Parents Demand Answers on 'Missing' Daughter Found Years Ago

Crissita Cage-Toaster's body was found in March 2010; her parents just found out last month
By Arden Dier,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 31, 2017 9:30 AM CDT
'Missing' Woman Found Dead Nearly 8 Years Ago
Fishermen cast their lines in the Detroit River as an iron ore freighter travels through the fog on April 11, 2016, in Detroit.   (AP Photo/Carlos Osorio)

Almost eight years after their daughter's car was found abandoned in Detroit, a Georgia couple held out hope that the missing woman would be found alive. It was hope that should've been dashed within months. The body of Crissita Cage-Toaster was pulled from the Detroit River in March 2010, five months after the 28-year-old vanished, per the AP. But though the woman was black, Detroit police and the coroner determined her body belonged to a white or Hispanic woman. It was labeled "Jane Doe 10-3047," held in a coroner's cooler for a year, then buried with other unidentified remains in an unmarked cemetery grave, a cause of death never established, reports MLive.

Rosita Cage-Toaster, 58, and her husband, Johnny Toaster, 64, say authorities only informed them of "a mix-up" a month ago, a few months after the couple asked a missing-persons group for help in the case, per WXYZ. Police now say months in the river had affected their daughter's complexion, but the couple wonders how a large tattoo of a red rose on their daughter's right shoulder wasn't a clear giveaway. "I kept telling them to focus on that tattoo," says Cage-Toaster, per MLive. "You could give this to an elementary school student and they could figure out the puzzle." The pair—who say personal items found in their daughter's car were apparently thrown out—say their daughter's body will be exhumed and they'll figure out where they want to bury her. A memorial service is scheduled for Saturday. (More Detroit stories.)

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