EVERETT, Wash. - Detectives used DNA and Investigative Genetic Genealogy to identify a 1977 murder victim more than 40 years later as a missing girl from Oregon.
According to the Snohomish County Sheriff's Office, detectives with the Major Crimes Unit, Cold Case Team and Snohomish County Medical Examiner's Office positively identified the 17-year-old victim as Elizabeth Ann Roberts. She later went by the name Lisa Roberts.
Roberts was born in 1959 in Hood River, Oregon and adopted at the age of two.
According to investigators, Roberts was reported as a runaway by her father on July 25, 1977. Roberts called home a few weeks after she ran away asking her parents for money. Her parents sent the money to a SeaFirst Bank, but it was never picked up.
Elizabeth Ann, aka Lisa Roberts (Image: Snohomish County Sheriff's Office)
Investigators now say Roberts was murdered 15 days after she left home -- her body discovered five days later on August 14, 1977.
The sheriff's office explained how DNA and genealogy were used to solve the case:
Detectives describe what they say happened to Roberts:
The Oregon Health Authority called Detective Sharf on June 16, 2020 to say they had positively identified the Jane Doe.
Scharf contacted Roberts' family and gave the family some closure.
“This young girl was precious to me because her moral decision from her proper upbringing cost her her life,” said lead Detective Jim Scharf. “I knew she had to be precious to her family too, so I had to find them. We needed to give her name back to her and return her remains to her family.”
Arrangements are being made to have Roberts' remains buried at the family plot in Hood River.