Police look to DNA to help identify woman with amnesia found in Davis home’s backyard
After seeking help from the public last week, police investigators are now looking to DNA in hopes of finding relatives of the unidentified woman suffering from a severe case of amnesia who was found in Davis four weeks ago.
The Davis Police Department is looking into the possibility of submitting the woman’s DNA to a genealogy database as investigators sift through tips from the public and search for other ways to identify her, Davis Deputy Police Chief Paul Doroshov said.
“We got a lot of tips, and we’re following up on them,” Doroshov told The Sacramento Bee on Thursday. “But we haven’t got anything definitive, like someone calling and telling us, ‘I’m her uncle.’”
Doroshov said reviewing a lot of tips and determining whether leads are credible can be time consuming. But he said the Police Department is still seeking information about this woman.
A similar method was used to find Joseph James DeAngelo, the suspect in the Golden State Killer/East Area Rapist investigation. DeAngelo, a former police officer who had never before been a suspect in the case, was arrested after the Sacramento County District Attorney’s crime lab used DNA from crime scenes to compare to DNA provided to a genealogical website. DeAngelo was convicted and sentenced last year to life in prison without parole.
Leads, fingerprints have turned up nothing
On Thursday, Doroshov said the unidentified woman was safe and remained in the care of medical professionals. But she has been unable to tell investigators who she is or provide any information to identify herself.
She was found May 30, when a resident in the 3400 block of Seabright Avenue reported seeing her wander into his backyard, the Davis Police Department said in a news release last week. Police said the woman could not remember her identity and appeared confused.
The Police Department has released a photo of her, hoping someone will recognize her. Investigators want to reunite with her loved ones and determine what may have led to her condition.
She was taken by ambulance to a hospital, where it was determined she may be suffering from a severe case of amnesia. She was hospitalized and Davis police were called to investigate.
Investigators believe that she may be a missing person. Police said she did not have any apparent injuries and she appeared to be in good physical health.
Investigators have already followed up on numerous leads and searched through fingerprint and online databases without any success. The woman has given officers and hospital staff several name variants and different birth dates, according to the Police Department.
The woman believes she may have come from the East Coast, and she initially provided a possible name of “Ruth Pearlman,” police said. But the woman and investigators were not confident that information was accurate.
Investigators asked anyone with information about the woman in the photo to call the Davis Police Department at 530-747-5400.
This story was originally published July 1, 2021 at 1:28 PM.
