Authorities described the scene as "creepy." In 2011, the body of a woman was found "posed in an intentionally degrading way" on a dirt road at a vineyard in Arvin, California, per SFGate. Even more horrific, the body was drained of blood, with its head and thumbs removed. "I've seen some pretty gruesome crime scenes," but "I've never seen anything like that in my life," a Kern County Sheriff's Office rep told KGET soon after the discovery. Some 13 years later, the woman has been identified as Ada Beth Kaplan, 64, of Santa Clarita, California, reigniting a search for her killer.
Initially unable to identify the woman through missing persons reports, the Kern County Medical Examiner's Office in 2020 teamed up with DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit volunteer group that uses forensic genealogy to identify unidentified deceased persons. Though the woman's DNA was linked to "known genetic profiles of several distant cousins ... genetic genealogists had to build a family tree of eight generations to begin to piece together closer blood relations," per SFGate. The woman was found to be of Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry and, in July, connected to two living family members on the East Coast. They gave DNA samples, confirming the dead woman as Kaplan, and noted she had never been reported missing.
SFGate found a 3-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan living in the Bronx, New York, in 1950 census records. She was living in the Canyon Country neighborhood of Santa Clarita when she was murdered, then likely transported to the Grapevine Vineyard in Arvin, about 15 miles southeast of Bakersfield, authorities say. They were unable to determine a cause of death due to the state of her remains. However, "the manner of death was homicide," the sheriff's office said in a release, per NBC News. Anyone with information on Kaplan is asked to contact the sheriff's office at 661-487-4553. (More murder stories.)
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