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Never Too Late: Woman Murdered in 1946 Identified

mojave.jpg
Photo of the Mojave Desert, where Betty Walraven's remains were found, by G. J. Winterboer via the LAist Featured Photos pool

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It's never too late to solve a murder mystery, and in the case of a woman who was killed 65 years ago and whose remains were left in a California desert, investigators have finally found answers. CBS News reports that bones found in the Mojave Desert match the DNA of a family member of Betty Walraven, who was killed in 1946. Her remains were found in 1971 near Baker, and police got a confession from a man who claims he killed Walraven in 1975.

The identification of Walraven's remains was made by a lab run by the California state justice department, notes the Riverside Press-Enterprise. Family members provided DNA samples to the lab in 2005, and the ID was made on June 1.

The announcement was made by the San Bernadino County coroner's office, but the name of the killer wasn't included on the release.

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