The views and opinions expressed in Cold and
Missing are exclusively those of the hosts. All
parties mentioned are considered innocent until
proven guilty in a court of law. Cold and Missing
also contains adult themes and languages. Listener
discretion is advised. I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin
-Sulkowski. And I'm your co -host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover
cold cases and missing person cases. Hello, everyone,
and welcome back to Cold and Missing. I'm your
host, Ali. And I'm your co -host, Eli. Welcome
back, everyone. Yes, Eli's work schedule has
calmed down this week, so we were able to get
together and record, and we just thought we should
just go ahead and get into this week's episode.
We're both here. We should just get into it.
Yeah, we are on episode 154, and this week's
case is a... A cold case. All right, let's do
it. Let's do it. Today... We are talking about
the cold case of Maria Bianca Cortes, and this
takes place in March of 1992 in the Mission Valley
neighborhood in San Diego, California. But first,
a little bit about Maria. Maria Bianca Cortes
is just 23 years old in 1992. It does seem like
she goes between the name Maria and Bianca, so
you might hear me refer to her as both throughout
the podcast or people refer to her as Bianca
as well. She was a young mother devoted to raising
a two -year -old daughter who was the center
of her world. Maria's daughter is also very important
to this timeline. However, it does seem that
Maria's daughter is seeking privacy in her adult
life, so For that reason, I'm just going to refer
to her as her daughter throughout the podcast.
I don't think it will be too confusing, but I
just want to respect her privacy. Maria was born
and raised in Mexico, but in 1987, she made the
decision to move to the United States, settling
in San Diego. She was in the process of becoming
a U .S. citizen and worked very hard to build
a stable life for herself and her daughter. Maria
lived with her boyfriend, Raul, who was also
the father of her daughter. Maria didn't have
a car, which meant navigating San Diego almost
entirely by bus. Many days required two or more
buses to get where she needed to go, and when
transfers ran late, Maria often found herself
walking alone at night for long stretches. Occasionally,
to avoid these long and exhausting trips, she
would sometimes accept rides from strangers.
Despite these challenges, Maria never let transportation
stop her from giving her daughter a full life.
As her sister said, quote, Whatever that little
girl wanted, she would take her. Maria worked
long hours as a babysitter and housekeeper. When
she was working, her daughter was often cared
for by family and close friends. Those close
to her described her as a loving, attentive mother
who lived a quiet, honest life. Her brother -in
-law says, quote, It's a tragedy, a total tragedy.
And with that, we'll get into a timeline of events.
Tuesday, March 3rd, 1992. So Maria was last seen
around 6 .30 p .m. on that Tuesday evening. She
was picking up her daughter, I believe from a
relative's house. It's reported that it was her
sister. It's believed Maria could have been heading
to a sewing class in Linda Vista at the Bayside
Settlement House later that evening. Some reports
say that her sister drove Maria and her daughter
to a bus stop and dropped them off around 6 .30
p .m. So 6 .30 p .m. is the last known sighting
of Maria. Police, however, will continue to report
that the last confirmed sighting of Maria Bianca
Cortes was her walking toward Marina Boulevard
with her two -year -old daughter. Maria's boyfriend
was working that evening, but when he returned
home later that night, He found neither Maria
or his daughter were home. He immediately knew
something was wrong as this was extremely unusual.
He waited anxiously through the night. But finally,
on the morning of Wednesday, March 4th, when
the sun started to rise and they still were not
home, he called police to report them missing.
Early that morning, a man was reading a newspaper
near a shopping center in Mission Valley. Behind
the shopping center was an open field. From a
distance, he noticed something that didn't make
a lot of sense. Unsure of exactly what he was
seeing, the man flagged down a woman riding her
bike. She decided to ride into the field to investigate,
expecting to find a person facing homelessness
who maybe needed help. Instead, she made a horrifying
discovery. She says, quote, I saw it was a little
girl, who was bloody, who was sitting on a body,
and she just turned and looked at me. Quickly,
the biker rode off to find a phone to call police.
At approximately 7 .15 a .m., police were dispatched
to 7500 Mission Valley Road after receiving a
call that a child was sitting on top of a body
in an open field. Today, this area is very busy
and built up, but back in 1992, there was far
less there. When officers arrived, Maria's daughter
ran into the arms of a female officer that came
to the scene. Reports say that she didn't start
crying until police arrived, and that's when
she began to cry. Maria's daughter had been sitting
with the body of her mother in a muddy field
behind a shopping center. Ultimately, the autopsy
will show that Maria had been strangled and stabbed
in the groin. Investigators believe the stab
wound was ultimately what killed her. The autopsy
will also confirm that she had not been sexually
assaulted. Maria's daughter had been sitting
with her mother's body for hours. She was covered
in blood. None of it was her own. Hypothermia
was beginning to set in, but otherwise, the two
-year -old was unharmed, physically unharmed.
Maria's daughter was taken to a hospital and
treated for the exposure. Police immediately
start searching for her father, Raul, as they
need to question him before they're able to release
her to him. Based on the condition of both Maria
and her daughter, investigators believe that
they had been in the field for several hours
overnight. But they never give a specific time
of death or window when they believe that the
murder had actually happened. They just say several
hours overnight. The next day, Thursday, March
5th, police continue to question Raul in connection
with Maria's murder. He is ultimately released
from custody and he's never called a suspect
in this crime. Investigators stated they did
not have a clear motive in the crime. While there
had been two other stabbing murders in the week
prior to Maria's death, police did not think
that they were related at that time. The next
day, so this is two days after the murder, Friday,
March 6th, police released photos of Maria Bianca
Cortes to the public, hoping someone would recognize
her or recall seeing her the night that she was
killed. Investigators urged anyone who may have
seen Maria traveling that evening to come forward
with the information. There was no tip too small.
But sadly, after this, Maria's case really goes
cold. I tried to dig and dig for updates, but
I really couldn't find any until 2022, so that's
nearly 30 years since the murder. And in 2022,
Maria's case is being revisited by the media
and by the police, bringing renewed attention
to her murder and the unanswered questions surrounding
it. Police do share a little bit more about the
timeline. Investigators believe that Maria may
have taken the bus as far as Mission Valley and
then accepted a ride. Tony Johnson, a senior
investigator with the district attorney's office,
says, quote, The only thing that hurt Maria was
that she didn't have a car. It seems certain
that she was picked up in some vehicle and driven
to that location. It's revealed that there were
tire tracks in the mud that night, suggesting
that Maria and her daughter had been driven into
the field where Maria was found. Investigators
still don't know whether Maria knew the person
that she got in the car with or if it was a stranger.
At the time of the murder in 1992, no real DNA
evidence was collected from the scene as, you
know, it was still in its infancy and kind of
getting started in criminal investigation. However,
police are hopeful that advances in forensic
technology could finally bring answers to her
case. Tony Johnson says, quote, one of the big
developments is the ability to get DNA from rootless
hairs. Investigators did collect several hairs
at the scene. They were found on Maria's body
and did not match her own hair. So investigators
are hoping that this new forensic technology
will be able to pull a DNA sample out of the
hair and then ultimately lead to a hit in the
system. Again, Tony Johnson says, Now that update
was in 2022. I looked to see if there were any
results or updates in the story from those hairless
or those hairs without roots. But there doesn't
seem to be any update. I'm hopeful that maybe
the tests are just very backlogged in California
and maybe they haven't gotten to them yet. But
there are no more updates around that if they
did get a match or if they were able to extract
DNA from that at all. But with that, if you have
any information about the murder of Maria Bianca
Cortes, please contact the San Diego Police Department.
So that is the cold case of Maria Bianca Cortes.
Just to speak on Maria quickly here at the top,
I love that she was such a caring and present
person, especially in her commitment to motherhood
and parenthood. It speaks volumes about how she
was navigating her entire life about how she
was just kind of committed to those roles as
a person and as a mom. And she was building something
beautiful for herself and for her daughter, for
her family. I think she sounded awesome and unstoppable.
Yeah. I really think so many of the same things
you just said, like I really got the impression
that she was just like building this amazing
life for herself, for her daughter, building
this home and like such an incredibly hard worker
and just like dedicated to what she was doing.
Like it takes a lot of dedication to work multiple
jobs, but that's like dedication to a goal you're
trying to meet, you know, so. I just really admire
her. I think she was an excellent person. Yeah,
moving right into that, you know, she was someone
who was, yes, using but relying on public transit.
You and I are no strangers to that. We both have
put in, I think, over 10 years of being public
transit people with where we live, and it is
a whole skill set on its own. navigating your
life, your jobs, your career through using and
relying public transit. So while, you know, now
we have access to Lyfts and Ubers and ride shares
and taxis, it wasn't the same back then. So I
understand her, you know, if it was kind of a
last resort, but, you know, shit needed to be
done. She needed to get to work. So she hopped
in a car. And I would probably have done the
same back, you know, during the early 90s if
I was trying to get to work. Because if you miss
that connecting bus, you're walking. Yeah. I
mean, I think of just tonight where, you know,
I was taking the train home from work and it
was delayed. And I'm like refreshing my phone
again and again to try to figure out, you know,
if it's delayed and what I'm taking home to get
around this and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
You know, just thinking about in 1992, it's like,
OK, if the train's delayed, like you won't know.
You'll just have to sit there and either wait
it out and hope it comes eventually or start
walking, figure something else out. And yeah,
like, you know, there were taxis back then, but
you really had to actually see one and hail it.
You couldn't really call it unless you got to
a phone. So, yeah, just. incredibly tough to
get around on public transit, you know, just
today. But, you know, without technology and
convenience of rideshares, it would have been
so much more difficult in 1992. It was. It was
more difficult. Yeah. So I guess mentioning,
you know, how she was navigating transit to get
to her job takes us right into the timeline.
And I know it's a pretty short one, but Something
I just want to say as we start unpacking the
timeline and her murder is that it feels odd
to say that I'm thankful, but in this case, one
of the only things I'm thankful for is how young
her daughter was. And the only thing I can hope
for is that her daughter doesn't carry any memories
of what her mother's last moments were like.
Yeah, my heart breaks thinking about this two
-year -old little girl in these terrifying moments.
And I hope she has no memories of it either.
But, you know, we hear that phrase, like, the
body keeps the score. So, like, I can't imagine
the impression that this made on that little
two -year -old's life and the ripple effects
of that. I can't imagine. But I am so thankful
that she wasn't physically harmed during this.
I will say in listening to this, it immediately
reminded me of a case we covered, I think two
cases ago, Lori Bolger. And I know their timelines
are different, obviously, but the shocking reveal
of A young woman's body being found in the middle
of the day in the middle of a field. Again, even
more shocking that this is a case that there's
very little information on. Again, I think it's
awesome that there are new eyes on it and that
people are looking for answers and the case has
been reopened. But the two cases had striking
similarities. Just shocks me that more people
don't know about them because of what happened
and how they were found. Yeah, Lori's case, we
did cover it a couple episodes ago. And yeah,
similar in the field, causes of death are different
here. And timelines, like you mentioned, are
different. But yeah, like you said, the description
and like kind of that visual of like a body.
In the middle of a field and in this case, you
know, a child sitting on a body in the middle
of the field, like it's very shocking to just
like pull that image up. Now, I do have some
questions about the timeline, more specifically
around the information about her last sighting
and that there are two accounts. One is law enforcement.
And I just wanted to clarify. Whose is the others?
Or if there are, I guess I just wanted to circle
back to that part of the timeline and the information
you had. Okay, yes. So there are some questions
around this. But back in 1992, police say at
that time that the last confirmed sighting of
Maria, she was seen walking toward Marina Boulevard
with her two -year -old. And then the next time...
Maria's found, she's near the 7500 block of Mission
Valley Drive or road. So that's about an 18 minute
drive, but it's an hour bus trip, just like kind
of pulling up Google Maps, at least today. I
don't know how long it was back in the day, but
today it's about an hour bus trip. So where she
was last seen walking, where it was reported
in 1992, that would suggest that she was going
to get on the bus. And then in 2022, police say
that they believe that Maria had taken the bus
as far as Mission Valley and then accepted a
ride. So it's somewhere along Mission Valley
that she likely got off the bus and then into
a car. But I'm not sure if police have ever found
any other witnesses to place her either on the
bus or near that area outside of her getting
in the car. Does that answer your question? Yeah,
that clarifies a bunch of things for me, and
it also takes me right into, you know, almost
right now, you know, the fact that there are
eyes on the case again, something that I immediately
thought of after, you know, you telling us that
there were tire tracks seen. As far as 2026 goes
and technological advancements in evidence, I'd
just be really interested to see what's the make,
model, year of the tires, what are the tracks,
what are the dimensions, what are the measurements,
because that can tell you a lot and might lead
to who was driving that car and was it the car
that had her in it? Yeah, I'd be so curious to
know. You know, if they've been able to glean
any of that information from the tire tracks
that they were able to collect from the scene.
Because, yeah, like you said, it can get really
specific to the point where you can get some
information or maybe maybe it's not. Maybe it's
really general, but that's still more information.
So I think in a case like this where information
seems to be lacking, any and all details are
welcome. Yeah. And including with the DNA, I
know you mentioned that there were hairs that
didn't match her that were found on her. So I
am I mean, I know evidence in DNA can degrade
over time, but I'm hopeful that that those were
even thought of to be collected at the time,
because that means that to me, it says that those
officers at the time were really working the
case and trying. So I'm hopeful of those discoveries
and the tests done on them. I hope that they
reveal the information that all of us want, but
more than anything, I hope that it brings justice
and peace to her daughter because her daughter
sounds like, well, she sounds exactly like her.
Very committed and dedicated to... And, you know,
unfortunately, a big part of her life is finding
justice for who did this to her mom. But it's
incredible that she has stayed committed to it,
just like her mom was committed to her. While
this case is very heartbreaking, I'm eager to
spread the word about who Maria was and dig into
more information that I can find on my own, honestly.
I think it could have been really easy for Maria's
case to really just be cold from the very jump.
And of course, it kind of is, right? But we do
have, you know, reporting on it. And there is
an investigation now or, you know, reinvestigation
of it. But I think Maria's daughter really impacted
a lot of investigators in this case. I think,
you know, coming to a crime scene and finding
this two year old who was so brave and, you know,
stayed with her mom until until the end, you
know, like that is that's so brave. And it's
something that a two year old should never have
to do. So I think a lot of investigators really
feel like they owe Maria's daughter an answer
in this because she was so brave. I think that's
I think it's personal for a lot of investigators
in this case. And frankly, like it feels personal
for me. Like, you know, I think we should get
some energy behind this case, like you said.
And I really hope that, you know, with this reinterview
or reinvestigation that was happening in 2022,
you know, this hope that maybe we can pull some
DNA that there's. Even more evidence that we're
unaware of that, you know, police are keeping
close to them. So I'm really hopeful that somewhere
in there is DNA and that DNA is somewhere in
a database that will get us answers for Maria's
daughter and for Maria. Nobody should be allowed
to walk around and not answer for what they did
here because this this is awful. This I mean.
You took one wonderful person out of this world,
and then you really threatened the life of a
very innocent two -year -old. Because while she
was unharmed, you know, she was starting to hit
hyperthermia out there. So, like, bad things
could have happened anyway. But ultimately, this
case, it makes me really angry on a lot of levels.
And so I want to turn that anger into energy,
energy behind Maria's case. just in getting answers
and demanding answers and that resources continue
to be used for Maria's case and getting those
answers. So again, if you have any information
about the murder of Maria Bianca Cortes, please
contact the San Diego Police Department at 619
-531 -2293. And we will have a picture of Maria
on our Instagram, at coldandmissing. Eli makes
those graphics every week. So please share that
picture. Let's get her case out there. Let's
get more people talking about it. Let's get other
podcasts covering it. Let's just get her case
out there. And let the police know. We haven't
forgot about her, and we still want to see answers
here. So at coldandmissing, you can follow us
there. And again, if we ever have to take a week
off the podcast, we'll always update it. Thank
you so much. If you could leave us five stars,
it really goes a long way. And ultimately, it
gets people listening to this case. So I see
it as advocacy work. I think you should too.
So go ahead, leave five stars. Leave a written
review if you're an Apple podcast. It would mean
the world to us. It always does. We celebrate
each one that comes in. But that is all I have
for you this week. Thank you so much for listening
to Cold and Missing. I'm your host, Ali . And
I'm your co -host, Eli. Have a good week and
stay safe, y 'all. Stay safe, y 'all. Thank you.