Heartbroken family learns body found in 1988 is their missing relative, officials say
Family reported Jacqueline Danette Ebel missing from Southern California two days before Christmas in 1988.
At the time, she was known to live in Long Beach and Bellflower, Ebony Caviness, a senior investigator with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office, told McClatchy News in an Aug. 7 phone interview.
“She was just a 25-year-old girl living her life and hanging out with friends,” Caviness said.
Decades passed, and Ebel’s family was left without answers.
“Her mom passed away not knowing whatever happened to her daughter,” Caviness said.
While the passage of time left the family heartbroken, it was the passage of time, coupled with advancements in DNA technology, that would help them finally find their answers.
Using DNA testing, Caviness said investigators identified a body found days after the missing persons report was filed as Ebel.
“She disappeared 36 years ago. (Her family) had absolutely no idea, no clue whatever happened to her … it has been absolutely heart-wrenching to them,” Caviness said. “They told us repeatedly that just knowing what happened to her and just knowing that she’s been identified after all these years is more than they could ask for.”
Caviness said Ebel’s death, which was ruled a homicide, is still being investigated, adding that she is looking to the public for answers to help close her case.
Body found but no ID
A woman’s body was found behind a business in the city of Perris, which sits between San Diego and Los Angeles, on Dec. 26, 1988, Caviness said.
With no leads to go off, the case remained stagnant.
“This case has been worked on by Riverside (County) Sheriff’s Department over the past 36 years,” Caviness said. “We just could not connect a missing person to her or identify her.”
Grant paves way for ID
In 2022, the Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded the district attorney’s office a cold case grant, one that would allow them to finally find some answers, according to Caviness.
Investigators had the woman’s body exhumed in late 2022, Caviness said.
DNA was extracted from her remains and sent to Othram Inc., a forensic genetic oceanology company.
“Forensic genetic genealogy, which is fairly new, is taking genealogy research methods and combining it with a person’s DNA analysis,” Caviness said. “When you combine that, you can create a file that will create a family tree and will give you DNA matches to possible relatives.”
With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related, according to the Library of Congress.
Through this testing, Caviness said investigators found the woman’s potential brother and aunt, who provided their DNA for testing.
“It was a match,” Caviness said.
The woman was finally identified as Ebel, something that would have likely not have happened without the DNA advancements.
“Matching the missing persons report in Long Beach back in 1988, which is like paper, to a body found out here, would be not impossible, but improbable,” Caviness said.
Finally knowing what happened to Ebel, has given the family some closure.
“It’s very heartbreaking for them knowing she died by murder, but now they have the answers and the closure that they’ve been looking for for 36 years,” Caviness said.
Plea for help
Despite decades passing since Ebel’s death, Caviness has hope.
“Now, I feel like we have so much DNA technology that even degraded DNA, even DNA from the 1970s can be enhanced and analyzed to help us identify an unidentified victim or offender,” Caviness said. “So I feel very, very confident that these older cases, these cold cases, can actually be solved.”
Prior to her death, Ebel bounced between Long Beach and Bellflower, according to Caviness.
“She has absolutely no connections whatsoever to Riverside County,” Caviness said.
The last year or two of her life, it seems Ebel “was hanging around a different circle of friends,” Caviness said.
“So there’s a lot unknown about her life and her lifestyle and who she was associating with during that time in her life, or how she even ended up in Riverside County, which she had no ties to,” Caviness said.
Ebel, who stood 5 feet 5 inches to 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighed between 120 and 140 pounds, also used the last names of “Yonkers” and “Palmer,” the district attorney’s office said in a news release.
She also “had a tattoo of a horse and flower on her right shoulder blade, tattoos of ‘John’ and a Harley Davidson eagle on her left shoulder blade, and a rose and ‘Stoney’ on her lower abdomen,” the office said.
Caviness said she believes there may be friends or family who have more information about Ebel.
“No lead is insignificant. No information is insignificant,” Caviness said.
Anyone with information is asked to contact call 951-955-5567, or email coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.
This story was originally published August 8, 2024 at 11:17 AM with the headline "Heartbroken family learns body found in 1988 is their missing relative, officials say."
