Skeleton found 39 years ago along I-5 in Sac County identified by DNA match

The Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office has identified the victim in a cold case homicide from nearly 40 years ago thanks to a DNA match.

Skeletal remains found along the shoulder of Interstate 5, south of the Freeport Boulevard overpass, eluded positive identification for decades. Authorities had used facial reconstruction models and submitted DNA profiles to state and national databases, all to no avail.

On Tuesday, the 39th anniversary of the body’s Oct. 27, 1981, discovery, the Sheriff’s Office announced in a news release that the victim has been positively identified as Lilly Ann Prendergast of Dallas.

Sheriff’s officials were notified this February that “familial DNA references” were submitted to the FBI in 2019, yielding the match, the news release said.

The cause of Prendergast’s death remains undetermined “due to the interval between her death and discovery” of the skeletonized remains, sheriff ’s officials said. Born April 4, 1955, she would have been 26 at the time of the body’s discovery.

Family members have told authorities that Prendergast, who was known to hitchhike frequently and had relatives and other connections in parts of Texas, Florida, Ohio and Georgia, was last seen leaving her family’s Dallas home in late 1980, nearly a year before her body was found.

Anyone who may have any information regarding Prendergast’s death or disappearance is urged to contact the Sheriff’s Office at 916-874-8477 or to submit a tip at www.sacsheriff.com.