A homicide victim whose body was discovered near Lakeside nearly four decades ago has been positively identified through investigative genetic genealogy, sheriff’s officials said Tuesday.
The Sheriff’s Department said Maria Pilar Del Gadillo Carrillo, 43, has been identified as the woman whose body was discovered on Aug. 3, 1986, down an embankment along state Route 67, south of Poway Road.
Her exact cause of death was not disclosed, but the Sheriff’s Department said she “had sustained traumatic injuries to her body that were consistent with foul play,” and the medical examiner ruled her death was a homicide.
The case went cold, and the victim was not identified until earlier this year following recent attempts to identify her.
Sheriff’s officials say Carrillo immigrated to the United States in early 1986 from Yahaulica, Jalisco, Mexico.
With her identity known, detectives are now working to establish her whereabouts in the San Diego area before she was killed. Her family has also been notified that she was positively identified and that the homicide investigation is ongoing, the department said.
Anyone who may have known Carrillo was asked to contact the Sheriff’s Department Homicide Unit at (858) 285-6330, or after-hours at (858) 565-5200. Tipsters can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.
