A missing person poster for Tatiana Dugger, who disappeared around 9 January, at which point her family filed a report with the Oakland Police Department.
Butte County SheriffA hiker walking on federal land near US Route 97 in northern California on Sunday discovered the body of a 19-year-old girl who disappeared from Oakland in January.
Tatiana Dugger disappeared around 9 January, at which point her family filed a report with the Oakland Police Department. She had moved from her hometown of Oroville to Los Angeles in October before apparently moving to the Bay Area.
Butte County Sheriff’s Office detectives took over the case on January 13. After combing through the phone records, they determined that Dugger’s last known location was in Oakland. For the next few weeks, they remained in contact with the Oakland police and the Alameda County Prosecutor’s Office, while Dugger’s family waited for answers.
An autopsy and a rapid DNA identification process conducted on April 1 identified the remains found on the remote piece of land as Dugger. The condition of the body, found near Juniper Terrace, about eight miles northeast of Weed (Siskiyou County), suggests that he had been there for some time.
Officials at the Butte and Siskiyou county sheriff’s offices say the investigation is ongoing.
Rachel Swan is a writer for the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: [email protected] Twitter: @rachelswan