For more than 45 years, the attack and murder of a Riverside County girl found in a snowbank has gone unsolved.

Using forensic genealogy, the Riverside County Regional Cold Case Homicide Squad was able to close the case this year, identifying the man who killed 17-year-old Esther Gonzales in 1979. The squad announced Wednesday, Nov. 20 , that Lewis Randolph “Randy” Williamson was confirmed by DNA as the rapist and murderer.

On February 9, 1979, Gonzales left her parents’ home in Beaumont on foot, planning to go to her sister’s home in Banning. On this walk, she was raped and beaten to death, her body found the next day in a snowdrift on Highway 243 south of Poppet Flats Road near Banning.

The body was discovered after the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office in Banning received a phone call from an unknown caller who reported it. The caller was described by deputies as being argumentative, according to a statement from the Riverside County Prosecutor’s Office. Five days after the call, investigators identified the appellant as Williamson and asked him to complete a polygraph, which he passed, clearing him of wrongdoing at the time, although polygraph tests are not as reliable today.