Exact ID of human remains unknown, investigators awaiting DNA results

(3/20) Although the exact identity of skeletal remains found in Emmitsburg is still unknown as investigators await DNA results, an autopsy of the remains has concluded several facts about the victim.

According to the Frederick County Sheriff’s Office, the autopsy conducted by Maryland’s Chief Medical Examiner concluded that the remains are “that of a petite Hispanic female, approximately 25 years of age, with long dark hair” who was “approximately 5’2 tall and weighed between 125 to 140 pounds.”

Initially, Detective Jeff Norris received up to 25 phone calls in reference to missing person cases and the remains, said Corporal Jennifer Bailey, but with the autopsy results in, the number has fallen and the Sheriff’s Office is “weeding through” all of the cases. Norris said that the pool of cases has pretty much been narrowed down to one, though he did not identify the case.

Norris added that there are no active leads on the case, but that they’re waiting on DNA results on the victim, which could take a up to a few months to receive.

“We’re hoping sooner or later to have something, but we’re waiting on the results,” Norris said.

Widespread speculation has been that the remains could be that of Deysi Benitez, of Frederick, who was last seen on March 18, 2007 and has not been seen since. Benitez’s husband and four children were found deceased in their home on March 26, 2007, and it has been determined that three of the children died due to suffocation and one from blunt force trauma to the head. It was also determined that Benitez’s husband had hung himself.

According to a missing person report on the Federal Bureaus of Investigations website, Benitez was 25 years old, 5’2”, weighed 140 pounds and had black, shoulder length hair at the time of her disappearance.

Norris said he is not discounting the possibility that the remains are that of Benitez.
“There are a lot of similarities there,” Norris said.