Orange County's oldest Jane Doe murder case has been solved after 52 years with the help of genetic genealogy.

Authorities identified the victim as Anita Louise Piteau and she was killed in March 1968. The suspect was Johnny Chrisco, who was discharged in the army after three years, when he failed a psych exam. 

The psych exam found Chrisco to have "a pattern of being quick to anger, easy to feel unjustly treated, chronically resentful, immature, and impulsive," according to a report. The suspect was 28 years old when he killed Piteau.

"The death of a 26-year-old woman, who was left in a farm field raped, beaten and her neck slashed haunted generations of Huntington Beach police officers, who refused to give up on identifying Jane Doe and finding the person, who robbed a young woman of a lifetime of memories," Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer was quoted in a report.

Spitzer noted that after more than five decades, Jane Doe was named and identified her killer through investigative genetic genealogy; something that could not be done in old-fashioned police work.

The Victim

Piteau was 26 when she was murdered by Chrisco. Her remains have been returned to her surviving family. A memorial service in her home of Maine has been held in her honor.

Investigators, who helped in solving the case, attended the memorial service. Huntington Beach Police Chief Rob Handy thanked the authorities, who worked on solving Piteau's case.

Handy said he was extremely grateful and proud of the extraordinary efforts of the active and retired members of the Huntington Beach Police Department and the Orange County district attorney's office.

Piteau's niece noted that the news that her aunt was identified was a comfort to her. She said she was glad that Piteau was found.

Piteau was one of the seven children. She wrote to her mother, a month before she was killed, that she was working as a waitress and would be home in May.

Piteau was discovered on March 14, 1968 by three boys in the area of Newland Avenue and Yorktown Street.

Orange County District Attorney's Office said Piteau was raped and her neck was slashed when she was found. 

She was known as Jane Doe for all these years and had been buried in an unmarked grave in Newport Beach before her remains were returned to her family in Maine. The relationship between Chrisco and Piteau was not clear.

The Suspect

No one knew the real identity of Piteau and the only clue to her presumed killer was a cigarette butt found nearby.

Analysis of evidence from the victim's sexual assault kit and clothing resulted in a male DNA profile in 2001. Still, there was no identification.

The cigarette butt that was found to match with the profile developed from the assault kit, but it did not lead to any suspect. Chrisco was not part of the presumed killers in the 1968 crime. 

He was then listed in 2016 as one of six deceased veterans, who were unclaimed by family or friends.

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