Forensic pathologists and artists spent the next 24 hours putting together a set of drawings of the victim's face. These were published on 18 December and the police were confident that it would be merely a matter of time before the victim's identity was established. In actual fact it took almost four years before a positive identification was made. This was in spite of the fact that the victim's daughter, Catherine Cronje, gave the police the correct identification of the victim (Mrs Catherine Burch) and was certain that the victim was her mother. However, her family and fiancé talked her out of visiting the mortuary. Almost a year later an inquest was held in Boksburg, where the verdict was given as 'death unascertained'. The remains were buried in a pauper's grave. In August 1968, Catherine (now Mrs van Coppenhagen) decided that she would wait no longer and told a certain Police Captain, James Beeslaar, of her fears and convictions. He reopened the case and, in particular, started searching for the dead woman's husband, Ronald Burch, who had not been seen for four years.