New DNA evidence leads to huge breakthrough in case of pregnant woman found dead 33 years ago
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
Britt Jones
Featured Image Credit: Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation
Topics: Crime, True crime, US News
A breakthrough in a decades-old case has finally revealed the identity of the victim - and a possible killer.
In 1992, a young, pregnant woman was found dead from beating and strangulation in a ditch 15 miles north of Sheridan.
The victim, who was known as '1-90 Jane Doe', was located along Wyoming's Interstate 90 and had been found only wearing a blouse and jeans, with her socks and shoes missing.
An autopsy determined she'd suffered head trauma, which indicated that someone had hit her. She was also determined to have been two-and-a-half months pregnant at the time of her death, according to Cowboy State Daily, and that she'd previously given birth before.
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However, except for that, little was known about the woman's identity until recently.
Wyoming Police have since identified her as 21-year-old Cindi Arleen Estrada. Her identity was discovered after advances in DNA technology allowed the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to match DNA from her remains to her biological mother.
They now believe that she had been born in Torrance, California, and may have lived in Long Beach at one point in time (via The Daily Mail).
However, as well as her identity, officials also believe that they may have found her alleged killer, too.
Her body was also found to have a paper towel in her crotch, with The Wyoming State Crime Lab discovering semen on the towel.
A similar DNA sample had been previously discovered during the investigation of 'Bitter Creek Betty', who was later identified as Irene Vasquez, where her body had been nude and frozen off I-80 east of Rock Springs on March 1, 1992.
Vasquez was also strangled, and her identity was revealed in 2022 through genetic genealogy and family tree DNA.
According to the DCI, this breakthrough 'conclusively (linked) the two Wyoming homicides to the same DNA contributor'.
“Subsequent investigations, including the use of publicly accessible DNA databases and investigative genetic genealogy, provided leads that ultimately identified Clark Perry Baldwin as the unknown DNA contributor,” the DCI continued.
Baldwin was a long-haul trucker and is already serving time in Tennessee for the 1991 murder of Pamela McCall, having been sentenced in 2020.
Baldwin was arrested on May 6, in Iowa, after FBI agents managed to retrieve his DNA from a shopping cart and waste from his home.
But now he could be extradited to Wyoming to face charges for killing Estrada and Irene Vasquez, Cowboy State Daily says.
In 1991, close to the time of the murder of McCall, Baldwin was also accused of abducting and raping a woman named Mary Ann Newton, who later testified against him during his Tennessee trial.
He was never convicted on the rape charge, however, which was dismissed on the grounds of failure to prosecute.