With the help of DNA testing, the remains were identified as Deborah Mitchell Cordier, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office. Photo from Sonoma County Sheriff's Office Nearly three decades after a woman’s body was found drifting in the Pacific Ocean off the California coast, it’s been identified, deputies say. With the help of DNA testing, the remains were identified as Deborah Mitchell Cordier, the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said in an April 2 Facebook post.

The remains of a woman were found “floating in the Pacific Ocean, several miles off the Point Reyes Peninsula” in January 1998, deputies said. The woman’s body was badly decomposed, making it difficult to identify her, deputies said. Despite investigators’ efforts to identify the woman, she would remain nameless for decades, deputies said. Then, in 2023, deputies said they partnered with the California Department of Justice and Othram Inc. with their sights set on using forensic genetic genealogy to identify the woman.

Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related. Deputies said they sent forensic evidence to Othram. There, scientists built a “comprehensive DNA profile” that was used in genetic genealogy investigation to create new leads, Othram said in a news release.

After a family member submitted a DNA sample to the Richmond Police Department, criminalists had “a pivotal breakthrough,” deputies said. Sheriff investigators then confirmed the woman’s identity as Cordier “through a meticulous fingerprint comparison,” deputies said.

Cordier would have turned 46 years old in July 1998, according to deputies.

Point Reyes is about a 60-mile drive northwest from San Francisco.