Orange County Cold Case Solved 36 Years Later

DNA evidence has solved a 36 year-old-case in Santa Ana. In 1974 the body of a woman was found without clothes and with traces of grease near a Cadillac dealership. The victim, Frances E. Esqueda, had been strangled with her slip. No arrest was made during the investigation. This year, cold case detectives submitted evidence from the scene to the crime lab and received new information. Blood stains on the slip revealed that there was someone else’s blood on the item as well. The sample was compared to a California Attorney General’s DNA data base and a match was found. The blood matched Gerald Gay Kifer a former convict who had served time for sexual crimes. Detectives believed Kifer might have lived in the Santa Ana area at the time of the crime. The search for Kifer resulted in a death certificate; Kifer had died in 2007. While the man could not be brought to justice, the investigation finally brought answers to Esqueda’s remaining relatives.