27 years after she died, El Cajon PD ID woman whose body was found in ravine

Nearly three decades after her death, a murder victim whose partially decomposed body turned up in a brushy ravine in eastern San Diego County has been identified.

DNA testing has confirmed that the remains discovered in an open area off the 1300 block of Avocado Avenue in El Cajon on Aug. 13, 1998, were those of 30-year-old Alicia Ledezma Sanchez, according to police. Investigators believe she had been dead for as long as six weeks.

Sanchez’s death has been classified as a homicide, though no cause-of-death ruling in the case has been made public.

The initial investigation into the woman’s death led to no arrests, and attempts to identify her were fruitless.

In 2003, cold-case homicide detectives with the El Cajon Police Department revived the investigation, sending Sanchez’s skull to a forensic artist who used it to create a sculpture approximating her facial features as they were in life. Photographs of the rendering were released to the public, but no viable leads resulted.

Five years later, a DNA sample was obtained from the decedent’s remains and a genetic profile was developed, but the effort led to no matches, according to police.

Then, over a two-year period beginning in 2023, members of an ECPD volunteer cold-case unit worked with several laboratories to conduct genetic genealogy and advanced DNA-analysis techniques that can reveal decedents’ characteristics and potential family members.

Three months ago, the El Cajon Police Department posted an update on the investigation on its social media pages in another bid to find out who the victim was. The cold-case unit was then contacted by a potential family member who believed she knew the victim’s identity, and a genetic test with DNA obtained from Sanchez’s son confirmed a familial match, finally revealing her identity.

Anyone with information about Sanchez or the circumstances surrounding her death is asked to call the ECPD Investigation Division at 619-579-3320 or email the volunteer cold-case team atcoldcaseunit@elcajon.gov