Dismembered San Jose woman identified in cold case homicide
The slain woman was Vivian Moss, a 54-year-old grandmother and member of Mt. Zion Spiritual Church, the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Cold Case Unit announced Tuesday.
Moss' torso was found in an empty field along Mabury Road on July 11, 1981. The killer had dismembered her body, investigators said. She had no identification with her, but San Jose Police Department officers found two religious medallion pendants near the homicide victim's partial remains.
One medallion was inscribed, 'Saint Christopher Protect Us.' The second medallion had a figure of the Virgin Mary surrounded by the words, 'Mary conceived without sin. Pray for us who have recourse to thee.'
Moss had been stabbed multiple times in the chest, the district attorney's office said.
Since then, a VTA Berryessa Transit Center and a BART station parking structure were built over the field.
While the woman's identity was still a mystery, the DA's Office partnered with forensic genealogists at Parabon NanoLabs. Last year, Parabon hypothesized that the victim was likely Moss, who was born in Arkansas in 1927. In 2024, DA investigators found and interviewed Moss' granddaughter, as well as compared their DNA.
'(The granddaughter) told investigators that when she was a young girl, Vivian was supposed to pick her up to stay the night at her home. Vivian didn't show and she never saw her grandmother again,' the DA's office wrote.
Cold case team members and Moss' surviving family members are now hoping to identify and find her killer. They are asking the public to come forward with any information about Moss and her tragic fate.
District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, 'Vivian Moss was her name. I know it. Her family knows it. And now our community knows it. One day soon, I hope we will know the depraved person who took her life and left her in a field, hoping she would be forgotten. If her murderer is still alive, they will know that we don't forget in Santa Clara County.'
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As a follower of the Mt. Zion Spiritual Church, Moss was close with the church's leader, Louis H. Narcisse, who died in 1989. She also may have worked at an elementary school in Oakland at some point before she disappeared, according to investigators.
The Santa Clara County District Attorney's Cold Case Unit was established in 2011. The team has solved over 30 cold case murders committed as early as 1969. More than half of those cases were cracked due to advances in DNA analysis and forensic genealogy.
Anyone who has any information about Moss or this cold case homicide is encouraged to call 408-792-2466 or email coldcasetips@dao.sccgov.org.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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