Remains found in 1988 identified as missing Toppenish woman after 38 years
By Robert Desaulniers
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TOPPENISH, Wash. (KAPP) — Yakima County law enforcement officials have identified human remains that had been found in 1988 as those of a Toppenish woman who was reported missing in 1987.
According to Yakima County law enforcement officials, back in February 1988 a body was found by a horseback rider in the area of Parker Bridge Road and Sunnyside Dam. The Yakima County Sheriffs’ Office investigated the case but was not able to identify the body, and it was named “Parker Doe.”
On December 17, 2025, officials announced the body had been identified as Rosa Elia Vargas Jimenez Everts, 31, of Toppenish. She had been reported missing to the Toppenish Police Department in August of 1987.
According to the Toppenish Police Department, Everts was reported missing on August 6, 1987, by a roommate who hadn’t seen her since December 1986. TPD said the roommate believed Everts had returned to family in California until a family member of Everts told her she had not been in contact with them. Toppenish police said multiple officers and detectives worked on solving the disappearance of Everts, with some theorizing “Parker Doe” may have been her, but no conclusive evidence was found.
TPD said that in August 2024, a detective reviewed the case and asked for help from the Washington Attorney General’s Office. An investigator found Everts’s sister and mother in Utah and obtained DNA samples that were then analyzed to be compared with unidentified remains. In September 2025, a Yakima County Sheriff’s office cold case investigator worked with Toppenish officers to compare DNA samples from “Parker Doe” and Everts’s family. In October 2025, results came back showing a strong match between the samples, proving that Parker Doe is, in fact, Rosa Everts.
“Our office takes great pride in the work of the Missing Murdered Indigenous Women and People Cold Case Investigations Unit to help the investigation that led to the DNA results in this case,” said Washington State Attorney General Nick Brown in a written statement. “While the results bring some answers, we understand that the criminal investigation is still ongoing, and our hearts go out to Ms. Everts’ family and loved ones.”
Law enforcement officials said they are working to return Everts’s remains to her family.
YCSO deputies said the identification of Everts had been made possible by an investigation from the YCSO, the Yakima County Coroner, the Toppenish Police Department, the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women & People Cold Case Unit of the Washington State Office of Attorney General, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office, Minnesota Department of Public Safety, Bode Technology, the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab, Othram, and the University of North Texas Center for Human Identification.
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