PHOENIX — A young woman whose body was found in a Phoenix dumpster more than four decades ago has been identified.
On June 10, 1984, the partial remains of an adolescent girl were found in an industrial area near 21st Avenue and McDowell Road.
Investigators quickly determined that the victim was killed, but her identity was not known. Instead, the unnamed victim came to be known as “Del Rey Jane Doe.”
According to the DNA Doe Project, the Maricopa County Medical Examiner’s Office brought the case to the organization in 2023, and a DNA profile was developed by May 2024.
Familial DNA matches were located and eventually led officials to identify the victim as Renee Isabel Nilsson, who was just 14 years old when she went missing in May 1984.
Her family reported that she left her house to go swimming and never returned, according to the DNA Doe Project.
Investigators also learned that someone else had used Nilsson’s identity to get married in 1987.
No further details were immediately available regarding the misuse of Nilsson’s identity, and the circumstances around her murder have yet to be discovered.
Anyone with information about the unsolved murder is asked to contact the Maricopa County Medical Examiner.
