She went missing 31 years ago in california desert. Sister's dna helps identify her

Through DNA, authorities have identified a woman whose remains were found 31 years ago in Thermal, Calif., according to the Riverside County district attorney’s office. The Riverside County

Regional Cold Case Homicide Team, led by the district attorney’s Bureau of Investigation, identified the remains as Kathryn Coffey, a Baldwin Park resident born in 1954. Cold case

investigators met with Coffey’s sister in June and obtained DNA, confirming on Aug. 8 that the remains were Coffey’s and notifying her family about the identification. Human remains were

found on Jan. 22, 1991, at the base of a hill near Avenue 62 and Madison Street, according to a district attorney’s office news release. Bones were found and appeared to have been there for

a “lengthy amount of time.” The case went cold after the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department couldn’t find leads on the case, which was believed to be a suspicious death, authorities said.

Coffey was last known to be in the Indio area between 1989 and 1990, according to her family. Coffey graduated from Scripps College in the mid-1970s. Anyone with information regarding

Coffey or who has seen anything suspicious in Thermal in late January 1991 has been urged by the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team to contact the team by calling (951)

955-2777. MORE TO READ