After 46 years, a Nevada County missing persons case has been solved. 25-year-old Joanne Burmer, of Colfax, was last seen alive in February of 1973, when she was dropped off at Highway 20 and Excelsior Road, east of Nevada City, with the intent to snowshoe three miles down the snowed-in road to visit a friend. Twenty years later, in 1993, a man cutting firewood off Chalk Bluff Road found what was believed to be a portion of a human skull, not far from where Burmer had gone missing. Then, in January of 2016, Nevada County Sheriff’s Lieutenant Bob Jakobs says all such cases were transferred to their Major Crimes Unit for renewed scrutiny…

Jakobs says it was discovered that the skull cap had never been returned to the Sheriff’s Oiffice Property Unit or submitted for DNA testing. It was sent to a state DNA lab, in August of 2017, where, twoyears later, a match was finally made, through profiles of Burmer’s relatives. And Jakobs says it does not appear to be a criminal case…

But Jakobs says the Sheriff’s Department is pleased to bring the family answers to Burmer’s whereabouts, in hopes of bringing some closure to the mystery.