Officials: Skull found near Lake Tahoe identified as woman who disappeared in 1970

LAKE TAHOE, Calif. — Investigators have identified a skull that was found decades ago near Lake Tahoe, California, as that of a woman who was last seen in 1970.

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The Placer County Sheriff’s Office said that in 1971, Donna Lass was reported as a missing person to the South Lake Tahoe Police Department. Investigators intended to follow leads surrounding her disappearance but the case went unsolved.

Lass was last seen on Sept. 7, 1970, outside her apartment with a young blond man, a local newspaper clipping said that was posted by the sheriff’s office, according to CNN.

In 1986 the sheriff’s office found an unidentified skull by Highway 20 near Interstate 80. For decades since, the skull was preserved at the Placer County Coroner’s Office, according to CNN.

The sheriff’s office and the district attorney’s office put together a cold case team with “additional resources to assist in the investigation of unsolved missing persons and suspicious death cases,” CNN reported.

The cold case team and the Crimes Against Persons unit sent the skull to the California Department of Justice to attempt to utilize DNA technology to identify the skull, the sheriff’s office said.

“The California Department of Justice Bureau of Forensic Services was able to match the DNA of the skull with the DNA from a member of Donna Lass’s family which was obtained by South Lake Tahoe Police Department for their missing persons case,” the sheriff’s office said, according to CNN. “This allowed them to identify the skull as the remains of Donna Lass.”

The sheriff’s office said last week the South Lake Tahoe Police Department was able to locate and notify Lass’ surviving family members to tell them that she had been found.

“We are extremely grateful that this team effort was able to bring closure to the Lass family and are hopeful that cold case detectives can continue to make advances in these cases. South Lake Tahoe PD will be continuing to look into any future leads on this case,” the sheriff’s office said.

Her cause of death is unknown, according to CNN.