Rebecca Jean McMahan

For more than 50 years, she was a ghost, a young woman buried in the California desert with no name. She was known only as Riverside County Jane Doe, case number UP7144. But in August 2026, through the tireless work of cold case investigators and the power of forensic genealogy, she was given her name back: Rebecca Jean McMahan. Known to her loved ones as Becky, she was just 19 years old when her life was cut short.

Between 1969 and 1973, Becky’s life spanned several communities. She was known to have lived in Bellingham, Washington, as well as the Southern California cities of Bell, Cudahy, and Commerce. Described as a White female with long brown hair and hazel eyes, she stood between 5-foot-3 and 5-foot-4 and weighed between 120 and 145 pounds. She had two distinctive tattoos: a butterfly on the right side of her chest and the initials "SS" on her ankle, later confirmed by an investigator to be the initials of a loved one.

Becky’s family last saw her on June 11, 1973, in Bell Gardens, California. She had mentioned plans to travel to Palm Springs for a vacation. When weeks went by with no word, her worried family reported her missing on July 3, 1973. For seven months, her whereabouts remained a painful mystery. The search came to a devastating end on January 19, 1974, when her partially buried body was discovered in an open desert area of Desert Hot Springs. Investigators determined she had been shot.

For decades, detectives with the Riverside County Sheriff's Office pursued every available lead. They compared fingerprints and dental records, but nothing led to her identity. The case eventually went cold, leaving a family without answers and a young woman without her name. For half a century, she was one of the county's many unidentified dead, her case file gathering dust.

In 2024, the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team decided to re-examine the case, hoping that advances in forensic science could finally break the silence. They sent skeletal samples to Othram, a private laboratory in Texas specializing in advanced DNA analysis. Scientists there successfully extracted a DNA profile from the degraded remains and used it to build a comprehensive genetic map. A genealogist with the cold case team then uploaded this profile to a direct-to-consumer ancestry database.

The search yielded a potential match to a close relative living in California. Investigators contacted the family member, who voluntarily provided a DNA sample for comparison. The California Department of Justice’s Missing and Unidentified Persons Section confirmed the match, and after 52 years, Jane Doe was identified as Rebecca Jean McMahan.

The identification in August 2026 gave Becky back her name, but it also marked the beginning of a renewed search for her killer. The Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team is now actively investigating the circumstances surrounding her murder and is asking for the public’s help. They are seeking any information about Becky, also known as Becky Solis, her life, her friends, and her activities in the months leading up to her disappearance in mid-1973.

Investigators urge anyone who knew Rebecca McMahan or has any information, no matter how insignificant it may seem, to come forward. People can contact Investigator Ebony Caviness of the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Team at 951-955-0257 or by email at [email protected]. Her killer has never been brought to justice, and her family is still waiting for answers.