A woman whose remains were found nearly 50 years ago in California has been identified as a Detroit-area native, with her death considered a homicide.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office in California reported on March 18 that the woman who was known in their community as “Emigrant Gap Jane Doe” is confirmed to be Melinda “Pip” Beardsley, a woman who had been missing since the mid 1970s.
The break in the case came through advancements in DNA technology and decades of investigative work, the sheriff’s office said.
Beardsley’s remains were discovered amid a snowbank on Dec. 17, 1977, in the Emigrant Gap area of Placer County…