MOHAVE COUNTY, Ariz. — Nearly 36 years after a woman was found stabbed to death and left in the desert south of Las Vegas, investigators have located her two missing daughters, who were abandoned as infants just days after their mother’s murder, according to the Mohave County Sheriff's Office.

The body of Marina Ramos was discovered in December 1989 near Old Temple Bar and White Hills roads in Mohave County. She had been stabbed multiple times and left nude in the desert, according to authorities. Her identity remained a mystery for decades.

That changed in February 2022, when investigators resubmitted fingerprints from the case file to the FBI through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. The prints matched an alias, “Maria Ortiz,” linked to a prior shoplifting arrest i

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