Human remains discovered more than three decades ago have been identified as a missing UC Berkeley student who vanished on Halloween night in 1989, authorities announced this week.
Wendy Abrams-Nishikai was 21 years old and a mother of a young daughter when she went missing in Berkeley, California.
On February 10, 1990, human remains were found on an embankment off Yankee Jims Road in Colfax, a small town about an hour away from Lake Tahoe, according to a Placer County Sheriff’s Office news release on Monday.
But at the time, technology was not advanced enough to identify them. For 35 years, despite extensive efforts, the remains were only known as Jane Doe and the case went cold.
Then in 2023, officials formed a Cold Case Investigations team – with a focus on utilizing advancements in technology and forensic genealogy – and investigators from the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and the Placer County District Attorney's Office reopened the case.
Within the year, they had a breakthrough.
The California Department of Justice Laboratory in Richmond, California used DNA analysis to identify a likely next of kin, which linked the human remains to a relative of a woman who had been reported missing in Berkeley back in 1989.
After obtaining additional DNA samples from family members for further comparison, in January 2025, the remains were officially identified as Abrams-Nishikai.
The mysterious case has long been a talker for amateur sleuths, who appeared to have known the identity of the remains, according to SFGate.com.
Some of these sleuths have claimed they contacted Berkeley police and told them that a Jane Doe and Abrams-Nishikai both had a cross tattoo on their chest.
No additional details were released and investigators say the case is still under investigation.
“While her death is still under investigation and the case is ongoing, we hope this identification provides some closure to her surviving family members after 35 years of uncertainty,” the sheriff’s office said.
