A woman whose body was found in an open field in Vacaville 28 years ago has finally been identified by authorities.
Updated fingerprint technology enabled state officials to determine that Jane Doe was Cynthia Merkley, also known as Cynthia Bilardi, according to a Facebook announcement about the cold case by the Vacaville Police Department on Monday.
"Even after 28 years, Detectives never gave up hope that our only “Jane Doe” case would one day be identified," the department said on Facebook. "Our hope is that this post will generate new leads for Detectives to look into, to help determine what happened to Cynthia that fateful night back in 1991 that led to her untimely death."
Bilardi was 38 when she died and living between Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa, police said. She was estranged from her family and not listed as a missing person at the time of her death.
Contractors helping to build the Premium Outlets in 1991 discovered Bilardi's body in a field near Nut Tree Road and Burton Drive.
She had been dead for about two to three weeks when she was found, Vacaville police said.
There were no obvious signs of foul play and a cause of death could not be determined.
With investigators seemingly stymied for years, her body was exhumed in 1998. A facial reconstruction sketch was performed, but numerous leads did not yield any break in the case.
