Terri Lynn Hollis

Case background and investigation

Terri Lynn Hollis was 11 years old when she went missing from Torrance, California, on Thanksgiving Day, November 23, 1972. According to Spectrum News 1 and Oxygen, she had gone out for a bicycle ride and did not come home.

Her body was found the following day, November 24, 1972, in Ventura County. The Associated Press reported that fishermen discovered her on a cliff below Pacific Coast Highway in the Oxnard area, and that she was wearing only a T-shirt; ABC7 Los Angeles described the location as the cliffs at Point Mugu. Police said she had been sexually assaulted and strangled.

The case stayed open for close to 47 years. According to the Associated Press, investigators carried out roughly 2,000 interviews over the decades and later ran searches on the DNA evidence preserved from the crime, without finding a match.

In 2018, Torrance police turned to Parabon NanoLabs, a Virginia company that performs genetic genealogy analysis. The Associated Press reported that the company compared the crime-scene DNA profile against publicly available genealogy databases and found a relative of the unknown man, which allowed detectives to narrow their inquiry to Jake Edward Brown. Spectrum News 1 reported that Brown had also used the name Thomas Tracy Burum.

Brown had died in Arizona in 2003 and was buried there. Investigators exhumed his remains, and according to Spectrum News 1 a Florida laboratory, DNA Labs International, obtained DNA from the bones. ABC7 reported that police described the result as a match to the evidence collected from Terri, with odds of roughly one in 20 septillion of a coincidental match. ABC7 and the Associated Press reported that Brown had arrests for narcotics, robbery and two rapes that occurred after the 1972 killing.

Torrance Police Chief Eve Irvine announced the finding at a news conference on September 11, 2019, and said the case was solved. Because Brown died 16 years before he was identified, he was never charged or tried, and the conclusion rests on the police investigation and DNA comparison rather than a court verdict. Terri's brother, Randy Hollis, spoke at the announcement and said he wished their parents had lived to see the day. Police said they were examining whether Brown could be connected to other unsolved crimes.