126: The Identification of Ventura County Jane Doe: The Story of Maricela Rocha Parga

In July 1980, the body of a young pregnant woman was discovered in the parking lot of Westlake High School in Westlake, California. She had been brutally raped, strangled, and stabbed. Investigators quickly realized she had been killed somewhere else and left behind—but they had no idea who she was.

For decades, she was known only as Ventura County Jane Doe.

In 2015, DNA evidence linked her murder to serial killer Wilson Chouest, who was later convicted of the crime. But even with a killer identified, the woman he murdered remained nameless.

In 2018, the DNA Doe Project began working to restore her identity using genetic genealogy. Years of research, distant DNA matches, and family history slowly narrowed the search but it wasn’t until a breakthrough phone call in December 2025 connected investigators with a family who had been searching for their missing sister since 1980.

In 2026, Ventura County Jane Doe was finally identified as Maricela Rocha Parga, a nursing student, waitress, and mother of a two-year-old daughter who had immigrated to the United States from Monterrey, Mexico.

After forty-five years, Maricela finally has her name back.

📍 Thousand Oaks, California | July 1980

📖 Featuring an original poem written in her honor, read and written by Aimee Baker

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