‘Lady in the fridge’ case: Victim identified using DNA sample 27 years after body’s discovery

In 1995, the remains of a woman were discovered by recyclers inside the refrigerator, which was partially submerged in a northern California canal.

The authorities, who refer to the crime as “Lady in the fridge” case, had described the dead body to be of a woman, between the age of 29 and 41 years, with strawberry blond hair. The body had remained underwater for several months.

For the next three decades, investigators continued to make efforts to identify the woman, but in vain. However, last week, a major breakthrough was achieved by the sheriff’s office in the case.

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“It is with a tempered heart that I announce we have identified a young woman found 27 years ago who was murdered in our county. Her name is Amanda,” announced Patrick Withrow, the San Joaquin county sheriff.

The sheriff’s office partnered with a Texas-based company, Othram Forensics, to build a DNA profile and the forensic genetic genealogy was used to come up with leads, after which the remains were finally identified as those of Amanda Lynn Schumann Deza.

The dead woman, Deza, was a mother of three who had disappeared at the age of 29, as stated by the investigators. In 1994, she was last spotted with a man she had met at a rehab facility in Napa, which is 80 miles away from where the recyclers had found the remains eventually.

The authorities stated that nobody had filed a missing person report for Deza, who they stated was facing “challenging times” before she died.

The authorities made the breakthrough in the case with the help of her daughter Veronica Tovar who made a contribution to the DNA sample to confirm the remains found were indeed those of her mother.

“I’ve lived my whole life just not knowing. She was gone and I just never knew why. I thought that she just left us. I felt left,” the 34-year-old daughter said.

(With inputs from agencies)

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