DNA used to identify the body of missing Yolo County woman found in Benicia 41 years ago
Authorities on Thursday announced that a torso that was found just off the Benicia shoreline 41 years ago was a Yolo County mother who went missing in July 1979.
Using DNA, investigators confirmed 45-year-old Dolores Wulff remains had been found by recreational boaters on Sept. 17, 1979, less than two months after she disappeared, said Irma Widjojo, a spokeswoman for the Benicia Police Department. For decades, investigators had not been able to identify the human remains.
Yolo County officials continued to investigate Wulff’s disappearance as her friends worked over the years to find answers.
“This case has haunted my office and, in fact, all of Yolo County since 1979,” Yolo County Sheriff Tom Lopez said in a news release. “Countless hours were spent investigating Dolores Wullf’s disappearance. It is my hope that this provides some closure to the family who has suffered so much.”
Wulff vanished in the middle of the night from her home in Woodland on July 31, 1979. At that time, her husband was considered “a prime suspect” and was arrested, according to the news release. Officials said the case against her husband was later dismissed due to lack of evidence, and he died in 2005. Wulff left behind four children.
New information earlier this year led authorities to reopen the case to determine the identity of the remains found in Benicia.
In July, the Doe Network, the international center for identified and missing persons, contacted the Solano County Coroner’s Office advising that a body found in 1979 might have been matched with an identity. But Benicia police detectives conducted further investigation and determined that the identity was not related to the torso, according to the news release.
Sgt. Kenneth Hart, a detective with the Benicia Police Department, expanded the search for missing women in 1979 from Sacramento to San Francisco. Officials said while 11 missing person cases were similar, it was Wulff’s disappearance that stood out.
Hart asked for help from the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office to obtain a DNA swab from one of Wulff’s living children. With cooperation from the Solano County Sheriff’s Office, the remains were exhumed and compared with the collected DNA swab.
On Tuesday, the Benicia Police Department was notified by California’s Department of Justice DNA lab that the femur bone from the recovered partial body belonged to Wulff.
“We are so glad to be able to bring a sort of closure to the Wulff family after decades of uncertainty,” Interim Benicia Police Chief Mike Greene said in the news release. “I am also proud of Sgt. Hart and his team’s tenacity on this case.”
The Police Department thanked the Wulff family, The Doe Network, the Solano County Coroner’s Office and the Yolo County Sheriff’s Office for their help and work on this case.
This type of determination has been displayed in Yolo County in recent years as authorities worked to reunite loved ones with a man known as the Tower Bridge Hero for trying to save three people in the Sacramento River, identify a homicide victim in a 34-year-old cold case and find evidence that would lead to the arrest of a father accused of killing five of his newborn children.
This story was originally published October 22, 2020 at 6:45 PM.
