Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

I am happy to say that Emigrant Gap Jane Doe 1977 has been officially identified through DNA as Melinda "Pip" Beardsley. I have been in contact with a member of Pip's family who had reached out to me, her niece Janet, throughout part of this process, but had been waiting for confirmation from law enforcement before following up on this here on my blog.  Melinda was born in Michigan in 1946, the youngest of six siblings. She was a 31-year-old mother of two at the time of her death; one of her children was adopted out of the family at birth, while the other was in the care of relatives when Melinda disappeared. Melinda was reported missing to the Reno Police Department in November 2025 by two of her nieces and a half-nephew after the latest confirmation of life that they could find was notification of a DUI charge in Reno in December 1976. She was last known to be living in Carson City, NV.  A fingerprint match was made between Melinda and the then-unidentified decedent so...

The NamUs page for Josephine County John Doe 1978 was removed on March 6, 2026, implying that his case has been closed. On March 10, 2026 his Doe Network profile was marked as identified  and moved to the site's closed cases page . While no announcements have yet been made by law enforcement, family members, or the press, it seems that  Josephine County John Doe 1978 has been identified . Furthermore, by March 9, 2026, the NamUs and CA DOJ profiles of James Colin Egan — who reportedly went by his middle name, Colin — were removed. His Doe Network case was subsequently moved to the site's closed cases page on March 12, 2026.  Colin was an 18-year-old white male from Wisconsin. His last contact with family was on August 6, 1972, when he called home to say that he was in San Francisco, CA, and was planning on hitchhiking to Denver, CO then catching a flight back home to Wisconsin.   With these developments in mind, it seems to me as well as users  on Web...