The remains of a woman found in a shallow grave nearly 45 years ago have been recently identified as those of Thelma Jeanette Gaston, whose convicted murderer was sentenced decades earlier.
Investigators with the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department identified Gaston in May 2026 using dental records and investigative genetic genealogy, which incorporates public genealogy websites with DNA analysis, Coroner Sgt. Nancy Rissi announced in a news release on July 15.
A passerby gathering firewood had discovered skeletal remains in a shallow grave on Nov. 28 1981, near Sugar Loaf Mountain and the Pinyon Crest community, SFGATE reported. The sheriff’s department described the remains as “severely decomposed” and said investigators could not determine who she was at the time despite extensive efforts.
Gaston was killed in Los Angeles County in 1981 by Lawrence Remsen, who “falsely represented her disappearance,” the sheriff’s department said.
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office prosecuted Remsen for murder, and he was convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
At the time of his conviction, Gaston’s remains were still unidentified.
Prosecutors said Remsen killed Gaston for her fortune
After losing her husband to a heart attack and her 32-year-old son in a military training crash in 1957, Gaston built a multimillion-dollar fortune buying and reselling repossessed properties, according to SFGATE.
The Los Angeles Times reported in 1981 that Gaston was an 80-year-old businesswoman who disappeared June 28 from her home on the Westside of Los Angeles.
A note left on the door of her home said she would be away tending to a sick cat — “the only clue to her disappearance,” the Times said in 1982.
“Lawrence Remsen, her 40-year-old companion, placed that note, a prosecutor charged as Remsen’s trial began in Los Angeles Superior Court,” the Los Angeles Times had reported. “It was the opening gambit in his far-flung attempt to conceal the widow’s murder, the prosecuter said.”
Investigators began searching for Remsen, after letters purportedly written by Gaston said she had turned control of her business over to him and gone away.
In 1981, the Los Angeles Times reported that a federal grand jury had indicted Remsen on 10 counts of fraud. Prosecutors accused him of forging Gaston’s signature, gaining control of her affairs through a fraudulent power of attorney and transferring $100,000 from her Swiss bank account to an account he controlled in the Cayman Islands.
At his trial, prosecutors argued that Remsen killed Gaston after she threatened to report him for fraud, then falsely told others she was traveling. Remsen had testified that he found Gaston dead in her kitchen, but a judge rejected his account, calling him an “incompetent scoundrel. He was convicted him of second-degree murder and sentenced in May 1983.
Remsen, now 83, remains imprisoned at the California Institution for Men in Chino, SFGATE recently reported. His next parole suitability hearing is scheduled for July 2028.
Forensic advances to Gaston’s identification
Advances in forensic science and new grant funding gave the Riverside County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau another opportunity to identify Gaston’s remains more than four decades after they were found.
The bureau exhumed the remains in 2024 and extracted a DNA profile, according to SFGATE. Investigators sent the samples to Othram Labs, a private forensic laboratory in Texas specializing in advanced forensic DNA testing, and confirmed her identity in May 2026.
“Together, these efforts have ensured that Ms. Gaston has her name—and her story—returned to her,” Rissi said.
Jennifer Cortez covers education and breaking news in the Coachella Valley. Reach her at jennifer.cortez@desertsun.com.
This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Woman found near Pinyon Crest identified after nearly 45 years
Reporting by Jennifer Cortez, Palm Springs Desert Sun / Palm Springs Desert Sun
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By Jennifer Cortez, Palm Springs Desert Sun | USA TODAY Network
