VOLUSIA COUNTY, Fla. — Volusia County deputies, elated by the long-awaited identification of a murder victim found in 1990, are hoping the same techniques will lead to success in more frustrating cases.
A Texas-based lab called the agency’s cold case unit Thursday with the news that the body, discovered on a dirt road off Clyde Morris Boulevard, was Roberta “Bobbie” Weber, 32.
Weber was found by a person walking along the path. Her badly decomposed remains were scattered in multiple places, and a rope was found around her neck. Deputies estimated she had been dead for as long as six months.
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The state of decomposition left few avenues for deputies to pursue while trying to solve her case, until technology allowed researchers to reconstruct Weber’s family tree through forensic genealogy and locate her sister in Texas.
Weber’s remains were one of six or seven cases sent to different labs for processing. The other one sent to the same Texas-based lab, which has now made identifications in 100 cold cases this year, was a case simply known as “John Doe 1992.”
Doe’s body was found on Maytown Road five miles east of Osteen in July 1992. Reports at the time noted signs of severe trauma, including the removal of Doe’s head and hands.
Read: DNA tests help ID woman found dead in Volusia County in 1990 as mother of 3
Since then, Doe has not been identified. He was believed to be a middle-aged Black man with a small beard.
“Getting a victim identified is the most important thing you need to do in a cold case,” VCSO Sgt. Seth Amrhine said. “Not having that identification hamstrung the case.”
Detectives did not detail the other cases sent for testing but said all were homicide victims. Those cases are considered a priority since the cost of the testing is significant.
Read: ‘A horrific incident’: New details released in cold case of slain Central Florida woman
The murder investigation into Weber’s death has been reopened, with deputies now trying to figure out how she got from Salinas, California, where she was last seen, to Florida.
“We vet every tip that comes in,” Amrhine said. “No tip is too small; no piece of information is too small from someone’s memory way back then.”
Read: Flagler County deputies ask for help identifying 1993 cold case victim
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