Maritza Glean Grimmett

Maritza’s story

In April 1983, children playing near Canada and Old Trabuco roads in El Toro, now Lake Forest, found a human skull in a culvert. Investigators recovered about 70% of a young woman’s skeleton. She had a distinctive gold tooth. For 41 years she was “Lake Forest Jane Doe.” [4]

In 2024 she was identified as Maritza Glean Grimmett, a young mother from Panama who had told her family in 1979 that she was going to California and was never heard from again. In February 2025 the Sheriff’s Department named two persons of interest. No one has been arrested or charged. [1][4]

Who Maritza was

Maritza was born in Panama. In the summer of 1978 she married a U.S. Marine, and they had a daughter. Late that year the family moved to the United States, living first in Columbus, Ohio, and then in Millington, Tennessee. In July 1979 the couple began divorce proceedings. Her husband moved to California; Maritza stayed in Tennessee. [1][4]

Maritza then told her family she was going to California. According to the investigator, she hoped to reconcile with her husband, who was then stationed at Marine Corps Air Station El Toro. Her family never heard from her again. She was about 20. [3][4]

What happened

What happened between 1979 and 1983 is the heart of the case, and almost nothing about it is public. Investigators say Maritza did not appear for the finalization of her divorce in Tennessee in November 1979. The following January, her ex-husband married again. [3]

Her remains were found in April 1983, about three miles from MCAS El Toro. How and when she reached California, and when she died, are unknown. Investigators say they still have no definitive evidence of how she got there. [1][3]

How she was identified

The Sheriff’s Department released forensic renderings of Jane Doe in 2019 and 2022. In 2022 the lab Othram built a DNA profile, funded through NamUs, but the FBI’s genealogy team couldn’t establish a direct family line. [4]

In late 2023, investigators reached a distant genetic relative, who suggested posting the renderings to a Facebook group for missing women from the 1970s and ’80s. About a month later, a woman contacted investigators believing Jane Doe could be her missing mother. Family DNA confirmed it in March 2024, and the Sheriff’s Department announced the identification in June. [1][4][6][7]

What investigators have said

On Feb. 20, 2025, the Sheriff’s Department named as persons of interest Maritza’s ex-husband, Howard Grimmett, and his current wife, Isabel “Terry” Cruz-Grimmett. [1]

Being named a person of interest is not an accusation and does not mean someone is a suspect. Investigator Bob Taft told reporters the couple had cooperated and that he interviewed them in September 2024. He said Howard Grimmett denied any involvement. No arrest or charge has been reported. [2][3]

Investigators want to hear from anyone who knows how and when Maritza came to California, and from former military personnel who may have seen her at MCAS El Toro between late 1979 and April 1983. [1]

Where it happened

Canada and Old Trabuco roads were on the edge of El Toro in 1983, with undeveloped land and drainage culverts. The area is now part of the city of Lake Forest. Marine Corps Air Station El Toro was then an active base a few miles away. It closed in 1999.

Where accounts differ

• When she was identified. The Sheriff’s Department’s case page and June 2024 release say June 2024; its February 2025 release says March 2024. The likeliest explanation is that DNA confirmation came in March and the announcement in June. [1][4][5]
• Her age. The case page describes her as 20 when she married in 1978. The 2024 release says she was 20 when she disappeared in 1979. [4][5]
• Why she went to California. The 2024 release says only that she was going there; the investigator later said she hoped to reconcile with her husband. [3][4]

Open questions

• How did Maritza travel from Tennessee to California, and when did she arrive?
• Where did she live, and who saw her, between 1979 and 1983?
• Was she ever on or near the El Toro base?

What you can do

• If you served at or worked near MCAS El Toro between 1979 and 1983 and remember a young Panamanian woman with a gold tooth, contact the cold case team. This is the appeal investigators have made.
• If you knew Maritza in Panama, Ohio, Tennessee or California, your memories of her plans in 1979 may matter.
• Research: the July 1979 divorce filing in Tennessee is a public court record that could fix her last documented address and dates.