Cold Case Solved: Woman's Body Identified After 44 Years

0:00DNA tech just cracked a 44-year-old mystery out in California. Hikers found a woman's body in a palm desert ravine on February 18, 1980, and now it's confirmed as Victoria Jean Hargrove, a 29-year-old from Opalika, Alabama. She vanished from her home weeks earlier, and Riverside County investigators are calling it a homicide. Earlier this week, Opalika police dropped the news after genetic testing linked the remains to her family. They'd exhumed the body this year as part of their cold case push, turning Riverside County Jane Doe into a name with a story. Hargrove was last seen on January 28, 1980, when she told relatives she was heading out of town and would call when she got. There, she never did, and her family reported her missing on February 4. Turns out she was freshly divorced and maybe linked up with a former co-worker who dipped out too, right around the same time. That guy came back to Alabama by August, but not before her red 1978 dot-son showed

1:01up abandoned at a Las Vegas hotel. Investigators back then grilled him. He first denied taking her car, then said she loaned it to him for some debt, and he ditched it out west over. Paperwork issues, witnesses even spotted him driving it solo, no sign of Hargrove with him. Opalika cops have shipped all their files to the Riverside County Sheriff's cold case team, who's running point now. If you know anything, hit them up at 951-955-0070 or coldcase-enant-riftcoda.org, could be the break thing. Need to close this chapter? You've been listening to Birmingham News today, AI-powered local news.