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.