After 26 years, human skull identified
Woman who went missing in 1991 died of blunt force trauma
A family is one step closer to finding out what happened to their loved one who disappeared more than 26 years ago in east Houston.
A human skull found near a garbage dump Feb. 1, 1992, by a motorist on Port Houston Street recently was identified as Patricia Ann Castillo using DNA evidence.
Castillo, who was 21 at the time, vanished June 1, 1991. She was last seen on Delmar near her grandmother’s home, said her sister, Miranda Moreno.
Castillo’s older sister, Trina Flores, now 49, submitted a DNA sample to the National Institute of Justice in June 2017 during the second annual Missing in Harris County Day held by the Harris County’s Institute of Forensic Sciences. Last week, the institute called Flores and said the remains belonged to her sister.
“I was just in total shock. I couldn’t talk,” Flores said. “‘My sister is dead?’ I asked. I was so in shock.”
Flores said the medical examiner told her the cause of death was blunt force trauma to the head.
Moreno, who was 5 when Castillo went missing, remembers her sister as a warm person who loved New Kids on the Block, Cyndi Lauper and watching MTV. Castillo was lovingly called “Gordie,” which is Spanish for chubby, a nickname she got when she was a child.
When their mother, Yolanda, wasn’t able to care for Moreno when she got off the bus after school, Castillo would fill in. One of the most cherished memories Moreno has of her sister was when she took her to the
Houston Zoo.
Castillo’s disappearance shook her family. Moreno recalled canvassing her neighborhood and local washateria with flyers imploring people to call their home with any information. Moreno’s aunt plastered her back windshield with the flyer.
Castillo’s family never held a funeral for her out of hope that she would come home. Moreno had a hard time believing her remains had been found.
“Never in a million years did I ever imagine that they would only find her skull. I want to know where the rest of her is and what happened,” Moreno said. “It was surprising but it wasn’t surprising. What was surprising was that the remains have been in Harris County the whole time. I can’t understand how she’s been there all this time and they couldn’t put both stories together.”
DNA was recovered from the skull and submitted into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System in 2004 with no results yielded, said Tricia Bentley, spokeswoman for Harris County’s Institute of Forensic Sciences.
In April 2018, the University of North Texas notified the institute that their laboratory was able to extract a more complete genetic profile of the deceased individual, and the updated profile was consistent with a female, but there was no identification at that time, Bentley said. A second notification was received Aug. 13 from UNT that there were genetic similarities between the DNA extracted from the skull and from Castillo’s sister that were sufficient to positively identify the remains, Bentley said.
DNA identification is not an instant process, said J. Todd Matthews, director of case management and communications for the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. It is not uncommon for delays to occur due to incomplete or missing records. Obtaining and analyzing DNA was also not a common law enforcement practice until after 1994, Matthews said.
Without the Castillo family DNA sample submission last summer, a match would likely never have happened, Matthews added.
The Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences received and ruled out dozens of possible links between the skull and other missing persons over the years that Castillo remained unidentified, Bentley said.
A request for comment has been placed with the Houston Police Department.
A Houston Chronicle article from Feb. 3, 1992, said that Castillo’s body may have been torn apart by animals, but a ground search uncovered no other parts.
Some years ago, Castillo’s unidentified skull was interred in an unmarked grave in the Harris County Cemetery. Her family now plans on having Castillo’s skull exhumed and moved to Fulshear, where her father is buried.