Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

Mona Jean Gallegos was likely born in 1952 or 1953. She went by the nickname "Tuni" among family, and she had five siblings, two sisters and three brothers. Having previously lived in Colorado, the Gallegos family moved to southern CA in 1968; Mona attended Wilson High School in LA. In 1971 the family returned to CO, which is where Mona graduated from high school that same year. The Gallegos family eventually moved back to southern CA, where they lived at 4944 Vincent Ave in Covina, LA County, CA. Mona briefly attended Mt San Antonio College, then decided to go to work full time; she was a seamstress for awhile, then got a job as a waitress. For the last six months before her disappearance, Mona had been a waitress at Coffee Dan's in West Covina. She had reportedly planned to enroll again at Mt SAC in the fall, "probably to prepare for a career in social work." At the time of her disappearance Mona, 22, lived at 4944 Vincent Ave with her mother, Alice Gallegos, ...

Lynn Mueller, 21, was found dead in her bedroom by her husband Mike, 27, at their house at 880 E Main St in Ventura, Ventura County, CA on Friday, May 30, 1975. That day Mike had taken Lynn to the dentist because she had a toothache. Once they got back to their home, Mike made Lynn some soup, then left for his job on the night shift at an oil refinery "off the Rincon." Photo from the City of Ventura Cold Case Investigations page. Lynn, who was devoutly religious, went next door to a service at a Pentecostal church on Kalorama and Main St that evening. Other churchgoers stated that they last saw her at church  at 9:30pm . After returning home, Lynn called Mike at work and chatted with him for about 15min. A neighbor then reported seeing Lynn speaking with a man on her porch at approximately 10:00pm. The man was described as light haired and wearing a short jacket, perhaps a uniform jacket. The witness description matched that of a man who had argued with Lynn regarding religio...

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...

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 1st, WebSleuths states Tuesday, November 11th, and the National Park Service states Sunday, November 30th. 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, ...

On Saturday, October 4, 1975, the body of an unidentified man was discovered in the All-American Canal in Mecca, Riverside County, CA. He had been killed from a blow to the head before a rope connected to a piece of iron (used as a weight) was tied around his neck; his body was then placed in the canal. It is believed that he died three to seven days before he was found, meaning his estimated DOD is somewhere between Saturday, September 27th and Wednesday, October 1, 1975, inclusive. The canal is controlled with a series of gates, and the distance to the last gate was about 8mi into the rural community of Mecca. The body was found face-down in the canal at the last gate. While all parts were recovered, his remains were not recognizable due to decomposition. John Doe was an 18-25 year old white and/or Hispanic male. He had straight, medium-length dark brown hair, with no facial hair. His eye color is unknown. John Doe was measured as being 6'0 and about 185 lbs. He was wearing blue ...

Larry Dean Williams was born on March 5, 1959. Very little is known about him or his case. Larry’s date of disappearance is uncertain: some sources — Doe Network and NamUs — state that it was Tuesday, July 1, 1975, while all others state that it was Saturday, January 25, 1975; NamUs and DN both also mention his DLC as January 25. If Larry did in fact go missing in January, then he was 15 years old at the time; if in July, then he was 16. Photo from NamUs. On the date of his disappearance, Larry was last seen leaving his home in Long Beach, LA County, CA, to go to the beach. He frequently hitchhiked between Long Beach and Seal Beach, Orange County, CA. He has never been heard from again. Larry may go by the nickname Rabbit. He has blonde hair and brown eyes, and at the time of his disappearance he was 4’9 and 80 - 90 lbs. He has a chipped front tooth, as well as a hernia scar on his abdomen. Larry also has a burn scar on the crown of his head. It is unknown what he was wearing at the ti...

At about 4pm on Saturday, August 23, 1975, a hiker named Charles Jones discovered the body of a woman just inside the entrance to the Lake Anza area in Tilden Regional Park, about 20 ft from an auxiliary parking lot. The woman was lying on her side in the bushes along a pathway in the park in Orinda, Contra Costa County, CA. Charles Jones then notified the East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD) police of the discovery. Detectives arrived at the scene at about 4:30pm. The young woman had been killed by blunt force injury to the head; she was beaten to death, with her skull being crushed. In 2006 Detective Sgt. Dale Davidson said of Jane Doe, "She was hit with something very hard." It was determined that she was murdered at another location than where she was found. Jane Doe's face was recognizable, and a reconstruction is available on both databases below. Her death is estimated to have occurred about four to seven days before discovery, though NamUs simply states the es...

On Wednesday, July 30, 1975, a tractor driver was using a scraper to clear underbrush and weeds for a fence west of Gardner's Cove in Modesto, Stanislaus County, CA, when he noticed a bit of clothing among the debris he was clearing off. Upon closer inspection, he realized that there were human bones inside the clothing. Authorities were promptly notified, and investigation of the area continued up to at least August 1st to search for more remains. Newspapers reported that the bones, "have been found scattered over an area about seven yards square. Some remains were moved by the tractor driver and his scraper Wednesday as he cleared a path for workmen to build a fence. Others were found when the detectives and inmates — ["a work crew of five men from the Stanislaus County Honor Farm"] — unearthed them with shovels. Others may have been carried off by animals or fallen in the river, and may never be found." Only partial skeletal remains, including "an arm bo...

Lorelee Lhotka was last seen in Seattle, Washington sometime in 1975. Both the Charley Project and some other secondary sources state that the specific date of Lorelee’s disappearance is unknown, while all other databases give her date of last contact as January 1, 1975, likely as a placeholder. She most likely went missing on Friday, January 3, 1975. Lorelee was reportedly last seen leaving home to go to a doctor’s appointment. While she was supposed to take the bus to the appointment, she was also known to hitchhike in order to get around, and may have hitchhiked instead of taking the bus. According to the Charley Project, Lorelee never arrived at the doctor’s office and has never been heard from again. Lorelee’s wallet was found at Blewitt Pass in the Wenatchee National Forest in Washington state in 1978. The circumstances of this discovery are not given beyond that, and there are no newspaper reports whatsoever regarding Lorelee, her wallet, or her disappearance. Few details are av...

Born Donna JoAnn Gardner on May 31, 1958 to parents Richard and Betty, Donna had two older siblings — a sister and a brother — and two younger sisters, Reba (b1959) and Anna (b1962). I couldn't really find anything about what kind of person Donna was, but from what I can glean, she seemed to be a fun and loving young woman. She had long blonde hair, and from the descriptions given of her, was quite stylish. She didn't have a criminal record, and her only brush with the law had been when she was picked up for being a juvenile in possession of alcohol. On April 26, 1974 in Reno, Nevada, Donna married Leonard Monroe Peeples, who was born January 9 1958 in Stanislaus County, CA. I cannot find very much about Leonard in the newspapers from before their marriage, other than that he was injured in two separate car accidents, both of which he was not at fault for. Together, Donna and Leonard had one daughter, April, who was born in late November 1974 in Modesto City Hospital. By July 1...