Jasmin Maria Ramos was an infant from Bakersfield, California, last seen on August 1, 1989, with her mother, Marina Ramos, and her 14-month-old sister, Elizabeth. According to case records, the family was reportedly traveling with a Hispanic man as they left Bakersfield, and the children were not seen again with their mother after that date. A NamUs entry documents Jasmin’s case and establishes the Bakersfield last-contact date.
In December 1989, a young Hispanic woman’s body was discovered off Highway 93 near Dolan Springs, Arizona. She had been killed only hours before she was found and had no identification, leading investigators to bury her as a Jane Doe. For decades, there was no confirmed link between that homicide and the two missing Bakersfield infants.
A major break came in 2022, when Mohave County authorities used forensic fingerprint and DNA analysis to identify the Jane Doe as Marina Ramos, who had also used the name Maria Ortiz. This identification reframed the Bakersfield disappearance as part of a cross-state case and prompted renewed efforts to find Marina’s missing daughters.
Investigators retraced the family’s movements in Southern California in the days after the murder. Reports and appeals noted that witnesses in 1989 had seen a woman and two men with two babies at a park in Oxnard, California, arriving in a small black pickup; the infants were later found abandoned in a public restroom and placed into foster care. Those early leads did not reveal the children’s identities at the time, and the trail went cold for many years.
In 2025, after sustained outreach and new DNA testing, authorities confirmed that the two women adopted in Ventura County decades earlier were in fact Elizabeth and Jasmin Ramos. News reports describe how both grew up unaware of their origins until the identification of their mother reignited the search and led to a familial DNA match that reunited the threads of the case.
While the discovery of Jasmin alive has brought a measure of relief, the investigation into Marina Ramos’s homicide remains open. Officials continue to seek information about the people seen with the children in 1989 and ask the public for tips to help determine who was responsible for Marina’s death and the circumstances that led to the abandonment of her infants.Last Seen: Aug 1, 1989
