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Note: The following article contains graphic details that some readers may find disturbing. Viewer discretion is advised. The video above is from a 2018 update on the investigation.

Decapitated Body Found in California Vineyard Identified After 13 Years

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. – In a shocking development, the identity of a decapitated body found nearly 13 years ago in a vineyard outside Arvin, California, has finally been determined.

In March 2011, the lifeless body of a naked woman was discovered in a Kern County vineyard.

“The body was found lying on its back, completely nude on the dirt roadway, and it appeared to have been deliberately posed by the person responsible for leaving it there,” revealed Ray Pruitt, formerly of the Kern County Sheriff’s Department, in an interview with KGET in 2018.

Although finding bodies in vineyards and orchards across the county wasn’t uncommon, the former Kern County Sheriff’s Lt. David Hubbard described this particular discovery as “gruesome” and “highly unusual.”

“Mutilated bodies in homicides are extremely rare,” Hubbard stated. “We don’t come across many cases like this. Full decapitation is especially uncommon.”

The Grisly Crime Scene

According to Pruitt, the body appeared to have been drained of blood, with the crime scene remarkably clean.

“The body wasn’t recklessly discarded from a moving vehicle or casually dumped on the side of the road,” Pruitt explained. “The perpetrator deliberately pulled into this dirt access road, removed the body, placed it on the ground, and posed it in a sexual manner. They wanted the body to be discovered in that state.”

Despite exhaustive efforts, the case quickly grew cold due to the inability to identify the victim. Investigators found no distinguishing features on the woman and suspected that the killer intentionally made her unidentifiable. Furthermore, the victim’s thumbs had been removed. Since thumbprints are the only prints collected for identification purposes such as driver’s licenses and passports, this made identification even more challenging.

Additionally, the woman’s head was never recovered.

A Break in the Case: Victim Identified

Finally, after all leads to identify the victim had been exhausted, there has been a significant breakthrough. The remains of the woman have now been identified as Ada Beth Kaplan, a 64-year-old resident of Canyon Country, according to coroner’s officials.

Kaplan had been buried in Union Cemetery, but in 2020, the coroner’s office collaborated with the nonprofit DNA Doe Project to create a family tree based on a DNA profile.

In July, two potential family members were identified and provided DNA samples for comparison, leading to the positive identification of Kaplan.

“Kern County Sheriff detectives followed up on the investigation and interviewed family members, revealing that no missing person report had been filed for her,” officials stated.

The Mystery Remains: Location and Perpetrator Unknown

Despite the identification of Ada Beth Kaplan, crucial questions surrounding her murder remain unanswered. The exact location of the crime and the identity of her killer are still unknown, as confirmed by coroner’s officials.

As of now, no additional information has been released, and the Kern County Sheriff’s Office has yet to respond to Nexstar’s request for comment.

As this long-standing case finally sees progress with the identification of the victim, authorities hope that further leads will emerge, shedding light on the circumstances surrounding Kaplan’s brutal murder.

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