Cold Case: NJ cops, DNA help ID teen girl killed in California in 1976

Alex N. Gecan | Asbury Park Press

Show Caption Hide Caption Monmouth County Prosecutor's Office Cold Case Unit The Monmouth County Prosecutors Office recently created the Cold Case Unit to work on unsolved cases in the county

SOUTHAMPTON - After nearly half a century, state troopers used new DNA evidence to help investigators across the country identify the remains of a slain teenage girl.

The cold case began Oct. 1, 1976, when "a man walking his dog discovered a hand protruding from the sand behind a pumping station in Lake Merced, San Francisco" in California, according to a prepared statement from New Jersey State Police.

The victim, a teenage girl who was Asian or Asian-American, had in her pocket a distinctive gold chain and owl pendant necklace, state police said. "Her death was ruled a homicide, and for 43 years her remains were unidentified," according to the statement.

A man named William Shin told police in San Francisco that he had had a half-sister named Judy Gifford who had gone missing at the age of 14, and that nobody in his family had "seen or heard from her since 1976," according to the statement. Police began to think the Lake Merced victim might be Judy.

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Police in San Francisco found an aunt of Judy's, Ogee Gifford, who lives in Southampton. Detective Sergeant Erin Micciulla and Detective Jeff Greco from the New Jersey Sate Police Missing Persons Unit met with Gifford in June and collected a DNA sample, dental records and photographs — including a picture of Judy wearing a distinctive gold chain and owl pendant necklace.

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In November, "the California Department of Justice announced that Judy Gifford was positively identified as the female victim through DNA and photographs," according to NJSP's statement.

Micciulla and Greco visited Gifford again in November "to personally notify her of the positive identification," according to the statement. "Although the case remains an active investigation led by the San Francisco Police Department, Ms. Gifford, who has never changed her phone number in case her niece ever called, was brought some closure as a result of the joint effort."

Alex N. Gecan has covered crime in New Jersey since 2016, and now also writes about unsolved mysteries. You can contact him at 732-643-4043; agecan@gannettnj.com; GeeksterTweets.