California woman identified 40 years after her body was found near Lake Mead

By Stephanie Aceves. KTNV

MOHAVE COUNTY — Mohave County Sheriff’s investigators identified a nearly 40 year old cold case murder victim as Carol Ann Riley from San Diego County in California.

Jane Doe’s remains were first found on May 16, 1987, around the Bonelli Landing at Lake Mead.

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Throughout the years, investigators attempted to find the identity of the victim, but to no avail. However, a forensic odontologist was able to complete a NCIC Unidentified Person Dental Report and enter it into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs).

In 2011, MCSO detectives were contacted by investigators in Austin, Texas believing that Jane Doe was a missing person from their jurisdiction. Dental records did not result in a match. MCSO detectives sent in bone remains to the University of North Texas (UNT), where a DNA profile was obtained and entered into CODIS, a software program that contains the DNA profiles of convicted offenders, unsolved crime scene evidence and missing persons.

In April 2024, Mohave County Sheriff’s Office investigators from their Special Investigations Unit contacted UNT to see if the sample was substantial enough for a Forensic Genetic Genalogy investigation. Investigators were told the sample was too small for the analysis.

In February 2025, SIU investigators made another attempt to identify the remains when the victim’s clothing and the blanket she was wrapped in were sent to a lab in Flagstaff, Arizona. This attempt was unsuccessful.

Finally, in July 2025, SIU received a call from the Mohave County Medical Examiner’s Office saying that a forensic odontologist and staff from the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit from the California Department of Justice found a match for Carol Ann Riley, a woman who went missing in 1986.

Riley was born on April 4, 1943 and at the time of her disappearance, was a nurse who worked at a Scripps Clinic in San Diego.

She was dating a man known to her as Robert Howard Smith. She had a dinner date planned with him on the day of her disappearance and told friends she was breaking up with him, according to authorities.

Smith was interviewed by police, who stated that Riley had canceled the date. Two days later, Smith left town.

Detectives later discovered that Smith’s real name was Robert Dean Weeks, who had a history of using false names and a history of women disappearing around him.

Weeks’ ex-wife, Patricia Weeks, had disappeared on April 25, 1968, just weeks after their divorce was finalized.

He had also dated a real estate agent by the name of Cynthia Jabour, who was last seen on Oct. 5, 1980.

Weeks also had a business associate, James Shaw, who disappeared on May 5, 1971. Shaw disappeared after having an argument with Weeks. Shaw’s bloodstained car was found abandoned in a Las Vegas parking lot.

The bodies of the victims were never found.

The investigation involving Weeks was featured on a popular television show, Unsolved Mysteries.

In April 1988, Weeks was convicted of the murder of his wife, Patricia Weeks and Cynthia Jabour. He was never charged for Riley and Shaw. He was sentenced to life in prison in Nevada, where he died on Sept. 20, 1996.

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