2 Missing Babies Found Alive Decades After Their Mother's Killing: Police

It’s been over 30 years since Marina Ramos was found dead — naked and repeatedly stabbed — in the Arizona desert, and, while the mystery of her killer’s identity remains, the question of what happened to her two missing daughters has finally been answered, police in California announced.

The fate of the girls — two-month-old Jasmin Ramos and 14-month-old Elizabeth Ramos — was an open question for investigators until DNA led them to two sisters who were abandoned as babies in Southern California, according to police.

Marina Ramos was discovered Dec. 12, 1989, in rural Mohave County, about 50 miles south of Las Vegas, according to the Mohave County Sheriff’s Office, which added that her identity was unknown for decades, but detectives were able to get a DNA profile.

In 2022, her prints matched for a woman named Maria Ortiz of Bakersfield, who had been arrested on suspicion of shoplifting in June of 1989, police said. In law enforcement records from the time, Ortiz had listed two friends, one of whom authorities found in Tennessee, according to police.

That woman told authorities her cousin, Marina Ramos, had been missing since 1989, police said, adding law enforcement learned that “Maria Ortiz” was an alias used by Ramos and that Ramos was last seen with her two young daughters.

Ramos’ family provided DNA, and, in late August, it matched with a woman who was abandoned with her sister on Dec. 14, 1989, in an Oxnard park, according to police.

Further DNA testing confirmed the woman and her sister were Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos, police said.

The girls had been found alone on the wet floor of the park bathroom, according to police, who said they were placed into foster care and eventually adopted and raised together by a couple in Ventura County.

"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, whose adopted name is Tina, told KNXV.

The women have an older sister, who was raised by Marina Ramos’ parents, according to KNXV, which reported that Elizabeth’s adopted name is Melissa.

"I was sad to know that my mom is gone, and I will never be able to see her," Tina told the outlet tearfully. "Sorry. It still hits me a little bit because she was taken from me, you know, and, like, that's not right. 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."

The case of their mother’s killing remains unsolved, according to police.

“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 in a news release.

“A witness in the area told officers that she had observed a woman and two men with the children at the park. They were observed driving a black mini pickup. The witness saw the woman carrying the smaller child in a yellow blanket and one of the males carrying the older child. The woman was described as a Hispanic female wearing a long red skirt and white boots. The two males were only described as Hispanic.”

Anyone with information about the case is asked to call police at 928-753-0753 ext. 4408.