After more than a decade, authorities have finally identified a woman whose decapitated and blood-drained body was found in a California vineyard. The Kern County Sheriff’s Office revealed last week that the body, discovered in the city of Arvin in March 2011, belonged to 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan. The body was found naked, abused, and partially decomposed, making identification challenging.
The gruesome nature of the crime scene suggested a deliberate act of violence. The killer had not only decapitated Kaplan but also drained her of blood and removed her thumbs. The body was then laid on her back in a sexually suggestive pose on a dirt access road. Homicide Sgt. David Hubbard described the killer as someone who took their time, indicating a level of comfort with the crime that left officers uneasy.
Despite the clear signs of murder, detectives struggled to identify the victim. The DNA samples they managed to collect from the scene yielded no matches in any missing persons, crime scene, or convicted persons databases. Consequently, the case went cold for nine years.
The breakthrough came when the Medical Examiner’s Office collaborated with the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit specializing in identifying unidentified bodies using investigative genetic genealogy. This time, Kaplan’s DNA produced multiple matches, linking investigators to distant cousins across eight generations.
The research led to the discovery of Kaplan’s rich Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. Investigators sifted through numerous Eastern European records to construct a family tree. After comparing her DNA with two potential family members living on the East Coast, they finally confirmed Kaplan’s identity.
Missy Koski, the team leader of the volunteer group, expressed pride in the team’s hard work, noting the complexity of tracing Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. The involvement of an expert in Jewish records and genealogy proved crucial in the identification process.
The reason for Kaplan’s initial difficulty in identification became clear upon interviewing her family: no one had filed a missing person report. The circumstances leading to her death and the identity of her killer, however, remain unknown. Kaplan lived approximately 80 miles north of where her body was found, leading police to believe she was not murdered at the vineyard.
The unsettling nature of the crime continues to haunt those involved in the case. The comfort level of the killer or killers in committing such a heinous act suggests they could still be at large, leaving a lingering sense of unease.