Body found with diary couldn’t be ID’d for years — until now, New Mexico cops say

A body that was found three years ago has been identified as a missing woman, New Mexico officials said.

In July 2022, Valencia County deputies responded to a Los Lunas property and found human remains under a tree, according to an Oct. 24 news release by the sheriff’s office.

Along with the remains, deputies found a backpack with clothes inside, a water bottle and a diary that didn’t contain any writing that helped in identifying the woman, according to a news release by the DNA Doe Project.

In 2023, Valencia County deputies brought the case to the DNA Doe Project, and investigative genetic genealogists began putting together a family tree in hopes of identifying the woman, officials said.

Eventually, DNA results pointed investigators to a woman who moved from Illinois to New Mexico, the DNA Doe Project said.

”They then found out that she had a daughter named Lisa Marie Vernon, and before long they made a shocking discovery – the New Mexico Department of Public Safety listed Vernon as a missing person, as she had not been seen since June 2022,” the project said.

Additional DNA testing positively identified the body found as Vernon, investigators said.

Investigators found no evidence of foul play and the case was closed as a non-criminal death investigation, officials said.

Los Lunas is about a 20-mile drive south from Albuquerque.