1986 Homicide Victim Found Near Lakeside ID’d Through Genetic Genealogy

A homicide victim whose body was discovered near Lakeside nearly four decades ago has been positively identified through investigative genetic genealogy, sheriff’s officials announced Tuesday.

The sheriff’s department said Maria Pilar Del Gadillo Carrillo, 43, has been identified as the woman whose body was discovered on Aug. 3, 1986 down an embankment along state Route 67, south of Poway Road.

Her exact cause of death was not disclosed, but the sheriff’s department said she “had sustained traumatic injuries to her body that were consistent with foul play” and the medical examiner ruled her death was a homicide.

The case went cold and the victim was not identified until earlier this year following recent attempts to identify her.

Sheriff’s officials say Carrillo immigrated to the United States in early 1986 from Yahaulica, Jalisco, Mexico.

With her identity established, detectives are now working to establish her whereabouts in the San Diego area before she was killed. Her family has also been notified that she was positively identified and that the homicide investigation is ongoing, the department said.

Anyone who may have known Carrillo was asked to contact the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Unit at 858-285-6330, or after-hours at 858-565-5200. Tipsters can remain anonymous by calling Crime Stoppers at 888-580-8477.

City News Service contributed to this article.