Police have identified the body of a murder victim 40 years after her torso was recovered from a river. New technology and the discovery of a skull 10 years later helped detectives establish the woman’s identity as Ruth Belle Waymire, who was sexually assaulted with a blunt object and dismembered. The investigation centred around the Spokane River in the US state of Washington.
Waymire’s body was missing the head, feet and heads when it was discovered in 1984.
In 1998, a dog walker discovered her skull in a deserted parking lot in the area.
Authorities collected DNA samples from the body and the skulls in 2021 and sent them to Othram Nanolabs, a company specialised in testing damaged samples.
The analysis reduced the victim pool to two sisters, one of which was Waymire. Investigators later tracked down the other sister who submitted a DNA sample to see if she was related to the remains.
In February 2023, Waymire was officially identified as the woman whose body was discovered in the Spokane River in 1984.
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Waymire had lost contact with her sister following the death of their mother and she was never officially reported missing.
According to local reports, the victim split her time between Spokane and Wenatchee, Washington and had a “vagabond lifestyle”.
Waymire was married to Trampas D.L. Vaughn, who died in 2017.
Vaughn served time in jail before he married the woman and no divorce records were located.
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Authorities believe the victim knew her killer because of the extensive efforts to remove any evidence needed to identify her if discovered, including facial, dental identification and fingertips.
Further analysis of the remains revealed Waymire had given birth a year or two before her death but no records appear to exist of a child related to her.
Spokane police are appealing for more information from Waymire’s acquaintances.
Local authorities nicknamed the torso found in 1984 “Millie” at the insistence of Spokane Police Detective Don Giese’s daughter, who said “no one deserves to not have a name”.
The then-fifth grader reportedly accompanied her father to collect Waymire’s skull after undergoing forensic analysis in western Washington.
Geise told The Spokesman-Review in 2007 that his daughter told him the victim needed a name when they stopped for the night in a motel on the way home.
He reported: “Since we have another person in the room, we should name her. Let’s call her Millie.”
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