Story by Susan Meeker
COLUSA, CA (MPG) – A decades-old mystery surrounding the drowning victim buried in the Colusa Cemetery as Jane Doe has finally been solved.
Her name was Betty Jo Evans, a 30-year-old Florida woman whose sister had last heard from her about 35 years ago.
Evans’ body was found floating face down in the Sacramento River on Aug. 13, 1991, which led Colusa County Sheriff’s investigators on an exhaustive search through multiple states to put a name to her face and bring peace to a family.
“It’s closure for her sister and closure for us,” said Sheriff’s Lieutenant Jose Ruiz, after investigative genetic genealogy was used to reverse engineer a family tree and link the woman’s remains to her only surviving sibling.
Former Chief Deputy Kevin Wheeler, who retired from the Sheriff’s Office in 2008, left behind three cold cases he hoped would someday be solved by DNA, after traditional methods of identification failed.
Before he left, Wheeler had Evans’ body exhumed in 2007 for DNA analysis.
“At the time, DNA was in its infancy,” Wheeler said. “By 2024, it has really grown into what they can actually do with it.”
Wheeler said the 33-year-old mystery haunted him and investigators who worked with multiple agencies nationwide to identify the woman a farmer found face down in the water, next to an irrigation pump on the west bank of the Sacramento River, about one mile downstream from the Meridian Bridge.
Wheeler said she had been dead less than 24 hours, indicating she did not sink beneath the surface to emerge days later, as is typical of drowning victims.
“That is what made this case unique,” he said.
Evans was dressed for summer, wearing striped jogging shorts, a light blue tank top with embroidered blue flowers, and white LA Gear high-top shoes when she went into the water.
Wheeler said her death was ruled accidental because only one set of footprints – hers – were discovered leading to the water, and there were no indications of foul play.
“We know she had been under the bridge and that she was alone,” Wheeler said.
Although Wheeler believed she may have been staying in the Yuba City area, no one who may have known her ever came forward. And despite a painstaking process to identify Evans, who was thought at the time to possibly have Down Syndrome, because of her short stature and facial features, the case eventually went cold.
“But you never forget,” Wheeler said. “You may have to set the file aside as new cases arise, but you always go back to it.”
When Ruiz took over the investigation in 2017, he reopened the case and sought the assistance of the investigative genetic team with the FBI Sacramento Violent Crime Task Force Team, who use genealogy databases to identify potential family members.
“It’s not like you put DNA in a system and get a match to an individual,” Ruiz said. “The lengthy process only produces leads investigators must follow.”
DNA blueprints linking the woman to potential family members took investigators to multiple states, including Texas, Oklahoma, and Nevada. It eventually led to Evans’ sister, in Florida, who always wondered what had become of Betty Jo.
Ruiz learned that Evans had a rough upbringing. Although she did not have Down Syndrome, her sister said she did have developmental delays and had been traumatized by the horrific tragedy that killed their parents when Betty Joe was seven years old, resulting in her and her siblings entering the foster care system.
Although Colusa County investigators correctly surmised that Evans was a drifter, even her sister had no idea she had made her way all the way to California.
Evans was born in Fort Pierce, Florida, on Oct. 4, 1961. She lost a brother, who lived in Fort Pierce, a few years before she died. Another sister died later while living in Missouri.
Ruiz said the investigation involved collecting a DNA sample from her sister, which confirmed a direct match. The sister still lives in Fort Pierce and has been looking for answers for the past 33 years.
Wheeler is also at peace, finally knowing the identity of the woman he buried so long ago.
“When the lieutenant called me, I couldn’t catch my breath,” Wheeler said. “When I left the Sheriff’s Office, it was like I left her. I felt like I failed her.”
Evans’ body will be exhumed one last time, cremated, and returned to her hometown for interment.
“I’m glad her family was found,” Ruiz said. “I hope I can go to Florida so I can personally hand deliver her remains to her sister. It would mean a lot to me.”
The Colusa County Sheriff’s Office recognizes the case would not have been solved without the tireless efforts of the FBI Sacramento Genetic Genealogy Team, and the prior Sheriff’s Office staff involved in the original investigation, who, like Wheeler, have since retired but never gave up hope the file would be closed, including Colusa City Councilman Dave Markss, who was a deputy at the time, Sgt. Tony Garafalo, who currently serves as a member of the 44th District Agriculture Association, Deputy Scot Dudman, Deputy Jim Bell, and Sheriff’s Technician Frances Austin.
The Sheriff’s Office has two other cold cases, including the identity of skeletal remains found along Interstate 5 at Hahn Road near Arbuckle in 1982.
In 2007, Wheeler had hoped DNA would finally solve the mystery, but insufficient genetic material was recovered from the exhumed remains.
At the time, the family of a missing 29-year-old Pennsylvania woman held out hope they would finally learn the fate of their loved one, who left for California with an unknown male on March 1, 1979, never to be seen or heard from again.
Like Evans, 29-year-old Nellie Flickinger, who would be 75 years old if alive today, lived a transient lifestyle that took her across the country.
Flickinger’s niece came forward in 2008 after the Colusa County Sheriff’s Office released coast-to-coast information about the search for the woman’s identity, indicating the remains contained a metal plate in one of the leg bones.
According to her niece, Flickinger was severely injured in a motorcycle accident in the 1960s, resulting in pins and plates being used to repair one of her legs.
The Eire Police Department continues to investigate Flickinger’s disappearance as an active missing person case.
Ruiz continues to pursue leads in this case – and that of skeletal remains found decades ago along Old Highway 99.