After almost four decades of mystery and unanswered questions, the remains found near Bonelli Landing at Lake Mead have been identified as Carol Ann Riley, a nurse from San Diego County who went missing in the mid-1980s. This breakthrough in the cold case was made possible by advancements in DNA analysis, giving closure to a mystery that has perplexed investigators since Riley's remains were first discovered in 1987.
Riley's identity was finally confirmed last month through DNA testing, according to News 3 LV. At the time of her disappearance, Riley was in a relationship with a man she knew as Robert Howard Smith. However, investigators later revealed that he was actually named Robert Dean Weeks, a man with a history of aliases and suspicious connections to other disappearances and murders.
Weeks, who died in prison in 1996, was found guilty of the murder of his wife Patricia Weeks and real estate agent Cynthia Jabour. Authorities told KTNV that Weeks had "a history of women disappearing around him," though he was never charged for the disappearances of Riley and another business associate, James Shaw. Shaw's case further deepened suspicions, especially after his bloodstained car was found abandoned in Las Vegas following an argument with Weeks. Shaw, like Riley and the others, was never found.
The long road to identifying Riley was fraught with dead ends, beginning with a forensic odontologist's report in 1987 that failed to find a match in the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). Attempts to link the remains to missing persons in Texas proved fruitless. It wasn't until February 2025 that a renewed effort utilizing the victim’s clothing and the blanket she was wrapped in for lab analysis in Flagstaff, Arizona, but this, too, was unsuccessful. Ultimately, a forensic odontologist and staff of the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit from the California Department of Justice were able to make a conclusive identification, according to the KTNV report.
