Grandma vanished in 1980s, CA officials say. Now, dismembered torso ID’d as hers
More than four decades after a woman’s dismembered torso was found in a California field, it has been identified as that of a grandmother who vanished in the 1980s, prosecutors say.
With the help of DNA testing, the woman has been identified as Vivian Moss, a 54-year-old grandmother at the time of her death, the Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office said in a May 27 news release.
“Vivian Moss was her name. My office knows it. I know it. Her family knows it. And now our community knows it,” District Attorney Jeff Rosen said in the release. “One day soon, I hope we will know the depraved person who took her life and left her in a field, hoping she would be forgotten.”
Dismembered torso found
San Jose police officers found a woman’s dismembered torso in a field on July 11, 1981, prosecutors said.
The woman had no identification on her, but “two religious pendants were found near her body,” according to prosecutors.
“The first of these was round and contained the words, ‘St. Christopher, protect us,’” Lt. Desiree Thompson with the district attorney’s office said in an October 2023 video release requesting information about the homicide cold case.
The other was oval, Thompson said.
“On one side was the standing figure of the Virgin Mary, surrounded by the words, ‘Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee,’” Thompson said.
Investigators determined the woman died “from multiple stab wounds to the chest and dismemberment,” and ruled her death a homicide.
For decades, though, her case remained stagnant.
Genetic genealogy to ID
In 2023, prosecutors said they looked to forensic genetic genealogy to identify the woman and partnered with Parabon NanoLabs.
Genetic genealogy uses DNA testing coupled with “traditional genealogical methods” to create “family history profiles,” according to the Library of Congress. With genealogical DNA testing, researchers can determine if and how people are biologically related.
Based on their research, Parabon scientists theorized the body likely belonged to Moss, prosecutors said.
District attorney investigators found Moss’ granddaughter and interviewed her, prosecutors said.
The granddaughter told investigators that when “she was a young girl in the early 1980s, Vivian was supposed to pick her up to stay the night at her home,” prosecutors said.
However, Moss never showed, and “she never saw her grandmother again,” prosecutors said.
Investigators collected a DNA sample from the granddaughter and compared it to that of the woman, prosecutors said.
Based on that DNA comparison and Parabon’s genealogical testing, prosecutors said they confirmed the body belonged to Moss.
Moss, “a follower of the Mt. Zion Spiritual Church,” may have worked at an Oakland elementary school prior to her disappearance, prosecutors said.
“Cold case team members and Moss’s surviving family are hoping the identification will lead them to Moss’s killer,” prosecutors said.
Anyone with information about Moss or her death is asked to call investigators at 408-792-2466, or email coldcasetips@dao.sccgov.org.
This story was originally published May 27, 2025 at 1:08 PM with the headline "Grandma vanished in 1980s, CA officials say. Now, dismembered torso ID’d as hers."
