Jane Doe January 31, 2006 Ortega Highway,Orange County CA.
Authorities seek help identifying dead woman By: JOHN HALL - Staff Writer While authorities have determined the body of a woman found just off Ortega Highway is not a missing Canyon Lake woman, they still don't know who she is. "We know it was not Stephanie Creech," Riverside County sheriff's Sgt. Earl Quinata said Wednesday. Creech, 31, has been missing since last week, when she was forcibly taken from a home in Canyon Lake, authorities said. Sheriff's investigators suspect she was kidnapped by Richard Eric Gurzi, 37, who was released from jail Jan. 7 after serving a sentence following a guilty plea last year for assaulting Creech. On Tuesday, the body of a woman was found by two sightseers near a creekbed off Ortega Highway, about three miles into Orange County from Riverside County. Local investigators worked with Orange County homicide investigators to determine whether it might have been Creech. Now that investigators in both counties know it isn't Creech, the search for the missing woman continues just as Orange County investigators try to find out who the dead woman is. In hopes of being able to identify her, investigators released a composite drawing and photographs of her hand and arm Wednesday. On one arm she had a distinctive rose tattoo and her hands appeared to have been recently manicured with a heart design on each fingernail. The woman is described as Latina, in her 20s or 30s, about 5 feet 3, 105 pounds with dark curly hair that came to the middle of her back. She had a surgical scar below her navel and was wearing a black Lycra top and blue jeans. "We are looking at this as a probable homicide," Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff's Department said Wednesday. He said there were no obvious signs of trauma on the woman's body. An autopsy was conducted Wednesday, but authorities have yet to establish how she died. Investigators suspect she died or was killed somewhere else and then left along the Ortega Highway. They believe her body was there a day or two at the most before being found. "Everything indicates this was probably a body dump," Amormino said. "Her body was found about eight to 10 feet down an embankment next to a large turn-out in the road," he said. "That part of the Ortega is one of the largest areas along the highway to make a U-turn, so we aren't sure which direction any vehicle used might have been coming from." Amormino said it's possible that whoever dumped the woman's body could have been coming from Riverside County. Investigators are hoping someone will recognize the woman from her composite or identifiable tattoo or manicure, thus giving them a starting point to find out what happened to her and why. They ask that anyone with information about the woman call the Orange County Sheriff's Department 24-hour watch commander line at (714) 288-6742 or Investigator Joe Hoskins at (714) 647-7429. Anyone with information about the whereabouts of Creech, the missing Canyon Lake woman, or Gurzi, her alleged kidnapper, are asked to call 911, Investigator Guy Gilbert at (951) 940-6200, or Riverside County Sheriff's Department dispatch at (800) 950-2444. Contact staff writer John Hall at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2628, or jhall@californian.com. To comment on this article visit www.californian.com. http://www.nctimes.com/articles/2006/02/02/news/californian/20_55_422_1_06.txt Sketch of the victim here and they also mention a spider web tattoo: http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=local&id=3870315