In 2020, someone found human remains in the crawl space under a cabin in Big Bear Lake, California. For years, nobody knew who it was.

Now the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department says it knows. The remains belong to Jill Maiorca. She went missing from Big Bear Lake in 2007. She was 29 when she was killed, investigators say.

Her former husband, Jeff Maiorca, 53, is now charged with her murder.

A crawl space is the low, tight space under a house. It sits between the ground and the floor.

Here is how the case came together, the sheriff's department says.

On Oct. 28, 2020, deputies got a call about "a suspicious discovery in the crawlspace" under a home. Deputies and firefighters went there. They found human remains.

An autopsy found that the person had been killed. An autopsy is an exam of a body to learn how a person died. But early DNA tests could not tell who it was.

The remains were hidden there without the homeowner knowing, the sheriff's department says.

In 2023, the cold case team took over. A cold case is an old case that was never solved. The team sent the remains for more DNA testing.

The DNA showed the remains were Jill Maiorca's.

"Through DNA analysis, we were able to determine it was Jill," Sheriff Shannon Dicus said.

Investigators now believe Jill was killed in November 2006. She was not reported missing until 2007.

Cold case detectives named Jeff Maiorca as a suspect.

Court records show he filed for divorce from Jill in 2004.

Deputies arrested him on Monday, Sept. 21. Arrest records show they picked him up at the Big Bear Lake branch library.

He is charged with murder. Prosecutors also say he used a deadly weapon.

He is in the High Desert jail in Adelanto, California. He is being held without bail. That means he cannot pay to get out.

Investigators have not said why they think she was killed. The sheriff has not said how Jill's remains got under that cabin.

His next court date is set for Oct. 12.

Dicus said the case shows why the cold case team matters. The team started in 2008.

"And I couldn't be more proud," Dicus said.

The sheriff's department asks anyone who knows something to call its homicide team.

Everyone is presumed innocent until proved otherwise.