By Myrna Trauntvein
Times-News Correspondent
Two unidentified victims from two separate Juab County Sheriff's Office cold cases were identified through DNA.
Both of the cold cases are decades old and the bodies found in the county have awaited identification in spite of attempts by law enforcement thorough the years to uncover their identities.
In November 1996, the Juab County Sheriff's Office responded to Juab Lake to the report of a human skull.
"Upon investigation the skull was recovered, along with other bones and hair," said Doug Anderson, Juab County Sheriff. "All items were taken to the State Medical Examiner's Office and the case was treated as a homicide."
The case was listed as an unidentified person and listed on the National Unidentified Persons Data System (NAMUS).
In November 2013, Lieutenant Craig Ryan arranged to have the evidence released to him from the State Medical Examiner's Office. The evidence collected was various bones. A bone was sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center in hopes of getting a DNA profile.
The UNT Health Science Center is a premier specialized forensic science center featuring DNA technologies for human identification. The center is known among law enforcement officers as "the best of the best" in using DNA profiling methods and with access to nationwide DNA databases.
"In January 2014, Lieutenant Ryan received confirmation from UNT Health Science Center with a DNA match, identifying the victim as Rene A. Romero, a 4-year-old boy from Reno, Nevada," said Anderson.
The match was positive from a family reference match from his mother, Ana L. Romero. Follow up on this case with the Reno Police Department confirmed that Rene Romero had been murdered in Reno, Nevada.
Rene Romero was 4-years-old at the time of his murder on November 24, 1994. Rene's mother and stepfather, Alvaro Ortiz, ended up being prosecuted and sentenced for the murder of Rene Romero, even though a body had never been found.
Alavaro Ortiz is reported to be serving a life sentence in prison, without the possibility of parole, and Ana Romero has since been released from prison and is on parole.
"The second cold case came about in September 1978," said Anderson. "The Juab County Sheriff's Office responded to the report of a female body at Yuba Reservoir."
The female victim was transported to the Utah State Medical Examiner's Office, where it was ruled that she was a victim of death by strangulation. The victim was never identified over the years and remained listed as an unidentified victim.
"The victim was ran against a number of possible leads of missing females over the years, through any matches by use of dental records that were established by the State Medical Examiner's Office," said Anderson. "The case went cold with no new leads for a number of years."
The details regarding the unidentified female were listed a number of years ago on a National Unidentified Persons System (NAMUS). Over the last few years,the identity of the victim had still been ruled out against other possible matches through dental comparisons.
In 2013, the Davis County Sheriff's Office provided an evidence sample to the Juab County Sheriff's Office that had been in Davis County evidence, unknown to anyone since 1978. Due to chain of evidence, that sample was not used.
Davis County Sheriff's Sergeant DeAnn Servey said that a detective was searching through the agency's evidence room while investigating another cold case and found something that surprised him.
"He found some hair in the evidence locker, and it was only labeled: 'Hair from Yuba Lake body.' That's it," Servey said.
Retired Davis County Sheriff's Captain Kenny Payne worked for both the sheriff's office and state medical examiner's office at the time and that may be the reason the evidence was in the locker.
The evidence from Davis County wasn't directly used because it had been in that county's possession unsupervised for so long, Anderson said.
"In 2014, Lieutenant Ryan obtained a hair sample from the State Medical Examiner's Office that had remained in custody of their office," said Anderson.
That hair sample was sent to the University of North Texas Health Science Center and had a DNA profile established.
"On August 20, 2015, Lieutenant Ryan received notification from University of North Texas Health Science Center, advising of a positive DNA match based on Mitochondrial DNA testing results," Anderson said.
The results confirmed that there was a positive match between a family reference sample that had been provided by a biological mother and a biological sibling.
The results of those findings identified the victim as Marilee Bruszer, age 33, from Long Beach, California. The victim had been reported missing on August 22, 1978.
Long Beach Police Department had listed the victim as a missing endangered person and, at the time, had followed what leads they had.
"The Long Beach Police Department advised that having positive notification on the death of the victim, they would reopen that case as a homicide case and try and follow leads again," Anderson said.
Notification to the remaining family members was made by Long Beach California Police Department.
