OKLAHOMA CITY – Forensic experts using genetic genealogy helped Oklahoma authorities recently identify the dismembered body of a murdered young woman discovered buried 60 miles southwest of Oklahoma City 27 years ago.

The Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation on March 11 identified the victim as 20-year-old Katrina Kay (Burton) Bentivegna, whose headless body and severed hands and feet were unearthed in rural Caddo County on April 24, 1995, near historic U.S. Route 66 and State Highway 281.

The following year, investigators found a skull that they confirmed through DNA comparison belonged to the body.

Federal, state and county authorities checked out numerous tips and leads in an effort to find the victim’s name, a vital fact in murder investigations, said OSBI Director Ricky Adams. Pursuit of the killer or killers failed to turn up suspects or motives.

A breakthrough in the cold case occurred in 2021 when the OSBI Forensic Science Center submitted DNA samples from the victim to Reston, Virginia-based Parabon Nanolabs for phenotyping, a forensic process that detects the hereditary makeup of DNA organisms. After five months of testing, the lab provided results of possible genetic matches to the OSBI in August of 2021.

Investigators then contacted the victim’s possible relatives, requesting DNA samples to compare with the victim’s, resulting in  a positive match. The victim’s family members were notified.

An unidentified son issued a statement through the OSBI:

“I appreciate all the hard work the OSBI has put into identifying my mother. There have been many unanswered questions over the past 27 years but now I have closure in knowing what happened to my mom.”

Other family members, including a sister cousin, niece, and a friend also were not identified. They requested no contact or inquiries.

OSBI Director Adams said investigators now know that Bentivegna originally lived in Colorado and moved to Oklahoma in 1993, residing in Midwest City, a suburb of Oklahoma City. He said she was married and gave birth to her son in Oklahoma.

The OSBI provided no information about Bentivegna’s husband nor further details about her son.

“We are thrilled to be able to reunite Katrina with her family,” said Adams. “While it took 27 years to be able to deliver the news, we never stopped working to identify Katrina. We pursued all options available at the time for victims and sometimes we have to wait for technological advances like forensic genetic genealogy.”

Now, he said, “we continue our pursuit of justice for Katrina.”