Ventura County Sheriff’s Office & Medical Examiner’s Office Team with Othram to Identify a 1985 Jane Doe
After nearly 40 years, a woman whose partial remains were discovered in a plastic bag near Channel Islands Harbor in Oxnard, California, has been identified as Gertrude Elliott-Littlehale, who was born in 1864 and died in 1915.
Sadly, grave robbers had taken her skull sometime prior to the 1985 discovery.
Details of the case were entered into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).
In May 2023, the Ventura County Sheriff’s Office-Cold Case Unit in collaboration with the Ventura County Medical Examiner’s Office, submitted forensic evidence to Othram in the Woodlands, Texas to determine if advanced DNA testing could help identify the woman. Othram scientists successfully developed a DNA extract from the provided evidence and used Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing® to build a comprehensive DNA profile for the unknown woman. Othram’s in-house forensic genetic genealogy team then used this profile to conduct extensive genetic genealogy research, ultimately providing new investigative leads to law enforcement.
Using this new information, a follow-up investigation was conducted leading investigators to potential relatives of the woman. A reference sample was collected from a potential relative and compared to the DNA profile of the woman, which led to the positive identification of the woman, who is now known to be Gertrude Elliott-Littlehale.
She was successfully laid to rest a second time.