNA match to one of Ramos’s family members was found on the CODIS system.

Soon after, the woman and her sister provided DNA samples, and a genetic genealogist was able to determine that they were Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos.

The sisters were even able to provide newspaper clippings from when they were found that proved they were the missing girls, but they had never known their mother’s name as she remained unidentified until 2022.

After the cold case was solved, the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office said it was proud of the development, but described it as a bittersweet moment because Ramos’s killer was never caught.

‘While we are excited to announce that one part of this 36-year-old mystery has been solved, the search for the suspects involved in the homicide of Marina Ramos continues,’ the sheriff’s office said.

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