A badly mutilated, burned body found in a San Diego church parking lot in January 2000 has finally been named but the homicide remains unsolved. In the early hours of January 24, 2000, firefighters and police responded to a reported fire at the College Avenue Baptist Church parking lot near College Avenue and El Cajon Boulevard and discovered a woman’s body wrapped in cardboard, tied with rope, and set alight. The autopsy showed she had been stabbed and strangled; both hands and part of a left calf were missing, apparently removed to defeat identification. Fingerprints could not be obtained and the victim remained unidentified for roughly two decades.

Investigators later believed she had been living in Los Angeles around the time of her death and may have been transported to San Diego before being burned. Genetic genealogy led detectives to a close match in 2019 and confirmed a sister, Kimberly Beach, by DNA comparison; the victim was identified as Nicole Weis (also spelled Weiss in some reports) with public announcement in 2021. No suspect has been publicly identified and the San Diego Police Department still lists the case as a cold homicide.

If anyone knew Nicole or saw her in Los Angeles before January 2000, please share what might help explain how she came to be in San Diego.