YAKIMA, Wash.-The identity of a woman found murdered 47-years ago in Yakima is now known.
Yakima Police identified the woman as Vereta Joni Gates at a press conference at City Hall on July 2.
Gates’ nude body was found in a Chevy Apache pickup near Yakima Hardware on July 25, 1977.
Her body was badly decomposed and she had been dead for at least a few weeks at the time she was found. It is believed that she was violently sexually assaulted, according to the YPD.
Gates was about 5′ 8″ tall and weighed around 130 pounds, but nothing found with her body identified her. An autopsy revealed that she was between 18 and 25 years old at the time of her death, and that she died from strangulation, according to the YPD.
Detectives worked for decades to identify Gates and her body was exhumed in 2004 and tissues and fingernails were sent to the Washington State Patrol to develop a DNA sample in hopes of identifying her.
The DNA sample was recently tested by the Othram Corporation, which processes evidence from DNA extraction to aid in cold case investigations, and a DNA match for a living brother was found in May of 2024, leading to identification of the victim as Vereta Joni Gates.
According to the YPD’s press conference, Gates was known by her family to hitchhike between the East and West Coast, and she was last seen alive at a hospital in Chicago a few weeks before her body was found in Yakima.
Gates’ body will now be returned to her family in Vermont.
While Gates’ identity is now known, her killer is still at-large. According to the YPD, there is currently no suspect and very little evidence to go on in the investigation.
Anyone with any information on the case is asked to contact Yakima PD.
