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Cold case investigators have arrested a 55-year-old woman in North Carolina in connection with the death of a newborn girl found in a California dumpster 37 years ago, according to the Riverside Police Department.

Through DNA testing, detectives identified the baby’s mother as Melissa Jean Allen Avila, police said in a Thursday news release.

It is unclear whether Avila, who police accuse of murder, has obtained an attorney. CNN has made efforts to reach Avila.

Avila made an initial appearance in court Wednesday and was released on her own recognizance through an agreement between the prosecution and the defense, according to City News Service. She was previously being held on a bond of $1.1 million, police said.

CNN has left a message with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office requesting information about the case.

The newborn had been found deceased in a dumpster in Riverside on October 13, 1987, by a man rummaging for recyclables, police said in the release.

Homicide investigators were unable to identify a suspect and the case went unsolved for nearly 40 years. In 2020, the department’s new homicide cold case unit reopened the case.

Police said they worked with Othram, a DNA testing company, with funding from Season of Justice, a nonprofit that provides financial assistance for investigative agencies and families to help solve cold cases with “advanced DNA analysis solutions and forensic genealogy.”

In November 2021, Othram was able to get DNA from evidence in the case and build a profile for the baby, according to its website. The police agency’s forensics genetic genealogy team then developed new leads that led to potential relatives.

“Othram assisted with investigators’ reference testing efforts using (a method of testing that) allows investigators to infer kinship in closely and distantly related individuals,” the company said.

Avila was taken into custody in Shelby, North Carolina, which is about 45 miles west of Charlotte.

Avila was 19 at the time of the baby’s death. There was no evidence the baby’s father had any link to the case, police said.

“Thanks to the persistent efforts of our investigators and partners, this victim now has an identity, bringing resolution to the case,” Riverside Police Chief Larry Gonzalez said. “We will remain dedicated to seeking justice for homicide victims and ensuring their families find closure.”

Avila’s next hearing is scheduled for September 9, according to jail records.

Fresno drivers headed to the Bay Area via Pacheco Pass on Highway 152 can’t help but take note of a sprawling inland sea that seemingly appears out of nowhere among the yellowed, oak-dotted foothills.

This is San Luis Reservoir, essentially a 2 million acre-foot holding tank built to irrigate San Joaquin Valley farms and supply drinking water to Silicon Valley. Its construction was considered such a significant addition to California’s water supply that President John F. Kennedy turned out in 1962 to push the dynamite plunger.

“It is a pleasure for me to come out here and help blow up this Valley,” Kennedy quipped from a temporary grandstand erected atop a nearby hill.

Six decades later, the 3½-mile long earth dam that towers above 152 and impounds the federally owned, state operated reservoir is getting fortified. Construction crews are 2½ years into a $1.1 billion seismic upgrade of B.F. Sisk Dam that won’t be completed until 2031.

Opinion

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Funded mainly by the 1978 Safety of Dams Act, the project will raise the 382-foot-tall dam by 10 feet and add additional safety features designed to ease concerns of widespread flooding if slumping were to occur during a major earthquake. (San Luis Reservoir lies within two fault zones and is situated uphill from the nearby communities of Los Banos and Santa Nella.)

So far, the 120 to 150 workers have focused on reinforcing and raising three different stability berms along the dam’s midsection where seepage had been occurring. Most of the material required, millions of cubic yards worth of boulders, riprap and gravel, is excavated from an on-site quarry and transported to the dam via a steady procession of dump trucks operating 12 hours a day.

Just by itself, the Sisk Dam safety modification project does not increase the reservoir’s capacity. To accomplish that, the Bureau of Reclamation and San Luis & Delta-Mendota Water Authority are teaming on a second 10-foot dam raise that would create an additional 130,000 acre feet of storage.

Enlarging the reservoir is projected to cost an additional $1 billion. But because the 10-foot storage raise would take place concurrently with the 10-foot seismic raise, work that isn’t scheduled to begin until 2027, the partners have time to assemble a funding plan. The next public negotiations are Aug. 22-23 in Monterey.

“We want to maximize the effort and minimize the expense,” said Henry Garcia, the Bureau of Reclamation’s construction manager.

Little scrutiny, zero opposition

The expansion of San Luis Reservoir is a small part of a larger effort by the state and federal agencies to increase water storage. But unlike virtually every other dam project in California, this one was approved with little public scrutiny and zero opposition from environmentalists — even though the extra 130,000 acre feet of water would come out of the heavily scrutinized San Joaquin-Sacramento River Delta.

Why is that?

As with everything involving water and the environment in California, there are multiple factors at play.

The first of those is overload. Ron Stork, policy director at Friends of the River, rattled off more than a half-dozen dam projects his Sacramento-based environmental group and others are rallying against. They include: Sites Reservoir, a 1.5 million acre-foot offstream storage site planned in Colusa County; the proposed 25-fold expansion of Pacheco Reservoir, just over the hill from San Luis and connected to it via a tunnel that runs through Pacheco Pass; and most urgently of all, the Trump-administration plan to raise Shasta Dam, which would inundate protected salmon habitat on the McCloud River.

With all that going on — in addition to the ongoing battle against the Delta tunnel — environmentalists are compelled to prioritize their efforts. And San Luis, a vital cog in the state’s conveyance system already in operation, ranks at the bottom.

“Those other projects are taking out beautiful portions of God’s green earth where San Luis Reservoir would essentially extend the bathtub ring around an existing 2 million acre-foot reservoir,” Stork said.

“So, yeah, that’s not so good. But if you’re up to your neck in alligators, some alligators are more important than others.”

‘The least worst thing’

Osha Meserve, an environmental lawyer who is among the coalition opposed to the expansion of Pacheco Reservoir by the Santa Clara Valley Water District, which receives drinking water from San Luis Reservoir, called the San Luis dam raise “the least worst thing” among all the storage projects currently planned in California.

“There’s so many destructive water infrastructure projects being proposed right now that I think people are having to prioritize the ones that they believe are the most damaging to the environment and are the worst investments of public funds,” Meserve said.

San Luis Reservoir doesn’t rise to that level, Meserve added, because one can argue the worst environmental damage occurred during its original construction. Also, the federal government is largely footing the bill.

The fact that the 10-foot capacity raise and the 10-foot seismic raise were submitted as individual projects has also added to the general confusion. Despite that, mitigation measures included in the Sisk Dam Raise and Reservoir Expansion Project essentially mirror those submitted for the seismic work. On top of that, the public comment period occurred in August 2020 during the height of the pandemic.

Only four letters not written by government agencies or water districts are included in the final Environmental Impact Report. Three were submitted from local farmers in support of more storage.

“They did it in pieces so you can’t see the entire project, and they did that at a time when public input was spotty,” said Patricia Schifferle, director of the water consulting firm Pacific Advocates. “It was designed to make sure the public doesn’t comment. That was the intentional process.”

Construction on the earth dam that contains the largest offstream reservoir in the United States will continue another seven years, at least. After which it’ll be structurally safer and 6.5% larger.

CARMEL-BY-THE-SEA, Calif. — No one in this wealthy California community known for its white-sand beaches and storybook charm has a street address. But unlike the houses in Carmel-By-The-Sea, those days may soon be numbered.

After more than a century of address-free living, this seaside tourist destination where Clint Eastwood once presided as mayor is moving ahead with a plan to assign street numbers to homes and businesses.

Many long-time residents aren’t happy about it.

The city’s residents and visitors must navigate a woodsy, 1-square-mile (2.5-square-kilometer) landscape where houses, stores, restaurants and other buildings don’t have numbers. It’s even more difficult at night because the town has few street lights.

When asked for their address, residents describe their homes’ color or style, nearby landmarks like cypress trees and fire hydrants or their location relative to the nearest cross street. Many houses have signs with whimsical names like Neverland, Dreamcatcher and Pinch Me or descriptors such as “San Antonio 3 SE of 9th.”

There is no mail delivery service, so residents must pick up up their mail at the U.S. post office, the only building with an official address.

But street addresses may finally be coming to this coastal city of 3,300 residents, about 120 miles (193 kilometers) south of San Francisco. In July, the city council voted 3-2 to move forward with a plan to issue street numbers.

“When emergency crews are responding, particularly at night, it’s very difficult to count houses in order to find the right house,” Councilmember Karen Ferlito said, noting the city has an aging population. “Sometimes they go to the wrong house and that wastes precious time.”

Residents complain that many government agencies and businesses require physical address for service. They say delivery and taxi drivers can’t find their homes and often drop off packages and food orders at the wrong house.

“We’ve had flowers delivered that were useless. We’ve had fruit baskets delivered when my dad died that were six weeks old,” said Betty Kullas, who moved to Carmel 15 years ago. “Sometimes if you know it’s been delivered somewhere, you have to go out with a flashlight at night, going house to house to see if you can find it.”

Kullas said her husband’s $13,000 medication never arrived, and having it delivered to the post office won’t work because it requires refrigeration. It was a struggle to get water, electricity and cable service without a physical address.

But many don’t see the need for street addresses, even in modern times when people increasingly use their addresses to shop online and get important legal documents.

“I was born in Carmel 67 years ago. I grew up with no street addresses, and it’s just something you’re used to,” life-long resident Grant Johnson said outside the post office. “That’s one of the charms of Carmel. It’s one of the stories we get to tell.”

Those opposed include the mayor, who voted against the measure.

“If it’s not broke, don’t fix it,” Mayor Dave Potter said during an interview at his home. “I just don’t think it’s necessary. I mean, honestly, we’ve lived this way for 100 years. We don’t need them.”

The issue of street addresses has generated controversy in Carmel since its founding in 1916, often pitting business owners against residents intent on preserving the character, culture and village charm.

City officials passed an ordinance requiring house numbering in 1926, but preservation-minded residents fought back. Three years later, the city passed an ordinance to keep Carmel’s residential streets free of sidewalks, street lights, neon signs, high-rise buildings, mailboxes. It also prohibited street addresses.

In 1953, Carmel threatened to secede from California over proposed state legislation requiring house numbers. The bill didn’t pass.

The issue reemerged as a hot-button issue during the pandemic, when in-person interactions were curtailed and more residents wanted to have packages and meals delivered to their homes.

Local law enforcement and fire officials spoke out in support of addresses at the July 9 council meeting, noting the lack of street numbers violates fire and building codes.

Potter dismissed the safety concerns, pointing out that local emergency service providers have detailed knowledge of the town and can respond within a few minutes.

Some longtime residents worry street numbers will take away from Carmel’s quaintness.

“I’ve lived here so long, I’ve kind of forgotten what it’s like to have mail delivered, so it doesn’t bother me,” resident Virginia Crapo said. “I think it’s more communal when you have to come down to the post office to get your mail because you can see your neighbors.”

Even after homes receive street addresses, the post office will remain open and there will be no delivery mail service to residences, Ferlito said.

After the council vote, the city staff was directed to develop a numbering plan that must be approved by the U.S. Postal Service.

But the story isn’t over. In November, residents will vote for city councilmembers and a mayor who will determine the fate of whether to issue addresses to residents.

“This is a very political issue, and I don’t know what will happen after the election, but I hope that the new council will continue to stay the course,” said Councilmember Jeff Baron, who is running for mayor and voted for street addresses.

Others agree it’s time to join the modern world.

“I don’t think street numbers will ruin the charm,” said part-time resident Bruce Edwards, who was picking up mail from his post office box. “I’m in favor of it because of delivery issues. Uber will work better. The ambulances will be able to find us when I have a heart attack. And my UPS driver will be able to deliver my books.”