Burned body found in parking lot 15 years ago finally ID’d as missing teen, CA cops say
.png "More than a decade after a burned body was found in an Irvine business complex, it’s been identified as a missing Nevada teen, police say.")
In September 2009, a burned body was found in a parking lot outside a closed business, California police say.
More than a year later, two brothers were charged in the Jane Doe’s killing, the Irvine Police Department said in a July 25 news release.
One brother was convicted of murder in her death in 2022, according to police.
The female’s identity, however, remained a mystery.
Now, using DNA, she’s been identified as a missing 14-year-old girl from Reno, Nevada, police said.
“The Irvine Police Department has been committed to this case since 2009,” Police Chief Michael Kent said in the release.
Body found
A passerby called police on Sept. 5, 2009, after noticing the “burned and lifeless” body in the “predominantly business and industrial” area, police said.
Officers determined the person was burned in the parking lot hours before they arrived.
Police said its investigators believed the body belonged to a woman in her mid 20s, adding that her death looked suspicious.
Detectives collected evidence, “including DNA from under Jane Doe’s fingernails” that was added to the Orange County Crime Lab database, police said.
DNA evidence would later point investigators to two brothers: Gabino Valdivia-Guzman and Zenaido Valdivia-Guzman, according to police.
Jane Doe’s death
The pair were driving a van in Santa Ana in September 2009 when they saw the Jane Doe, the Orange County District Attorney’s Office said in a November 2022 news release, McClatchy News reported.
Gabino Valdivia-Guzman, the driver, convinced her to get in, prosecutors said.
Upon realizing there was a second man in the van, she started to panic, police said.
“When Jane Doe began to scream and attempted to get away, Zenaido Valdivia-Guzman is accused of pulling her into the back of the van and repeatedly beating her in the face and neck as she struggled to escape,” police said.
Zenaido Valdivia-Guzman “strangled the woman to death,” as his brother then drove the van to an Irvine business complex, according to prosecutors.
There, Gabino Valdivia-Guzman pulled her from the van, prosecutors said.
The pair then doused the woman’s body “with gasoline from a canister in the van” before setting it ablaze, stealing her phone and fleeing, police said.
“This woman did not deserve to have her life ended in such a horrific way by a complete stranger,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer said in 2022.
Arrest, charges and conviction
DNA evidence collected during a domestic violence incident in 2009 linked Zenaido Valdivia-Guzman to Jane Doe’s death, police said.
He was arrested on Nov. 6, 2010, according to police.
At the time, Gabino Valdivia-Guzman was with him, police said.
Through investigation, police said its detectives learned Gabino Valdivia-Guzman was also linked to Jane Doe’s death, and he was also arrested.
The two men were “each charged with one felony count of special circumstances murder with sentencing enhancements for murder during the commission of a kidnapping,” police said.
A jury found Zenaido Valdivia-Guzman guilty of first-degree murder and “special circumstance of murder in the commission of a kidnapping” on Nov. 15, 2022, according to police.
Gabino Valdivia-Guzman pleaded not guilty, according to prosecutors. He “will be tried in the future,” police said.
Jane Doe finally identified
Yet, despite a murder conviction and more than a decade of time elapsing, authorities still didn’t know Jane Doe’s identity, prompting officials to ask the public for any information about the unknown woman.
Then, nearly two years later, DNA would help crack the case, and Jane Doe finally has a name: Marcia Shirree Thomas.
“Marcia’s family remains in our thoughts during this difficult time,” Kent said.
This story was originally published July 26, 2024 at 10:25 AM with the headline "Burned body found in parking lot 15 years ago finally ID’d as missing teen, CA cops say."
