California police have identified a mother and daughter who were found dead nearly a decade ago in a bizarre cold case known as the “Mom-in-the-Box” investigation because the younger woman left behind her decomposing parent in a container before her own death from starvation.
The woman found dead from starvation in a vehicle in Monterey in February 2014 was Linda Rae Jacobs, 70, the Monterey Police Department announced on Tuesday.
A driver’s license at the scene of Jacobs’ death initially identified her as “Francesa Linda Jacobs” and listed her birth year as 1955, the authorities explained.
A search of Jacobs’ nearly empty apartment shortly after her body was found also led police to the decomposing remains of another female in a box under the kitchen table.
A handwritten will at the home identified the other woman — whose cause of death could not be determined — as Jacobs’ mother, whom she called Florence Ida Jacobs, the Monterey County Weekly reported at the time.
A subsequent investigation, however, revealed no records of Francesca Jacobs predating the 1990s, and almost no records for Florence, the MPD said.
Authorities also noted that Jacobs’ body appeared much older than that of a 58-year-old woman, and her driver’s license photo also looked older than the birth date on the document suggested.
Over the years, the case became known locally as the “Mom-in-the-Box” mystery.
In 2022, genetic samples from both women were sent to the private Othram lab in Texas as part of a joint effort between the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office and sheriff’s office to identify all the area’s unknown human remains, CBS News reported.
The testing, police revealed, found the woman who claimed to be Francesca Jacobs was actually Linda Rae Jacobs, born in 1942 — making her 12 years older than her driver’s license claimed.
DNA analysis also confirmed that the woman in the box, Ida Florence Jacobs, was Linda Rae Jacobs’ mother.
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