Remains of California teenager identified 44 years after she vanished without a trace

14-year-old Elizabeth Ernstein disappeared while walking home from school in 1968

Elizabeth Ernstein was 14 when she disappeared while walking home from school in Redlands, Calif. on March 19, 1968.


A 44-year-old cold case finally came to a close Friday after authorities confirmed that human remains uncovered in a shallow grave in 1969 were those of a 14-year-old girl who vanished a year before.

Cold Case detectives used DNA samples to identify the remains as Elizabeth Ernstein, a junior high school student who vanished without a trace while walking home from school in California on March 19, 1968, the Press-Enterprise reported.

Ernstein's disappearance made national headlines when her parents, Norman and Ruth Ernstein, launched a large-scale search to find their daughter, offering a $5,000 reward at the time for information leading to Elizabeth's discovery.

"I can face the daytime better than the night," Ruth told The Gettysburg Times several months after Elizabeth's disappearance.

"At night I find myself saying, 'Is she safe? Is she warm? Is she fed?….and finally…Is she alive?'"

Over forty years passed until the unidentified human remains found in 1968 were exhumed for DNA testing in 2011, according to Redlands-LomaLindaPatch.

The tests revealed that the remains belonged to a young adult.

Investigators reopened Elizabeth's case in May 2012 after they received additional information that suggested that the teenager's remains had been uncovered but never identified.

Ernstein’s usual route home from school was through a quaint orange grove.

They were able to identify the human remains as those of Elizabeth Ernstein using DNA samples from her siblings.

Authorities suspect Elizabeth was murdered. They are continuing to investigate the circumstances surrounding her death.

The 14-year-old vanished as she was walking home from Moore Junior High School in Redlands, Calif. Her usual route home from school was through a quaint orange grove.

Her disappearance deeply shook both her parents and the Redlands community, with Ruth Ernstein describing the family's feelings of uncertainty as "the deepest anguish a person can go through. It's a shock so deep - you become wooden."

They both told the Gettysburg Times that they wouldn't rest until the mystery was solved.

"I can accept anything, even the worst, which I'm resigned to, but I must know," Norman Ernstein added.

Norman, a chemical engineer, passed away in 1997 in San Bernadino, according to census records. No records were available for Ruth, who worked as a psychiatric social worker.