Long Beach Woman's Disappearance 16 Years Ago was Murder; Cold Case Reopens: Police

LONG BEACH, CA -- A Long Beach woman who went missing 16 years ago is believed to have been murdered, and an excavation will be conducted in Kern County on Thursday in an effort to find her remains, police said Wednesday.

Diana Rojas, 27, was last seen Oct. 20, 2000, at an apartment in the 5500 block of Ackerfield Avenue, where she lived with her 2-year-old daughter, according to the Long Beach Police Department.

Rojas missed an appointment she had scheduled for Oct. 21, 2000, police said. Her family called police the next day when they were unable to find her or her black 1992 Nissan pickup.

"At the time of Diana's disappearance, her daughter was in the care of a family member at another residence. By all accounts, it was uncharacteristic for Diana to leave her child without warning," police said.

After collecting evidence from her apartment and interviewing relatives and friends, the trail went cold, police said.

Her pickup was never found. It was a 1992 Nissan Extended Cab pickup, black with white pinstripes, with Texas license number BY3242. Police circulated her photo and listed her description as being of Filipino and Hispanic descent, 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighing 115 pounds, with brown hair and eyes.

More recently, however, "detectives received an anonymous tip that Diana was deceased and a location where she could possibly be located," police said.

The investigation led police to Ridgecrest, where detectives believe the woman's remains may be buried.

"Utilizing satellite images of Ridgecrest, (investigators) pinpointed areas where there were inconsistencies to the topography." police said.

Detectives used specially trained cadaver dogs from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department to search the area, and the dogs "showed interest in one of the areas," police said.

On Thursday, Long Beach police detectives, along with the Ridgecrest Police Department, Kern County Sheriff's Department and a "NecroSearch" team, will excavate the area in Ridgecrest.

Ground-penetrating radar will be used to help search the desert-like terrain.

NecroSearch is a multidisciplinary team of scientists and investigators who assist law enforcement in the location of clandestine graves and the recovery of evidence.

The two NecroSearch scientists who will be assisting in the search are a forensic geologist and a forensic geophysicist with more than 70 years of combined experience in locating clandestine graves.

Anyone with information to help solve the crime was urged to call homicide Detectives Mark Bigel and Todd Johnson at (562) 570-7244, or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.

-- City News Service, photo courtesy of the LBPD