Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

Thomas Gregory Cristiano was born on December 19, 1950 in Denver, Colorado, where he also spent much of his early childhood. He lived with his parents, Joseph Frank Cristiano and Verna Louise Cristiano (nee Place), and his siblings, David and Virginia. Thomas attended high school in Montrose, Montrose County, CO, where his parents were living at the time of their son's death. Some sources may spell the family's surname as "Christiano." Thomas's father had moved his family to Montrose "to get away from the crime and violence we saw there" in Denver. Thomas, however, eventually went back to Denver to be near a school where he was taking a "correspondence computer course." He  was employed at the Western Drive Inn on East Colfax Avenue in Denver. Thomas also had an interest in art. According to letters written to his family, he had planned to paint a night scene of the State Capitol Building at some point.  Photo from CBI. Late in the evening of F...

Peter Joseph "Pete" Bonick and Richard Nelson "Rick" Lamson are two friends who are believed to have gone missing together on Sunday, February 22, 1970. Despite this, accounts of each boy's disappearance differ both between boys and across sources. Because of this, I will be discussing the circumstances of each one separately. Richard Lamson Photo of Richard Lamson from NamUs. Richard Lamson, 18, was last seen at home in San Mateo, CA on Sunday, February 22, 1970. His friend Peter Bonick disappeared at the same time; authorities believe they left together. Neither of them have ever been seen or heard from again. Very few details are available in his case. According to Ancestry and the City of San Mateo directories from 1969 and 1971, Richard was living with his parents Richard Charles Lamson and Lorraine Lamson (nee Zell) and his older sister Constance, who was a student. Richard's father, Richard Sr, was a field supervisor at San Francisco Naval Shipyard, w...

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...

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. 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 with both feet on the ground. Two electric cords and a white cotton rope, woven together, were around her neck, which had deep rope marks around it. She had several bandaids on her left hand and right leg. There were ...

At about 3:30pm on Monday, December 28, 1970, a hiker named Helmeth Mehden of Yucca Valley discovered a nearly complete skeleton in a mining area 22.5 to 22.7 mi east of the desert city of Twentynine Palms in San Bernardino County, CA. The hiker reported the find to the local substation, and police recovered a skull, backbone, and leg bones of an unidentified person. The remains were sent to Wiefel's Mortuary. Authorities returned to the scene the following day once the sun had risen to make a more complete search of the area. The bones were found about 2.0 to 2.5 mi south of 29 Palms Highway/Highway 52, along Old Ironage Rd. This area is near Old Dale, a ghost town/former mining area. Officials determined that the skeleton had likely been dragged by animals to the spot where it was found from its original burial place about 30 ft away.  Location of Jane Doe's body off of Old Ironage Rd in relation to the original burial place about 30 ft away. Created by me using Google Maps...