REDONDO BEACH (CNS) - Redondo Beach police will reach out to the public Monday for help with their investigation into the death of a woman whose remains were found at a construction site in 2001 and was listed as a Jane Doe until familial DNA identified her earlier this year.
According to police, the woman's remains were found Aug. 29, 2001, at a construction site in the 1600 block of Wollacott Street, but investigators were never able to identify her.
Her death remained a mystery, and in January 2019, the Redondo Beach Police Department Cold Case Investigations Unit reopened the case and began working with the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit group that helps identify missing people by working with DNA collected at crime scenes.
Based on the group's preliminary work, a DNA comparison test was conducted in March of this year on two women who were subsequently determined to be the sister and daughter of the dead woman, who was then tentatively identified as Catherine Parker-Johnson, police said.
Later that month, a familial DNA sample collected in Tennessee was sent to the California Department of Justice, and state investigators in April confirmed the remains were those of Parker-Johnson, whose age was not immediately available.
According to Redondo Beach police, Parker-Johnson had never been reported missing. Police said family members last had contact with her sometime during May of 1981, and the last record of any other personal contact with Parker-Johnson was on Aug. 31, 1981, in Lennox.
Police said the case is an active homicide investigation, although no details were immediately released on how the victim may have died.
Anyone with information regarding the case was asked to contact Detectives John Skipper or Rick Petersen at 310-379-2477, ext. 2714, or by texting 310-937-6675. Email tips can be sent to janedoe2001@redondo.org.
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