Investigators have finally identified a woman whose body was found in 1974 in the desert near Desert Hot Springs. They're now asking the public for information about her still-unsolved death, the Riverside County District Attorney’s office announced on Tuesday, Aug. 11.
Rebecca Jean McMahan, also known as Becky McMahan and Becky Solis, was found partially buried in the desert on Jan. 19, 1974. She was 19 years old.
The Desert Sun reported on Jan. 21, 1974, that someone traveling across the desert in a dune buggy found McMahan’s body in a shallow grave near Avenue 22 and Mountain View, south of Desert Hot Springs. Investigators at the time estimated she had been dead for three to nine months and was between 25 and 35 years old. She was wearing
tan slacks and a multicolored floral blouse.
McMahan’s family reported her missing on July 3, 1973. The DA’s office said she was last seen on June 11, 1973 in the Los Angeles County city of Bell Gardens and had mentioned going on vacation to Palm Springs.
Investigators over the years weren’t able to identify McMahan’s body or develop new investigative leads despite efforts that included fingerprint and dental record comparisons, the DA's office said. But the Regional Cold Case Homicide Team reexamined the case in 2024 using advances in forensic science, the DA’s office added. The team includes members of the DA’s Office Bureau of Investigation, the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner Department and the Riverside Police Department.
The coroner’s office sent bone samples to a private forensic laboratory for DNA analysis. McMahan’s DNA profile was then uploaded to an ancestry database. The DA’s office said a genealogist found a potential match to a close relative in California and that relative voluntarily provided DNA samples after investigators reached out. This ultimately led to McMahan’s identification.
McMahan was white, 5 feet 3 to 5 feet 4 inches tall and 120 to 145 pounds. She had long brown hair, hazel eyes, an “SS” tattoo on her ankle and a butterfly tattoo on her right chest. Between 1969 and 1973, she had lived in Bellingham, Washington, and in several California communities: Bell, Cudahy and Commerce.
The DA’s office said investigators are asking anyone with information about her or her death to contact Investigator Ebony Caviness at 951-955-0257 or coldcaseunit@rivcoda.org.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Cold case: Woman found dead in desert identified 52 years later
