Headless, drained of blood and missing thumbs, cold case victim ID'd after nearly 13 years

A woman's headless body, missing its thumbs and drained of blood, was identified through DNA analysis as 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan nearly 13 years after deputies found the body in a California vineyard.

Officials first made the gruesome discovery of Kaplan's partially decomposed, unclothed body in March of 2011 in Arvin, California, a town around 15 miles southeast of Bakersfield, according to the Kern County Sheriff's Office.

Although investigators determined the body belonged to a Caucasian woman between 45 and 55 years old who was the victim of homicide, they found few clues to her identity.

Two missing persons cases in different counties initially looked like promising leads, but both were ruled out when DNA samples did not match. Investigators also submitted DNA samples to the Justice Department, but the agency's database of missing persons still didn't turn up any matches.

With all leads exhausted, the Kaplan's body was laid to rest.

The case went cold for nine years until investigators brought on the DNA Doe Project, a non-profit dedicated to solving cases using DNA analysis, to help tackle the case.

A group of volunteer investigative genetic genealogists with the project spent three years piecing together Kaplan's family tree after they hit on a DNA match to several of her distant cousins, according to a press release.

“Our team worked long and hard for this identification,” Missy Koski, the team's leader, said.

When they found that three of Kaplan's grandparents were immigrants with an Eastern European background, they enlisted the help of an expert in Ashkenazi Jewish genealogy.

“Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry is often complicated to unravel," Koski said. "When we brought in an expert in Jewish records and genealogy, that made a huge difference.”

The team finally found two possible relations of Kaplan's on the other side of the country. When DNA samples from the relatives came back as a match, the team knew they had uncovered the identity of the body.

Law enforcement officials later learned through interviews that a missing persons report on Kaplan had never been filed.

Although the mystery of Kaplan's identity was solved, the person responsible for her death and the place where she died remain unknown.

The Kern County Sheriff's Office did not immediately return a request for comment.

Cybele Mayes-Osterman is a breaking news reporter for USA Today. Reach her on email at cmayesosterman@usatoday.com. Follow her on X @CybeleMO.