Authorities had been seeking the ID since 1990, when the remains were found in Colfax.
The human remains of a body found more than three decades ago in Placer County have been identified as those of a woman who went missing from Berkeley.
In a statement, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office said they used modern technology to prove that they’ve found Wendy Abrams-Nishikai, who was last seen on Halloween night in 1989 when she was 21.
Abrams-Nishikai’s remains were found off an embankment on Yankee Jims Road in Colfax in 1990, but authorities had not been able to identify them.
The discovery remained a cold case until the Placer County Sheriff’s Office formed a cold case investigations team in 2023 that included members of the sheriff’s office and the district attorney’s office.
Using advancements in technology and forensic genealogy and a DNA analysis lab in Richmond, the investigators were able to identify a next of kin, the sheriff’s office said. The team obtained further DNA samples from family members for comparison.
Through those samples, they were able to identify that the remains found in 1990 were Abrams-Nishikai.
“While her death is still under investigation and the case is ongoing, we hope this identification provides some closure to her surviving family members after 35 years of uncertainty,” the sheriff’s office wrote in its statement.
The sheriff’s office urged anyone who might know anything about Abrams-Nishikai or her disappearance to contact them at PCSOTipLine@placer.ca.gov.
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