Identified! CA - Pogonip, WhtFem remains 716UFCA, 12-18, Jan'94 - Kori Lamaster

[CarlK90245]

Melissa Ann Espinoza
http://doenetwork.org/cases/783dfca.html
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/e/espinoza_melissa.html
http://www.nampn.org/cases/espinoza_melissa.html

Missing since December 2, 1993 from Rancho Cordova, Sacramento County, California.

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: September 23, 1981
Age at Time of Disappearance: 12 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'1; 125 lbs
Distinguishing Characteristics: White/Hispanic female. Long, curly brown hair (usually kept in a pony tail); brown eyes.
Tattoos: Espinoza has a homemade tattoo of a heart encircling the letter "M" near the thumb of one of her hands.
Scars: Scars on both her knees, one inch scar on chin.
Clothing: She was last seen wearing a black "Chicago Bulls" jacket, black pants and black, low top Nike shoes.
Dentals: Available
DNA: Available in CODIS

Circumstances of Disappearance

Espinoza was last seen in her hometown of Rancho Cordova, California on December 2, 1993.
She was sitting on the hood of a car at 03.00 in an area known for drugs and shady deals.
There are suspicious circumstances surrounding her disappearance.


__________________________________________________________

Age, description, time, place all fit - and so does the heart tattoo on the hand and black pants.

The length of the hair does NOT fit but I have submitted.

Thanks Lady Stardust, I figured I was just missing the case on this site. LE is doing some more testing that will hopefully generate some new leads. Melissa Ann Espinoza has been ruled out by LE.

There was another thread for this Jane Doe, and I merged the two threads.

As you can see from kgriffin's post, Melissa Espinoza has been ruled out.

 

[traacker13]

What about Kristi Krebs?

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/k/krebs_kristi.html

 

[LR1]

She's been identified as Kori Joanne Lamaster 17, from Pacifica.

http://santacruz.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/two-decade-old-pogonip-jane-cold-case-solved-by-santa-cruz-police

 

[CarlK90245]

Pogonip Jane has been ID'd as Kori Lamaster (17)

http://santacruz.patch.com/groups/p...ip-jane-cold-case-solved-by-santa-cruz-police

 

[EGirl]

She's been identified as Kori Joanne Lamaster 17, from Pacifica.

http://santacruz.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/two-decade-old-pogonip-jane-cold-case-solved-by-santa-cruz-police

Wow! The bust looks NOTHING like her.

Can't believe her parents didn't report her missing for 14 years!

RIP Kori.

 

[FigTree]

Wow! The bust looks NOTHING like her.

Can't believe her parents didn't report her missing for 14 years!

RIP Kori.

The new scientific techniques have advanced so much though - its great to see.
I'm so glad she was identified.
The story about her identification (at link you posted) is interesting.
They have 2 POI for this case. I hope it gets resolved as well.
http://santacruz.patch.com/groups/p...ip-jane-cold-case-solved-by-santa-cruz-police
Nice work by the investigating officers during the entire case.
.

 

[zinc]

Finally.

I've been to Pogonip a lot. It regularly sprouts little concealed camps where people huddle out of the fog, mainly to buy, sell, smoke, and shoot up. But it is the Californian coast, and the meadows surrounding where Ms. Lamaster was found would have been then and still are appropriately fresh and pretty, very peaceful places for a girl to sleep quietly. Unfortunately that is meager consolation for her family.

All sizes | wharf and bay and monterey | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
All sizes | Santa Cruz Pogonip region | Flickr - Photo Sharing!
All sizes | Untitled | Flickr - Photo Sharing!

 

[zwiebel]

Kori's headstone is blank. I hope her name is put upon it now.

This article says Kori's skull was crushed, and mentions the difficulties in making a reconstruction. Considering that, I think it was fairly good, especially in the shape of the mouth and face, and general proportions of the nose. The misleading thing was the lack of the fat pads above the eyes in the reconstruction, because they gave Kori's eyes an almost oriental appearance.

http://m.ksbw.com/news/pogonip-jane...ce/-/17424238/23295552/-/r0d2gqz/-/index.html

I have often wondered about that - is it fat pads or the bone structure underneath that gives some eyes a 'lidless' appearance? Is it because the eye is set deep or shallowly in the socket, and can that factor be determined just from the skull?

If anyone knows anything about this, I'd be really interested to know.

ETA: There were two men of interest to police in this case, a father and son. One has since died.

 

[carbuff]

Those are usually called "hooded" eyes, and as far as I know, there's no way you could tell that from the skeletal remains. Likewise the tip of the nose and many other soft-tissue properties are guesses or approximations, but those are the parts most of us use to identify a face in real life. So it creates the impression of a poor resemblance. If you look at the major parts, shape of skull, cheekbones, jaw and chin, it's really quite close.

 

[Tulessa]

She's been identified as Kori Joanne Lamaster 17, from Pacifica.

http://santacruz.patch.com/groups/police-and-fire/p/two-decade-old-pogonip-jane-cold-case-solved-by-santa-cruz-police

WoW!
The Santa Cruz Police Department took special interest in the case because it was one that was investigated by Detective Loran "Butch" Baker, who was murdered in February.

Said Clark: "Butch commented on how this case continued to haunt him, as well as his strong desire to bring notification and closure to the victim’s family, whoever and wherever they are. Butch never gave up trying to identify “Pogonip Jane”. Following his death in February, SCPD Detectives took up Butch’s case and were determined to bring it to closure.

 

[Claudette]

I'm really surprised LE named their POIs in the article.

 

[Roselvr]

Does anyone know if Kori was listed in NamUs; Doe or Charley Project?


When was the testing done that showed the areas she traveled? I'm surprised the match did not come a lot sooner

'Pogonip Jane' murder mystery solved by Santa Cruz police

During the last few months of her life, Kori was traveling along California’s coast from Pacifica to Santa Cruz to Santa Barbara, a forensic hair analysis revealed.

70 miles from where she was found to where she was from http://goo.gl/maps/Im2nH
Santa Barbara added to map which is a larger area to cover. I'm not sure how many counties are between them

 

[CarlK90245]

Does anyone know if Kori was listed in NamUs; Doe or Charley Project?

No, she was not.

70 miles from where she was found to where she was from http://goo.gl/maps/Im2nH
Santa Barbara added to map which is a larger area to cover. I'm not sure how many counties are between them

The route from Pacifica to Santa Barbara covers four counties - San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara.

 

[Roselvr]

No, she was not.



The route from Pacifica to Santa Barbara covers four counties - San Mateo, Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo, and Santa Barbara.

One would think they would have given her info to the sheriff in each county.

 

[bcf]

Why are her NamUS and DoeNetwork profiles still on?

https://identifyus.org/cases/2261
http://doenetwork.org/cases/716ufca.html

 

[Roselvr]

Why are her NamUS and DoeNetwork profiles still on?

https://identifyus.org/cases/2261
http://doenetwork.org/cases/716ufca.html

Thanks; I sent an email to Carrie Sutherland

 

[aThousandYearsWide]

Wow! The bust looks NOTHING like her.

Can't believe her parents didn't report her missing for 14 years!

RIP Kori.

According to a memorial website for Kori, after she started high school she became a habitual run-away and they had filed several missing person's reports for her, and after her final disappearance they falsely believed a current missing report was still on file. It wasn't discovered there wasn't until 2007.