California Cold Cases

Rosa Linda Zuniga was born on January 22, 1953 in San Antonio, TX, the oldest of four children born to parents Leonardo Cortez Zuniga and Maria Yrenia "Irene" Cantu. Her first name(s) may have been Linda Rosa, Rosalinda, or Rosalind; I am using the most common version I could find, which was also used in the TX birth index on Ancestry. Both sides of the Mexican-American family had deep roots in Texas, spanning all the way back to when the land was still a part of the Republic of Mexico. By 1959, the Zuniga family moved to Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, CA. The parents split up sometime afterward, with Leonardo moving to Ohio and all four children living with their mother. Soon afterward Irene remarried to a man named Jose "Joe" Gamez (occasionally misspelled as Gomez). Rosa Linda graduated from Watsonville High School in June 1971. By July of that year she was taking classes at Cabrillo College, a community college in Aptos, Santa Cruz County, while also working as...

On Wednesday, June 21, 1978, the partial skeletal remains of a young female were discovered in Arvin, CA in southern Kern County. The body was discovered in a shallow grave in a grape vineyard after cultivation of the fruit. The condition of the remains was partial skeletal parts only. One or more limbs, as well as one or both hands, were not recovered. It has been estimated that Jane Doe had been dead for three to four months, which would mean her death occurred sometime in about February or March 1978. Jane Doe's COD has not been released and/or is unknown. Reconstruction of Jane Doe from NCMEC. Jane Doe is a white female who is estimated to have been 13 to 24 years old. Her age group on NamUs is classified as Late Teen / Young Adult.  NamUs states that Jane Doe's height and weight could not be estimated; however, according to the Doe Network, she was estimated to be 5'3 to 5'8 tall. Her weight and eye color could not be determined due to the condition of the remains....

Andrew Mantheiy, 16, was last seen on Thursday, May 19, 1977, walking northbound on Interstate 5 in Redding, Shasta County, CA. Photo from NamUs. Andrew was originally from Texas. His mother had passed away in July 1976. Very few details are available in his case. Andrew is a white male with brown hair and blue eyes. At the time of his disappearance he was 16 or 17 years old, 5'9-5'10, and 125 lbs. According to the Charley Project, his date of birth is June 15, 1960. If alive today he would be 64 years old. Andrew's DNA is available for comparison, while his dentals and fingerprints are not. He has 45 UID rule-outs on NamUs, including one found in 1978 that has since been identified as Kenneth Nevada Williams. The other two CA cases were found in the 21st century, and none of the other Does were found in other western states; the majority were discovered in VA. Andrew is classified as Endangered Missing on Charley Project and Doe Network. His NamUs case was created on Febru...

At about 5:30pm on Monday, February 23, 1976, in Sacramento County, 19-year-old Ollie George called her mother to say the car she borrowed from her brother wouldn't start.  Ollie was a student at American River College at the time. She had driven the car to a shopping center in Sacramento to buy some nylons.  An employee at a nearby McDonald's reportedly saw Ollie some time after he started his shift at 5pm. Photo from FindAGrave. A bit after 5:30pm, Ollie's sister, Laurenda, and her brother's girlfriend, Beata, went to go meet Ollie, but she wasn't there. The car was unlocked and the keys were in the ignition. Inside the vehicle were grocery items, nylons, her purse, and a partially eaten McDonald's burger. Witnesses reported seeing Ollie in the driver's seat of a blue car with the hood open, and a Black man working on the engine. One witness reported that they initially thought the man working on the engine was white, but then realized that he was Black. O...

Jacqueline Gasperian, 34, often went by "Lin" or "Lynn" and sometimes used her maiden name, Brandon. She was staying with a friend, Laurie Daniels, in LA on Overland Ave at the time she disappeared. She was last seen in Redondo Beach, LA County, CA in July 1970 and/or sometime in the summer or early autumn months of 1970 (though the majority of sources state July). Photo from NamUs. Jacqueline was reportedly driving Laurie's vehicle when it was then found abandoned on the Santa Monica Freeway. All of Lin's possessions were inside the abandoned car. She has never been seen or heard from since. Lin was born on July 1, 1936. She grew up in foster care, and as an adult she married and had two sons. She and her husband divorced in 1962, when she was 25-6 years old. In January 1970, while she was living in Phoenix, AZ, Lin sent her sons to live with their father in Los Angeles, as she was having trouble finding/maintaining a job. She has ties to Wisconsin, Arizona...

On Thursday, April 20, 1978, the body of a recently deceased Hispanic and/or white girl was discovered buried in a shallow grave in a commercial flower field in the 19300 block of South Wilmington Ave in Carson, LA County, CA.  Jane Doe had died recently enough that same year for her face to still be recognizable. Reconstructions of her, including one done by NCMEC, are posted on official databases.  While her COD and DOD are officially undetermined, the Unidentified wiki lists her COD as beating; it is unknown where this information came from. Reconstruction of Jane Doe from NCMEC. According to the Doe Network and NCMEC, at one point two Hispanic males were seen driving away from the site where the body was found in a 1970 dark blue Vega Hatchback. Jane Doe was 14-20 years old, and 5'1-5'3 (estimated) and 130 lbs (measured). She had brown eyes, a medium complexion, and long, black hair. Her ears had been pierced, though no jewelry was found with her. It is unknown if there wa...

On Sunday, March 16, 1980, the decomposed body of a man was located on the shoulder of Avenue 50 between Polk & Tyler St.s in Coachella, Riverside County, CA. He had multiple gunshot wounds, and had been dead for one to two days, putting his death somewhere between March 14-15, 1980. He was fully dressed, but did not have any identification or personal belongings on him. His page on the Riverside County Sheriff's cold case website specifies that, "It is unknown where death occurred." John Doe was a white man with possible Hispanic ancestry who stood 5'9 tall and weighed 160 lbs. While NamUs and Doe Network put his possible age range at 20-30 years old, Riverside County Sheriff puts him at 20-25 years old. John Doe had light to medium brown hair, medium in length; hazel eyes; a reddish-brown mustache; and a thin reddish-brown goatee. No scars, tattoos, or disfigurements were found. John Doe was wearing brown pants of an unknown type or size, as well as an orange t-...

In the early afternoon of Saturday, May 22, 1971, three youths were out hiking in a rugged area when they discovered partial human skeletal remains in a ravine at the base of a 300ft cliff at/south of the 18900 block of Braemore Rd in an isolated area of Porter Ranch in Northridge. The location of the body is also described as being in/near the Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. One or more of the decedent's limbs were not recovered. Neither the COD nor an estimated DOD/PMI could be determined. However, one contemporary newspaper article stated that Jane Doe was, "believed to have been dead at least three months." A fire had passed through the area in September 1970, and there had been heavy rains as well as an earthquake since that time. Because of this, the skeletal remains — which were determined to be those of a female — may have moved from their original location as a result of these natural events, which also could have affected the availability of any evide...

Essie Hiett, 47, who may use the nicknames Marge or Steele, is officially missing from downtown Oroville, Butte County, CA. She was last seen very early in the morning of Monday, February 13, 1978. At about 1am she left the Card Room at 1949 Montgomery St in Oroville, where she worked as a card dealer. She then went to Rusty Jack's, a bar on Oro Dam Blvd. While there she told friends about how she planned to catch a flight to Seattle that morning, as she and her husband had planned a vacation to visit their children. A friend of hers told LE that Essie had only had one or two drinks before she left Rusty Jack's at about 1:50am. She has never been seen or heard from again. Photo from NamUs. At about 3:30am, 1hr 40min later, a female nurse discovered what was later determined to be Essie's car on the side of Palermo-Honcut Rd, just north of the Honcut city limits, crashed into a guard rail. Soon after, the nurse reportedly was almost run off the road about a mile north of the...

On Saturday, April 28, 1979, the body of a white male was found concealed above the shoulder/near the side of North Meridian Rd in Vacaville, Solano County, CA. All parts were recovered, though his remains were deemed not recognizable due to insect/animal activity. John Doe had suffered a blow to the forehead and a possible fatal laceration of the throat. He is estimated to have died two weeks prior to discovery, putting his date of death at about Saturday, April 14, 1979. The man's death has been considered a homicide from the onset, as his body was deliberately covered with grass. According to NamUs, John Doe was a 35 to 55 year old white male who weighed 185 lbs and is estimated to have been 5'5 to 6'1 tall. However, the bulletin released at the time — which is available in the Documents section of his NamUs profile — states that he was approximately 40 years old, 6'1, and 185-190 lbs. The April 30, 1979 edition of the Vallejo Times-Herald puts him as in his 20s or ...

Kimberly Cozart was born on July 7, 1962. She was last seen sometime in February 1977, meaning that based off of her DOB she would have been 14 years 7 months old. NamUs lists her age as 14 years old at the time of her disappearance. However, all other sources, including the description of circumstances on NamUs, state that she was 15 years old at the time. Kimberly was last known to be living on Banner Grade Road in Julian, San Diego County, CA. She had at least one sister. Kimberly may use the last name Harper. Photo from NamUs, Kimberly is a white female with long, reddish-brown hair and brown eyes. Her height and weight differ across sources: Charley Project says she was 5'3 and 120 lbs, while Doe Network, CA DOJ, the flier provided on NamUs, and the description of circumstances on NamUs all state that she was 5'0 tall and weighed about 100 lbs. In the demographics section of her NamUs page, she is listed as 5'0-5'3 and 100-120 lbs. Both Kimberly and her mother were...

According to both the Doe Network and Charley Project, as well as CA DOJ, Joyce Elizabeth Harper was born on December 9, 1945; based off of this birth date, she would have been about 29-30 years old when she disappeared. However, her age at time of disappearance across both of those sources, plus NamUs is inconsistent: she is described as having been 29 (Charley Project), 31 (DN), or 32 (NamUs). Her date of disappearance, January 1, 1975, is approximated; she was last seen sometime in 1975. She lived in Potrero, San Diego County, CA at the time.  Photo from NamUs. Very few details are available in Joyce's case. She is considered missing under suspicious circumstances, and is listed as Endangered Missing according to Doe Network and Charley Project. Joyce is a white female. She was 5'3 and 120 lbs at the time of her disappearance. She has brown eyes as well as brown hair that was shorter than collar length at the time. Joyce may use the last name Gann, and/or the alias Vivian An...

Patricia Tan, who was also known as Pat, was born on November 4, 1943 in Morris, Illinois, where she also grew up. At the time of her death she was described as "Eurasian": her mother was white, and her father was Indonesian. By early spring 1970, Patricia, 26, was a college student and had been living in California for the past two years. At the time of her death, Patricia Tan, 26, was described as "Eurasian": she was a half white, half Indonesian college student. She was from Morris, IL, but she had been living in CA for the past two years. She had a strong interest in movies, and purportedly may have been trying to break into the Hollywood movie scene. She was very tall, possibly about 6'. Patricia's 1961 Morris Community High School senior yearbook photo. At 2pm on Sunday, April 19, 1970, Patricia's body was found by a man named Thadeius Koslowski in a wooded canyon in the area of Bootjack Camp on Mt Tamalpais. She was found hanging from a tree limb ...

At about 2pm on Sunday, September 7, 1969, three brothers — Charles, Larry, and Phillip Law — were out with their wives and children, hiking, target shooting, and picnicking in the area of Whitaker Peak, approximately 16-19mi south of Gorman and 9-10mi north of Castaic, Los Angeles County, CA. There they found the partial remains with soft tissues of a white female in a shallow grave near Whitaker Peak/Summit, a short distance from the Ridge Route. The area is within the Angeles National Forest, and the grave itself was about one mile off of the old Golden State Highway. The earliest newspaper clipping regarding the discovery noted that, "Deputies at the Newhall Sheriff's Substation said the body was unearthed near a truck trail that may be used to supply a US Forest Service lookout." The brothers had been walking along the trail when they smelled an awful odor. Charles Law looked under the trees and saw what he first thought was a deer. When he got closer, he saw a leg s...

Fred Werm Comstock was 19 years old when he went missing in the fall of 1975. His date of disappearance varies across sources: NamUs states Monday, September 1, WebSleuths states Tuesday, November 11, and the National Park Service states Sunday, November 30. According to WebSleuths, Fred was actually reported missing on November 30th; if this is true, this could explain why the NPS used that as his date of last contact, and would likely mean that he either went missing that day or on November 11th. Photo of Fred from NamUs. All three of these dates do make sense given the time frames, i.e. as possible days to go for a hike: November 30th was a Sunday, and September 1st and November 11th, while weekdays — Monday and Tuesday, respectively — were both federal holidays (Labor Day and Veterans Day, respectively). On the day of his disappearance, Fred was hiking in Yosemite National Park with a female companion and her son whom he had recently met. While at Vogelsang High Sierra Camp, Fred a...