The Murder of Anita Piteau, The Huntington Beach Jane Doe (California)

Published: July 3, 2023, 7:30 a.m.

On March 14, 1968, kids playing in the oil fields of Huntington Beach, California discovered the brutally beaten body of a young woman. Investigators scoured the scene for clues, finding shoe imprints, marks from tires, and a cigarette butt, but it had rained the night before and so any other evidence left behind had likely washed away.\n\nPolice labeled the woman a Jane Doe and set out to investigate her identity and her death, but the woman found there would not have her name returned to her for more than half a century.\n\nAnita Louise Piteau, an Augusta, Maine local, finally came home after over 50 years, thanks to advancements in DNA technology.