No other information has been released at this time, but her profile says she has been identified: http://www.ocsd.org/gov/sheriff/divisions/prof/coroner/ud/jane/9001853ly.asp

Unsolved Mysteries profiled her with other unidentified people on the January 20, 1995 episode.

This is great news! It's awesome to see so many of these old cases finally being solved. Hopefully it brings someone some peace and closure.

This case never had as much internet hype as some of the other unidentifieds on UM, but it is good to see it solved. I wonder what her real name was.

I hope they release more details on this...I also always wondered what was up w/ the human hair "ring" on her finger, unless this was a trend back then. Crazy that it took so long to identify.

Wow. Fabulous news.

Well, not fabulous in the sense that some family just got confirmation their loved one is gone. But I would imagine the sense of closure would be somewhat satisfying...

2017 has been on quite a roll...

Very good news but I don't appreciate the way authorities handle situations like this. I checked the related Webslueths thread and there were many people frustrated that Jane Doe's identity has yet to be released. Some of them have posted for years and years in that thread, offering possibles.

The name should be released first, and the case solved later.

It is a relief that she has been identified. IT is nice that with the advance of technology more and more of these John and Jane Does are able to be identified and while it is sad and tragic they are deceased at least their loved ones have some answers.

I'm so happy to see this one solved. I'm going to be dissapointed if they don't tell us her identity.

Very good news but I don't appreciate the way authorities handle situations like this. I checked the related Webslueths thread and there were many people frustrated that Jane Doe's identity has yet to be released. Some of them have posted for years and years in that thread, offering possibles.

The name should be released first, and the case solved later.

Yes, of course your curiosity should be the top concern of the law enforcement agency involved.

I briefly discussed this case on my podcast minisode about the Jonelle Matthews disappearance since Jonelle was considered as a possible match to "Andrea". I never believed it was her, though there were some compelling similarities. I too am really anxious to learn more details about Andrea and how she was identified, but can totally respect if her next of kin wants the details to remain private. I wonder if there was any truth to Andrea's claims that her parents were pretty well-known.

OCSD Coroner’s Division IDs Jane Doe After Nearly 30 Years

SANTA ANA, Ca. (May 11, 2017) – The Orange County Sheriff’s Department Coroner’s Division has identified the victim of a vehicle crash from 27 years ago, bringing closure to her family after many years.

Coroner’s officials on Thursday, May 4, received confirmation the 26-year-old woman struck and killed by two vehicles on April 1, 1990 as she crossed Pacific Coast Highway in Huntington Beach was Andrea Kuiper of Fairfax, Va.

OCSD’s Coroner Division continued to work the case over the years, even pushing to have it featured on the television show, “Unsolved Mysteries,” and in numerous newspaper articles, but the woman’s identity continued to elude investigators.

“We never forgot her and would regularly pull out her file to see if we could think of anything new to try,” said Kelly Keyes, Supervising Deputy Coroner. “The investigators at the Coroner’s Office never stopped trying to figure out who she was, just as they do with the more than 90 unidentified decedents that we have.”

At the time of Kuiper’s death, her information was provided to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). The organization recreated images of what Kuiper might have looked like. Those images were circulated in the media, but she remained unidentified.

In 2010, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) was created. NamUs provided a searchable database to assist in solving cases involving unidentified human remains. Shortly after its creation, the OCSD Coroner Division input Kuiper’s information and hoped for a hit.

Coroner investigators revisited the case as recently as eight months ago after learning Kuiper may have had connections in Newport News, Va., but their work didn’t turn out any new information.

In early 2017, NamUs partnered with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) on a fingerprint project that more closely examines fingerprints of unidentified decedents against an ever-growing database that has old fingerprints regularly added.

On Thursday, May 4, 2017, the FBI notified the OCSD Coroner Division of the forensic match. Coroner investigators worked with Fairfax law enforcement to contact Kuiper’s parents and provide them closure after nearly three decades.

“We are thankful to know what happened to our daughter after all these years,” said Kuiper’s father, Richard Kuiper. “Andrea was loved and respected. She was beautiful. But she was manic depressive, and therefore we had been through quite an adventure.”

Kuiper’s family has asked their privacy be respected at this time.

_____________________

Additional Details on Jane Doe Identification

Date of death: Evening of April 1, 1990

Location: Pacific Coast Highway, west of Newland Avenue

Circumstances at the time of death: No identification and all methods of identification at the time proved unsuccessful.

Kuiper was wearing a black dress and pink sweater with size 6 pink heels. She had a ring made of human hair wrapped around her left ring finger. She wore black toenail polish.

Attempts to identify: Huntington Beach PD thoroughly investigated the case and information was put out in the news media and featured on “Unsolved Mysteries.”

A Facebook page was created by the public to highlight the case and a psychic was even hired. That psychic contacted the Coroner’s office to provide information.

https://www.facebook.com/AndreaJaneDoeCA

Family: Kuiper was one of two children.

She was described by her family as smart, clever, attractive and persuasive. As a child, she loved to ice skate and her mother made all her costumes.

Kuiper also loved art and often would create pictures for her parents, many of which they still have. She also struggled with mental health issues. Her parents said their only daughter suffered from manic depressive disorder and eventually started using drugs. She came to California at age 26. A couple of months before her death, a friend of Kuiper’s called her parents to let her know she was OK.

That was the last they heard. Richard Kuiper said his wife and son hoped one day their daughter would drive up with a “car full of beautiful children and say, ‘Hi, it’s me.’”

Here's a photo of Andrea Kuiper
https://scontent-ord1-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/18341884_744564069037016_5344166640520236695_n.jpg?oh=4fe0c8a6cb0bb63bfa297ab5a065952c&oe=59B79A17

Thanks for posting the articles and picture, 1990 UM fan.

What a sad, sad story. I'm happy to have closure for her family, but I'm sure this also brings up more pain. I hope they can find peace through this. As a parent myself, this line just breaks my heart: "Richard Kuiper said his wife and son hoped one day their daughter would drive up with a “car full of beautiful children and say, ‘Hi, it’s me.’”

It is great to see these cases getting solved, though. Never give up hope, I guess...

I'm so glad they were finally able to identify her. <3 Hopefully the family has closure now.

Those drawings of her, other than the one shown on UM are pretty horrible.

I briefly discussed this case on my podcast minisode about the Jonelle Matthews disappearance since Jonelle was considered as a possible match to "Andrea". I never believed it was her, though there were some compelling similarities. I too am really anxious to learn more details about Andrea and how she was identified, but can totally respect if her next of kin wants the details to remain private. I wonder if there was any truth to Andrea's claims that her parents were pretty well-known.

Yep, it wasn't Jonelle. It was Andrea Kuiper.

I'm guessing that Jonelle's body might have been incinerated, as the Greeley police alluded to for one of their abduction scenarios.

Going off-topic a bit, I believe something similar was done to Jeremy Bright's body (as the re-enactment showed Dennis David Steinhoff's shirt covered in blood as he supposedly said, "oh, this happened hours ago"), which is why he has never been found.

SOOO happy this has been closed. This case always intrigued me. She got hit (accidentally) by two cars trying to cross a street in Huntington Beach. The few times I was out there at a hotel right off Pacific Coast Highway, I always thought of her and wondered who she was. This makes me very happy that she has a name now. God Bless her.

I also know this is probably a grim question, but are her remains somewhere? I would assume she was cremated back then or possibly buried somewhere.

Those drawings of her, other than the one shown on UM are pretty horrible.

To be fair to the artist... She had been hit by two cars while trying to cross a highway. Its not a stretch of the imagination to say her body was probably in pretty bad shape.

In any case, I'm glad that her family can finally have some closure.

Reading the description of her clothing, along with her drug use and mental problems, I wonder if she was involved in prostitution like DPJD was. :(

To be fair to the artist... She had been hit by two cars while trying to cross a highway. Its not a stretch of the imagination to say her body was probably in pretty bad shape.

In any case, I'm glad that her family can finally have some closure.

Reading the description of her clothing, along with her drug use and mental problems, I wonder if she was involved in prostitution like DPJD was. :(

I'm with you. It's been a long while since I reviewed the facts of her case and I instantly thought she may have been involved in prostitution, given the nature of her clothing...

I read an article that said she had stayed one night at a guys house and another took her to goodwil to get some clothes...

she used her REAL first name and said she was from virginia...but later said she was from new york

her parents said she was manic depressive....did the episode say that her name might be andrea and she might be from virginia?? did her parents ever watch unsolved mysteries and just never made the connection since the jane doe was in california not their state

at least they finally got some closure

I read an article that said she had stayed one night at a guys house and another took her to goodwil to get some clothes...

she used her REAL first name and said she was from virginia...but later said she was from new york

her parents said she was manic depressive....did the episode say that her name might be andrea and she might be from virginia?? did her parents ever watch unsolved mysteries and just never made the connection since the jane doe was in california not their state

at least they finally got some closure

The unsolved mysteries episode itself never said her name might be Andrea. I think that info may have come out later (or just not been used for the episode) and was part of the more elaborate info on Missing Does sites, as well as other sites.

I guess her parents just assumed she ran off, started a new life, went to a worse life, whatever it may be. She was 26 when they last heard from her, so as great of parents as they probably were/are, at that age you can't go chasing somebody down. I guess as time passed they either assumed she may have passed away (from other circumstances perhaps) or just remained in her new life and withdrew from all her family. While rare, this does happen.

Friends of some of my family members have not spoken to or had any contact with their other family members in 40 years, and something happened or some huge disagreement happened WAYY back where both parties still want to keep it that way. My mother's best friend's husband has been estranged from his family since he was 21. Recently his mother died and his sisters told him (thru a friend) he wasn't welcome at the funeral, and he said he wouldn't have gone anyway. My mother doesn't know details nor will her friends talk about it, but I guess some huge disagreements happened years ago, and that was the end all be all. Sounds awful, but it happens.

Back to Andrea, also keep in mind when she went missing in 1990, at that point we were still years away from social media, FB, even internet and cell phones. Their means of trying to reach out to their daughter were basically thru US mail, posting flyers, private detectives, and a telephone.

Last note, a few times I stood at almost the exact point Andrea seemed to walk onto the street on Pacific Coast highway (it is right near a hotel). I thought of her during those times, but for the life of me I couldn't think of how somebody wouldn't look both ways before stepping into this street. It's not highway busy, but it can be semi-busy.

Not saying it was suicide, but just a weird tragic accident.

Back to Andrea, also keep in mind when she went missing in 1990, at that point we were still years away from social media, FB, even internet and cell phones. Their means of trying to reach out to their daughter were basically thru US mail, posting flyers, private detectives, and a telephone.

Yes, I'm finding that a large majority of the unidentified John and Jane Does who have been identified these past few years (Huntington Beach Jane Doe, Grateful Doe, Caledonia Jane Doe, etc.) are people who left their homes to travel to another destination and just broke off all contact with their families at some point. Even if their family attempted to report them missing, LE often wouldn't file a report because it was impossible to pinpoint an exact time or location they disappeared from, so how could they be certain they didn't just take off and start a new life somewhere? I'd wager this fits the criteria for the majority of unidentified decedents from the pre-Internet age.

I read an article that said she had stayed one night at a guys house and another took her to goodwil to get some clothes...

she used her REAL first name and said she was from virginia...but later said she was from new york

her parents said she was manic depressive....did the episode say that her name might be andrea and she might be from virginia?? did her parents ever watch unsolved mysteries and just never made the connection since the jane doe was in california not their state

at least they finally got some closure

What I don't get is they had a first name and she gave two locations where she was from and it still took 27 years to ID her?

I live down the street from where she was killed and 28 years later almost to the day 3 teens died in nearly the exact same spot. Very sad.