Kori JoAnne Lamaster was a formerly unidentified American murder victim who was found on January 29, 1994, after being killed in 1993. She was reburied in an unmarked grave at Soquel Cemetery. Lamaster's body remained unidentified for nineteen years until the comparison of familial DNA and a finger print card revealed her identity in 2013. Until then, she was referred to as Pogonip Jane by investigators and media.

Physical characteristics and clothing

The decomposed remains of a white female were found in a shallow grave near a homeless campsite on January 19, 1994, in Pogonip Park in

Santa Cruz, California Santa Cruz ( Spanish for "Holy Cross") is the county seat and largest city of Santa Cruz County, in Northern California. As of the 2020 census, the city population was 62,956. Situated on the northern edge of Monterey Bay, Santa Cruz is a po ...

. It was discovered by two hikers looking for mushrooms. The victim was identified as being in her late teens with brown hair cut short and pink fingernails.The cause of death was ruled to be

bludgeoning Blunt trauma, also known as blunt force trauma or non-penetrating trauma, is physical traumas, and particularly in the elderly who fall. It is contrasted with penetrating trauma which occurs when an object pierces the skin and enters a tissue ...

with a metal object most likely a pipe that had crushed her

skull The skull is a bone protective cavity for the brain. The skull is composed of four types of bone i.e., cranial bones, facial bones, ear ossicles and hyoid bone. However two parts are more prominent: the cranium and the mandible. In humans, th ...

. Due to advanced

decomposition Decomposition or rot is the process by which dead organic substances are broken down into simpler organic or inorganic matter such as carbon dioxide, water, simple sugars and mineral salts. The process is a part of the nutrient cycle and is e ...

, it was hard to ascertain her facial features. A tiny heart was discovered tattooed between her left thumb and index finger. Her teeth had a few cavities that had been filled in with porcelain. The isotope analysis of her hair revealed that she had traveled between Santa Barbara and Santa Cruz (she lived in Pacifica) prior to her death.

Investigation

The Santa Cruz Police Department got a fresh impetus to investigate the case when its original investigator Butch Baker was murdered in an unrelated crime. They decided to work towards solving the case in Baker's honor. Strategies taken subsequently in an attempt to arrive at an identification included the creation of a clay model

reconstruction Reconstruction may refer to: Politics, history, and sociology *Reconstruction (law), the transfer of a company's (or several companies') business to a new company *'' Perestroika'' (Russian for "reconstruction"), a late 20th century Soviet Unio ...

based on the skull of the victim.

Identification

Lamaster's family did not file a missing person report for her until 2007. The reason for the delay in filing a report was not revealed due to privacy reasons. A DNA sample from her biological mother was submitted and the State Department of Justice lab announced a familial match in October 2013 with DNA taken from the victim's body that had been entered into their system earlier. Contact with Lamaster's sister in the state of Washington provided a fingerprint card taken when Lamaster was young which was then used to match prints taken during her autopsy. A father and son who had been seen traveling with Lamaster have been identified as persons of interest. The son has since died, while the father, Wayne White, resided in eastern Tennessee.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lamaster, Kori 1990s missing person cases 1993 murders in the United States 1993 in California Deaths by person in California Formerly missing people Incidents of violence against girls Missing person cases in California Unsolved murders in the United States Violence against women in the United States Deaths by beating in the United States People murdered in California American murder victims Female murder victims Santa Cruz, California

Physical characteristics and clothing

Investigation

Identification

See also

References