Murder Victim from 1946 Identified with DNA

A young woman murdered in 1946 and found in 1971 has been identified as 25-year-old Beddie Walraven.  Crime lab scientists in California used the DNA from two living relatives of Walraven's to identify her body.

The Press Release:
Coroner case # 71-37449 UP--On January 26, 1971, skeletal remains were found scattered in the desert near Baker, California. The remains were believed to be those of a female adult. In 1975 investigators from the Santa Ana Police Department contacted the San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Department reporting a suspect confessed to killing Betty Walraven (also known as Betty Flemming) in May of 1946, and transporting the body to the High Desert region of San Bernardino County. In December 2005, biological samples from the skeletal remains were delivered to the California Department of Justice DNA Laboratory in Richmond, California for processing. Over the next five years the scientists at the DNA Laboratory worked tirelessly to develop a useable DNA profile from the degraded remains. In the meantime, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Coroner Division investigators were able to locate two members of Betty Walraven’s family. DNA samples were provided by these family members and reference profiles were developed for comparison with that of the remains. On June 1, 2011, the California DNA lab director notified this Division that a DNA profile had finally been developed from the remains and were found to be match to Betty Walraven.

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