In a shocking development, the mystery surrounding the decapitated woman found in a California vineyard nearly 13 years ago has finally been solved. Last week, police announced that the woman has been identified as 64-year-old Ada Beth Kaplan, a resident of Canyon Country, California. The Kern County Sheriff's Office confirmed that Kaplan's headless body was discovered on March 29, 2011, in the Grapevine Vineyard in Arvin, approximately 21 miles southeast of Bakersfield.

The gruesome crime scene left investigators baffled and haunted for years. Besides being decapitated, Kaplan's body had been drained of blood and her thumbs had been severed. The killer had taken the time to pose the naked and partially decomposed corpse in what authorities described as a "sexual manner." Homicide Sgt. David Hubbard stated that the perpetrator had deliberately left the body in a way that ensured it would be found, indicating a disturbing level of planning and intentionality.

Despite the horrific nature of the crime, initial attempts to identify Kaplan were unsuccessful. The DNA found at the scene did not match any missing persons, crime scene, or convicted persons databases. The case went cold for nine years until the Kern County Medical Examiner's Office reached out to the DNA Doe Project, a nonprofit organization specializing in using investigative genetic genealogy to identify unidentified individuals.

The DNA Doe Project's dedicated team worked tirelessly to unravel Kaplan's complex Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry. They meticulously combed through Eastern European records to build a family tree, ultimately connecting Kaplan to multiple distant cousins spanning eight generations. After comparing her DNA to two potential family members residing on the East Coast, the team finally had a match.

Missy Koski, the team leader of the DNA Doe Project, expressed their satisfaction with the identification, stating, "Our team worked long and hard for this identification. Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry is often complicated to unravel. When we brought in an expert in Jewish records and genealogy, that made a huge difference."

Interviews with Kaplan's family shed light on why she had been so difficult to identify. Shockingly, no one had ever filed a missing person report for Kaplan, explaining why her body remained unidentified for over a decade. The circumstances leading to her death and the identity of her killer or killers, however, still remain a mystery.

Although Kaplan resided nearly 80 miles north of where her body was found, police do not believe she was murdered at the vineyard. The deranged murderer or murderers appeared to be "pretty comfortable committing this crime," leaving law enforcement officers baffled and uneasy about the possibility that they could still be at large.

Former sheriff's spokesman Ray Pruitt, who worked on the case in 2011, described the crime scene as “creepy” and unlike anything he had ever seen before. The meticulousness of the crime, including draining the body of blood and posing it in a sexual manner, added an eerie element to the already disturbing case.

The Kern County Sheriff's Office is now focused on determining the cause of Kaplan's death. The coroner's office, which conducted a postmortem examination, has classified her death as a homicide but has not yet determined the exact cause. Additionally, no suspects have been arrested in connection with her death.

The identification of Ada Beth Kaplan brings some closure to a case that has haunted investigators for years. However, the search for answers regarding the circumstances surrounding her death and the identity of her killer or killers continues. The Kern County Sheriff's Office remains committed to solving this heinous crime and bringing justice to Kaplan and her grieving family.