Two girls who were considered missing for three decades have been found, alive.
The women’s stories start in 1989 when they were found abandoned in a park bathroom in Oxnard, California, NBC News reported.
The Mohave County (Arizona) Sheriff’s Office said Elizabeth Ramos was 14 months old. Her little sister Jasmin was only 2 months old.
“A witness walking in the area heard children crying in the women’s restroom,” the sheriff’s office said. “He asked a woman to check the bathroom, and she found the girls laying on the wet floor with no adult nearby.”
Officials did not realize they were the young daughters of a woman who had been found murdered in Mohave County, Arizona, on Dec. 12, 1989, days before they were found in the public bathroom, SFGATE reported.
“The girls were eventually adopted by a couple in Ventura County and were raised together in a loving home,” the sheriff’s office said.
The girls were first put into foster care and then eventually were adopted.
Eventually, the murdered woman was identified as Mariana Ramos, thanks to fingerprints from her body, who had two daughters who were missing.
Former Los Angeles police detective Lori Miller and the sheriff’s office got a DNA sample from Mariana Ramos’ relative and searched for a match and found Jasmin Ramos.
“She was contacted by Investigators and during the phone conversation it was learned that she and her sister were abandoned in a park in Oxnard, California in December 1989,” detectives told KTLA.
Jasmin’s sister had newspaper clippings from years ago. Their adoptive parents had named the girls Tina and Melissa, SFGATE and KNXV reported. The sisters knew they had been abandoned at a park, but they knew nothing about their biological mother’s murder.
Officials are still looking for clues into the woman’s death.