Kern County homicide detectives are making a fresh push to solve the 2011 murder of Ada Beth Kaplan Moore, a 64-year-old woman whose mutilated body was found in an Arvin vineyard and who remained unidentified for more than a decade. Detective Ashley Thompson is now leading the investigation and is asking the public for any information about Moore’s life. The case remains unsolved, and no suspect has ever been named.
The Discovery in the Vineyard
On the morning of March 29, 2011, employees found the body of an unidentified woman on the grounds of an orchard in Arvin, California, a rural area about 60 miles north of Santa Clarita. The Kern County Sheriff’s Office responded to the scene that day. The woman had been decapitated.
The condition of the body was unlike anything investigators had seen. Moore’s remains were found without clothing, her head was missing, and both of her thumbs had been removed. Detectives believe her blood had been drained before her body was left in the vineyard.
Former Kern County Sheriff’s detective Ray Pruitt told KGET that everyone at the scene struggled to process what they were seeing.
“I remember looking at the detectives and the sergeant on scene and the coroner investigator who had arrived on the scene and we were all kind of speechless,” Pruitt said. “We were all just looking at each other trying to get our minds around what we were looking at. It was surreal.”
Investigators determined that the orchard was likely not the crime scene. Detective Thompson told Dateline that they were able to “pretty much determine that she was probably just placed there.” Nothing else of note was found nearby.
A Jane Doe for More Than a Decade
For years, authorities could not identify the woman. She was not in any missing person database. “She just wasn’t in the system,” Thompson told Dateline. The case went cold, and the victim was buried as “Jane Doe 2011.”
The breakthrough came through forensic investigative genetic genealogy. In July 2020, the Kern County Coroner’s Office partnered with the nonprofit DNA Doe Project to build a genetic profile. The project began constructing a family tree based on the genetic profile. In July 2023, the DNA Doe Project identified two potential family members who lived on the East Coast. They agreed to provide DNA samples for comparison.
The victim was identified as Ada Beth Kaplan Moore, a 64-year-old woman who lived in the Canyon Country neighborhood of Santa Clarita in Los Angeles County. The Kern County Sheriff’s Office announced the identification in January 2024. A missing person report had never been filed for Moore.
A Life Largely Unknown
After Moore was identified, Detective Thompson was assigned to investigate her homicide. Her first task was to find anyone who knew her. “I was able to find very [few] people,” Thompson told Dateline. She spoke with Moore’s husband and learned that Moore had left the relationship. “The information I got about her is very — very little to none, to be honest,” Thompson said.
Thompson learned that Moore was not from Kern County and had no ties to the area where her remains were found. She did not work and was not reported missing in 2011. “I can’t find family members that actually spent time with her, that — that knew her. She doesn’t have any children,” Thompson said. “She doesn’t have any friends that I could find.”
Records show Moore was born in New York and attended Forest Hills High School in Queens, graduating in 1963. She received the 1963 New York State Scholarship Award. During her senior year, she worked as an office aide and dreamed of becoming a prima ballerina. She eventually moved to California and married. Moore had been a resident of Canyon Country since at least 1985, according to local newspaper archives.
An August 2011 letter to the editor published by The Santa Clarita Valley Signal from Moore’s estranged husband, who said they had separated in 2009, claimed she had left him for “a multimillionaire.” The Kern County Sheriff’s Office has not shared any information regarding this statement with the public.
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The Investigation Today
Detective Thompson is now trying to piece together a picture of Moore’s life and the people who knew her. She is asking anyone who ever had an interaction with Moore to come forward.
“I’m really just looking for anybody who’s ever had an interaction with her that remembers her, and remembers who she was, or anything about her,” Thompson told Dateline.
Thompson told Dateline it bothers her that no one seems to care about Moore. “I get phone calls from loved ones all the time asking me about updates,” she said. “I don’t receive any phone calls for Ada. Nobody’s — nobody is fighting for her.”
The Kern County Sheriff’s Office is urging anyone with information about Moore to contact Detective Thompson at (661) 861-3110. Those wishing to remain anonymous may call the Kern Secret Witness Line at (661) 322-4040.
In a release, the department said: “Even seemingly minor details about her life, relationships, employment, routines, or acquaintances may provide valuable investigative leads.” The office added that “information, no matter how small it may seem, could make a critical difference in this investigation.”
The exact location of Moore’s death and the person responsible remain unknown. The case remains open.
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