MURDERED: Marina Ramos
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How did the four friends discover the dead woman in the Mojave Desert?
If you know me, you know I love stories that make me go, wait, what? The kind that stop you in your tracks and send you straight down a rabbit hole. And my friend Delia D'Ambra tells stories just like that on park predators. Every Tuesday, Delia investigates true crime cases that unfold in the world's most beautiful places. From national parks to hiking trails, she reveals the shocking crimes, mysterious disappearances, and unsettling encounters hidden beneath the post. Discard perfect scenery. If you're ready to discover what's beyond the trailhead, listen to Park Predators wherever you get your podcasts.
Hi crime junkies, I'm your host, Ashley Flowers. And I'm
Britt.
And you know what I love more than a girl's trip?
Nothing.
Literally nothing. There is something about being with your friends, away from home base and routine. It can make even the most mundane things seem to have this like spark of adventure. Take for instance, a lone tree in the middle of the Arizona Desert. Back in December 1989, four friends from Ohio, driving through the desert in search of some ghost town marked on their map, decided to stop and take a picture together in front of a tree. Proof of their escapades, probably. Now they never found the ghost town that they were looking for. What they found instead, by sheer happenstance, would unlock layered, decades-long mysteries that get told Tossed around like loose pieces of a puzzle, until one investigator finally came along and slowly started to put those pieces together, leading to a shocking discovery in 2025 that has her this close to solving the case.
And you might have the remaining missing pieces to solve the mystery. Of who murdered Marina Ramos. So buckle up, crime junkies. You are in for a wild ride.
It's December twelfth, nineteen eighty-nine, when those four friends turned their car onto a dirt road east of Highway 93, in the very northern part of Arizona, like close to Nevada. Three miles down is where they spot a yucca tree that they decide to take a picture in front of. They're the only ones out there, save for like this dead animal that they can see not far off. So they snap their picture and hop back in their rental car in search of the ghost town marked on their map. But they're not having much luck actually finding this town. Wink wink, maybe that was intentional. I don't know. But not wanting to stray too far into just like the vast desert, there is no map quest, like this is hard. They decide just to turn around.
And as they head back in the direction of that yucca tree, there's something that just like nags at them. There was something about the dead animal that was bothering them. I don't know what, maybe the same mysterious force that pulled them to the tree to begin with. But they decide to go back and have another look. But it's no animal. It is a naked woman laying dead in the road. And it's likely only because of them that she was ever found. Now it looks like this woman hasn't been out there long. Even though they don't see anyone coming or going from any direction, they still don't want to get out of their cars, as you can imagine. Now they know they need to notify authorities, but it's gonna be a hike to the nearest town of Kingman, Arizona.
So they snap some pictures of the woman's body from the car. I assume just in case, like she's gone by the time they can get police back out there, or maybe as proof to police. Like, so they would take them seriously. But deputies with the Mojave County Sheriff's Office don't brush them off. Right after getting the report, they hop in their cars to follow the women back out to the body, which I can't reiterate enough is truly out in the middle of nowhere. I mean, today the closest paved road is White Hills Road, and it's over 200 feet away. But even that was a dirt road back then. Then. And the highway is miles off. Otherwise, there are just shrubs and trees nearby and mountains in the distance. But shockingly, at least to me, is that the detectives conclude that the woman wasn't just dumped there.
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Chapters
6 chapters
1
How did the four friends discover the dead woman in the Mojave Desert?
0:01–12:14
2
What forensic evidence linked the victim to a violent murder at the scene?
12:14–24:29
3
How did investigators use shoe and tire prints to profile the possible killer(s)?
24:29–38:05
4
What steps led to finally identifying the Jane Doe as Marina Ramos?
38:05–47:29
5
How were DNA and genetic genealogy used to locate Marina’s missing daughters?
47:29–53:42
6
Who is Fernando David (or Fernando Coronel) and what role might he have played?
53:42–55:54