Post by LadyBlue on May 12, 2017 7:23:08 GMT -5
Fairfax County Woman Missing Since 1990
Andrea Kuiper, 26, of Fairfax County, was hit and killed by two vehicles in 1990. Her remains were identified last week in California.
For nearly 30 years, a Fairfax County family has waited for word on their missing daughter, Andrea Kuiper, who had left home to find information on her biological family in California.
After confirmation from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) database, the Kuiper family of the 9500 block of Old Creek Drive can at last have closure, thanks to the work of the Orange County Coroner's Division.
On May 4, the Coroner's Division received confirmation that their "Jane Doe," a 26-year-old woman struck and killed in Huntington Beach on April 1, 1990, was indeed Kuiper.
Fairfax County Police public information officer Tawny Wright said Thursday her department personally notified the family May 5.
“We are thankful to know what happened to our daughter after all these years,” said Kuiper’s father, Richard Kuiper. “Andrea was loved and respected. She was beautiful. But she was manic depressive, and therefore we had been through quite an adventure.”
“We never forgot her and would regularly pull out her file to see if we could think of anything new to try,” Supervising Deputy Coroner Kelly Keyes said. “The investigators at the Coroner’s Office never stopped trying to figure out who she was, just as they do with the more than 90 unidentified decedents that we have.”
Kuiper was struck and killed by two vehicles on April 1, 1990 as she crossed Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.
"My wife, son and I always hoped that one day our daughter would drive up with a car full of beautiful children and say, ‘Hi, it’s me,' " her father said in a recent release.
According to her family, Andrea headed to California from Virginia at 26-years-old. Andrea suffered from manic depressive disorder, struggled with mental health issues, and eventually began using drugs.
A few months before her death, Andrea reached out to her parents with a phone call, letting them know that she was OK, but that was the last they heard from their daughter.
Kuiper was killed after being struck on PCH west of Newland. She died at the scene according to police reports.
Known to police only as "Jane Doe," at the time of her death, she was wearing a black dress, black fishnet stockings, a hot pink sweater and pink heels. She was also wearing a ring made of human hair, wrapped around her left ring finger, and wore black toenail polish.
Those details were made known to "Unsolved Mysteries" which featured the story, and a psychic was reported by OCSD as working with the group trying to locate information on her family.
The January 20, 1995 episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" episode stated that on April 1, a young woman known only as "Andrea" was struck and killed by a Mazda MX-6 and a Lincoln Continental.
"She carried no identification, in her possessions were a hotel key and a ring made of human hair," Unsolved Mysteries webpage said. "Several people stated that they saw her the day before she died, and that her name was Andrea, and that she had come from the East Coast (either Virginia or New York) to California in search of her biological parents. She said that she was the biological daughter of a well-known couple, but never said who they were."
According to a Facebook page set up for the unidentified woman, two separate men were reported as having seen and spent time with Andrea before her death. One gave her money she used to purchase the shoes she was wearing when she was killed. The other witnessed Andrea cut her own hair to create the ring she wore, and learned that she had family in the Virginia area, which became a vital clue in locating her family.
At the time of Kuiper’s death, her information was provided to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The organization recreated images of what Kuiper might have looked like. Those images were circulated in the media, but she remained unidentified.
In 2010, NamUs provided a searchable database to assist in solving cases involving unidentified human remains. Shortly after its creation, the OCSD Coroner Division input Kuiper’s information and hoped for a hit.
"Coroner investigators revisited the case as recently as eight months ago after learning Kuiper may have had connections in Newport News, Virginia, but their work didn’t turn out any new information," Keyes said.
In early 2017, NamUs partnered with the FBI on a fingerprint project that more closely examines fingerprints of unidentified decedents against an ever-growing database that has old fingerprints regularly added.
On May 4, the FBI notified the OCSD Coroner Division of the forensic match.
Coroner investigators worked with Fairfax County Police to contact Kuiper’s parents.
patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/jane-doe-identifed-fairfax-county-woman-missing-1990
Andrea Kuiper, 26, of Fairfax County, was hit and killed by two vehicles in 1990. Her remains were identified last week in California.
For nearly 30 years, a Fairfax County family has waited for word on their missing daughter, Andrea Kuiper, who had left home to find information on her biological family in California.
After confirmation from the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) database, the Kuiper family of the 9500 block of Old Creek Drive can at last have closure, thanks to the work of the Orange County Coroner's Division.
On May 4, the Coroner's Division received confirmation that their "Jane Doe," a 26-year-old woman struck and killed in Huntington Beach on April 1, 1990, was indeed Kuiper.
Fairfax County Police public information officer Tawny Wright said Thursday her department personally notified the family May 5.
“We are thankful to know what happened to our daughter after all these years,” said Kuiper’s father, Richard Kuiper. “Andrea was loved and respected. She was beautiful. But she was manic depressive, and therefore we had been through quite an adventure.”
“We never forgot her and would regularly pull out her file to see if we could think of anything new to try,” Supervising Deputy Coroner Kelly Keyes said. “The investigators at the Coroner’s Office never stopped trying to figure out who she was, just as they do with the more than 90 unidentified decedents that we have.”
Kuiper was struck and killed by two vehicles on April 1, 1990 as she crossed Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach.
"My wife, son and I always hoped that one day our daughter would drive up with a car full of beautiful children and say, ‘Hi, it’s me,' " her father said in a recent release.
According to her family, Andrea headed to California from Virginia at 26-years-old. Andrea suffered from manic depressive disorder, struggled with mental health issues, and eventually began using drugs.
A few months before her death, Andrea reached out to her parents with a phone call, letting them know that she was OK, but that was the last they heard from their daughter.
Kuiper was killed after being struck on PCH west of Newland. She died at the scene according to police reports.
Known to police only as "Jane Doe," at the time of her death, she was wearing a black dress, black fishnet stockings, a hot pink sweater and pink heels. She was also wearing a ring made of human hair, wrapped around her left ring finger, and wore black toenail polish.
Those details were made known to "Unsolved Mysteries" which featured the story, and a psychic was reported by OCSD as working with the group trying to locate information on her family.
The January 20, 1995 episode of "Unsolved Mysteries" episode stated that on April 1, a young woman known only as "Andrea" was struck and killed by a Mazda MX-6 and a Lincoln Continental.
"She carried no identification, in her possessions were a hotel key and a ring made of human hair," Unsolved Mysteries webpage said. "Several people stated that they saw her the day before she died, and that her name was Andrea, and that she had come from the East Coast (either Virginia or New York) to California in search of her biological parents. She said that she was the biological daughter of a well-known couple, but never said who they were."
According to a Facebook page set up for the unidentified woman, two separate men were reported as having seen and spent time with Andrea before her death. One gave her money she used to purchase the shoes she was wearing when she was killed. The other witnessed Andrea cut her own hair to create the ring she wore, and learned that she had family in the Virginia area, which became a vital clue in locating her family.
At the time of Kuiper’s death, her information was provided to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The organization recreated images of what Kuiper might have looked like. Those images were circulated in the media, but she remained unidentified.
In 2010, NamUs provided a searchable database to assist in solving cases involving unidentified human remains. Shortly after its creation, the OCSD Coroner Division input Kuiper’s information and hoped for a hit.
"Coroner investigators revisited the case as recently as eight months ago after learning Kuiper may have had connections in Newport News, Virginia, but their work didn’t turn out any new information," Keyes said.
In early 2017, NamUs partnered with the FBI on a fingerprint project that more closely examines fingerprints of unidentified decedents against an ever-growing database that has old fingerprints regularly added.
On May 4, the FBI notified the OCSD Coroner Division of the forensic match.
Coroner investigators worked with Fairfax County Police to contact Kuiper’s parents.
patch.com/virginia/fairfaxcity/jane-doe-identifed-fairfax-county-woman-missing-1990
