SAN JOSE, California — After more than four decades of mystery, authorities in Santa Clara County have identified the dismembered torso discovered in a San Jose field in 1981 as that of 54-year-old Vivian Moss, a grandmother with deep ties to the Bay Area and Arkansas.
According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, Moss’s remains were found on July 11, 1981, in a then-empty field in San Jose, where the Berryessa Transit Center and BART Station parking structure now stand. Her body was discovered without identification, though investigators recovered two religious pendants nearby. The cause of death was determined to be multiple stab wounds and dismemberment.…