A woman whose dismembered torso was found in a San Jose field more than 40 years ago has been identified by genealogical testing as a 54-year-old grandmother with possible Oakland ties, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday.
Vivian Moss was identified as the woman whose dismembered torso was found on July 11, 1981 with two religious pendants nearby in an empty field where a Berryessa Transit Center parking structure is now located, prosecutors said.
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WATCH HEREInvestigators ruled the death a homicide but were not able to identify the victim for decades. In 2023, the district attorney's office partnered with genealogists at Parabon NanoLabs, a laboratory specializing in DNA analysis that last year had hypothesized that the victim was likely Moss.
Authorities spoke to Moss' granddaughter, who said that she was supposed to be picked up to stay the night at her grandmother's home, but she never showed up and the granddaughter never saw her again, prosecutors said.
The district attorney's office eventually concluded Moss was the victim based on the lab's genealogical testing comparing the granddaughter's DNA to evidence at the crime scene. Prosecutors have also released a photo of
Moss that was generated by artificial intelligence based on family photos.
The case remains unsolved and investigators are hoping the public can provide answers on what led to the death of Moss, who was a follower of the Mt. Zion Spiritual Church. Family members said she was close to the church's leader, Louis H. Narcisse, who died in 1989, and she may have also worked at an elementary school in Oakland before she disappeared.
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"One day soon, I hope we will know the depraved person who took her life and left her in a field, hoping she would be forgotten. If her murderer is still alive, they will know that we don't forget in Santa Clara County," District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in a statement.
Anyone with information about the case is asked to call (408) 792-2466 or email coldcasestips@dao.sccgov.org.
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