The Placer County Sheriff’s Office has officially identified the remains of a woman found on March 20, 2001, as Zania Lynette Williams (DOB: 9/28/1966), also known as Zenia Williams. Williams, 34 years old at the time of her disappearance, was last seen around Christmas of 2000 at her residence in Sacramento. Her skeletonized remains were discovered on Driver’s Flat Road in Foresthill, California, and had remained unidentified for over two decades.
Initially, the case was handled by the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and classified as a Jane Doe cold case. Investigators were unable to identify the woman using the available technology at the time. Her dental records were entered into the missing and unidentified persons database in 2001, but no matches were found. Despite extensive efforts, the case remained unsolved until the formation of the Placer County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Investigations team in 2023.
This newly formed Cold Case Investigations team, consisting of investigators from both the Placer County Sheriff’s Office and the Placer County District Attorney’s Office, reopened the case. The team utilized advancements in forensic technologies, including genetic genealogy, to assist in the investigation. In 2024, the Sheriff’s Office sent a DNA profile obtained from the remains in 2009 to Othram, an accredited forensic lab in Texas to generate a suitable sample for genetic genealogy.
Additionally, the Placer County Sheriff’s Office partnered with the Investigative Genealogy Center at Ramapo College to develop leads on potential relatives. Through this collaboration, detectives located a possible relative and obtained a DNA sample for comparison with the California Department of Justice’s database. In 2025, a match was confirmed, linking the decedent’s DNA to that of the relative.
In March 2025, the remains were officially identified as Zania Williams. Williams had never been listed as a missing person. While the circumstances surrounding her death are still under investigation, we hope the identification brings a sense of closure to her surviving family members after nearly 25 years of uncertainty.
The Placer County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation into the circumstances of her death and is urging anyone with information to contact us at [email protected].