San Diego, California. It was January 24th, 2000, when the San Diego Fire Department rushed to the College Avenue Baptist Church after someone had called about a fire burning right there in the church’s parking lot.
When firefighters arrived on the scene, located at 4747 College Avenue, they realized they were responding to much more than just a blaze that had to be put out.
A young woman was lying in the parking lot and someone had set her on fire. She was covered in cardboard and a rope had been tied around her.
Upon closer inspection, it was obvious that both of her hands had been cut off.
Firefighters worked to put out the fire and help the young woman, but sadly she passed away from the injuries she had sustained.
Sergeant Ronnie Philhower was the first person from the San Diego Police Department to arrive on the scene, and he noticed that next to the parking lot was an apartment building.
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He went to the apartment building in the hopes of finding witnesses. He did find a man who said the fire was burning so much that he could spot the flames from over the wall that divided the parking lot and the apartment building.
Other than that, there was not much to go on, and the young woman remained nameless for 21 long years.
When 2019 came around, investigators were able to take some DNA from their parking lot Jane Doe and upload it to a database in the hopes of finding some of her relatives, and they found a few far-off matches to her.
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In addition, they began working with genealogist Barbara Rae-Venter, who is a leading expert in the field.
As investigators were partnering with Barbara to figure out Jane Doe’s real name, a man named Glen Stevenson uploaded his DNA to another database in an effort to discover some of his biological family members, as he had been adopted as a child.
San Diego Police Department; pictured above is Jane Doe as a child
Well, it turned out that Glen was a half-brother to this Jane Doe that investigators were trying to identify.
When Detective Lori Adams, who investigates cold cases for the San Diego Police Department, reached out to Glen to let him know he was a match to their Jane Doe, he was shocked.
Considering the fact that Glen didn’t know any of his biological family members, investigators still had some work to do in figuring out who Jane Doe could be.
Eventually, they came across a woman named Kimberly Beech, who was a sister of their Jane Doe, and they were able to determine that Jane Doe was really Nicole Weis.
San Diego Police Department; pictured above is Nicole
Nicole was born in Michigan, but then she moved to LA in the 90s. She had only been 20-years-old when she was discovered set on fire in that church parking lot, and her sister Kimberly spent decades wondering why she had disappeared.
Although Kimberly now knows what happened to Nicole, Nicole’s killer is still out there somewhere, unidentified.
If you have any information about Nicole’s case, the San Diego Police Department is asking that you call them at 888.580.8477.
San Diego Police Department; pictured above is another photo of Nicole