Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

The NamUs profile of Josephine County John Doe 1978 was removed on March 6, 2026, indicating that he had been identified. On  March 24, 2026 it was announced that  John Doe has officially been identified as Mark Smith , who had been missing since 1974. Close-up of Mark Smith from a photo taken at his sister's wedding in September 1973. Image from the Unidentified wiki and other sources. Mark was born on October 4, 1954. Sometime before his birthday in 1974, when he was 19 years old, Mark left his home in the city of Billings, Yellowstone County, Montana, having told his family that he intended to travel. He was never seen or heard from again.  It seems that he had never been reported missing. DNA research began on Josephine County John Doe 1978 in 2020, with investigative genetic genealogy being used starting in 2023. In 2025, researchers were able to identify a specific family line in John Doe's tree, for which one of the siblings, "appeared to have disappeared from rec...

On Sunday, September 3, 1978, a jogger discovered human remains while running in the Santa Monica Mountains in Calabasas Highlands in Calabasas, LA County, CA. The body was found down a hillside and covered with plastic trash bags. The remains were found within the Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area, which was established two months after the discovery of the body. The unidentified person, who was determined to be a woman, was originally listed as being found in Thousand Oaks by NamUs, and is therefore often called Thousand Oaks Jane Doe 1978 online. However, Thousand Oaks is located in Ventura County, CA, but it has been known since the beginning that Jane Doe was actually found in Los Angeles County. In about 2019 her NamUs page was updated, with the location of her remains now being the community of Calabasas Highlands in Calabasas, LA County, CA. Her case is being investigated by the LA County Medical Examiner's Office (LACME). All parts of the remains were recover...

At roughly 4:45pm on Sunday, October 8, 1978, a man from Boron, Kern County, CA was searching in the high desert two miles west of Kramer Junction, San Bernardino County, CA — located at the intersection of Highways 58 and 395 — for a part of his camper that he had lost earlier in the day when he discovered human remains half-buried in sand.  The man first notified Kern County authorities, who then reported the discovery to the San Bernardino County Sheriff's Department shortly before 5:00pm, as the corpse was found about 2.5 mi east of the Kern County line. The specific location was 0.75 mi south of State Highway 58, and about twenty miles from the incorporated community of Hinkley; because of this, the body, that of a male, became known as Hinkley John Doe 1978. The sheriff's department also designated him "John Doe #14-78." According to one newspaper source, "Detective Rod Conder from the Barstow [sheriff's] office was assigned, and with homicide investiga...

UPDATE: Josephine County John Doe's NamUs page was removed on March 6, 2026, indicating that he has been identified. For more details, a full update can be found here .   On Tuesday, May 9, 1978, a crew working for a logging company was in the area of Holcomb Peak in Josephine County, OR, near the town of Williams in the same county. There they discovered partial human remains, including a skull and other bones in a wooded area. One or more limbs, as well as one or more hands, were not recovered. The remains were not recognizable, as they were partial skeletal parts only. Because of this, many things such as hair color, height, weight, and eye color could not be determined. Officers from the Josephine County Sheriff's Office, as well as search and rescue teams, scoured the area around the discovery site, "for clues to the identity of the victim and the cause of death." Despite this, no clues were found, and the cause of death is still undetermined.  According to c...

On Saturday, January 7, 1978, human remains of a female were found by a hiker in a rugged area of the Antelope Valley in LA County, 0.5mi from the nearest road. According to previous postings of database entries to WebSleuths from 2016, Jane Doe may have been found in a canyon wash "at Rock Formations 150th Street East & Avenue P-8" in Palmdale, LA County, CA.  The website of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office (LACME) states that Jane Doe had been dead for less than one year. According to NamUs, her estimated year of death is 1978; considering the fact that she was found on January 7th of that year, this could be incorrect, or she had been killed only a few days before she was found. Jane Doe's remains were decomposed, and were unrecognizable at the time of discovery. The body's condition was partial remains with soft tissues. One or both limbs, as well as one or both hands, were not recovered. Jane Doe's COD is unknown, though her death is b...

Elizabeth seems to have been born Elizabeth Mary Underwood on March 21, 1942. At some point she married a man named Rodney B Winn; the pair divorced in November 1970 in Ventura County, CA. Elizabeth then remarried to a 25-year-old man named Robert N Byron in the same county on March 10, 1973; they had applied for/been granted their marriage license in late December of the previous year. Photo from NamUs. Some records on Ancestry give her first name as Mary and her middle name as Elizabeth rather than vice versa. At the time of her disappearance, Elizabeth's surname was Byron, though she may also use the surnames Winn or Underwood. Elizabeth was 36 years old when she was last seen at her home in Oxnard, Ventura County sometime in May 1978. The exact date of her disappearance is unknown. Very few details are available in her case. Based on the lack of information, including the uncertainty of the date of disappearance, it seems possible to me that Elizabeth was not reported missing u...

Connie Gail Minchaca, 17, was last seen either at her home in Napa, CA, or in the late afternoon on Friday, June 9, 1978 after a family friend drove her to a western clothing store where she was supposed to meet a friend. She planned to attend a party the night she disappeared, though friends claim that she never arrived to the party. All of her personal belongings were left behind at the home she shared with her father. Her father, Wesley R Faulk, is listed as living at 2280 Brown St, Apt 9, in Napa, CA in the city directories for 1977, 1978, and 1979. Photo from NamUs. At the time of her disappearance, Connie was "dating" a 25-year-old man, and her family did not approve of the situation. She was having problems with her family as a result. She would often sneak out of her bedroom window at night to meet with the man. Every time that her room was discovered empty, her family would call the police, and officers would pick Connie up while en route to her boyfriend's house...

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, but it seems that she is believed to have been the victim of a homicide. 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 a...

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, as it is not stated by the LA County Medical Examiner's Office (LACME) on their website.    According to the LA County Sheriff's Department (LASD), 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's death is being investigated as a homicide. Reconstruction of Jane Doe from NCMEC. Jane Doe was 14 to 20 years old, 5'1 to 5'3 (estimated)...

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 Sunday, August 13, 1978, the decomposed and/or mummified body of a white woman was found by hikers under a large bush on a ridge, 0.5mi south of Forest Lawn Drive and 1.0mi east of Barham Blvd in LA. Her head was resting on a brown tote bag. Inside the bag was a packet of birth control pills with fifteen pills left. Her cause of death is unknown, though it is estimated that she had died in 1978, the same year she was found. Jane Doe was a 30-45 year old white woman. At the time that she was found, she measured in at 5'2 and 85 lbs. She had brown hair, as well as a possible scar "on the lower abdominal and right quadrant." Jane Doe was wearing a multicolored sweater, a beige sweater, tan pants, a white bra, and brown shoes. Also on the body was her brown shoulder strap tote bag containing the birth control pills; a brown coin purse; and a Shriek Alarm brand anti-rape defense device. Jane Doe has zero MP exclusions on NamUs. Her fingerprints and dental records are not av...

At about 11:00am on Tuesday, February 14, 1978, the remains of a recently deceased white female were found next to the pavement of Proctor Valley Rd in the rural area of Otay, San Diego County, CA, near the San Miguel Ranch area of Chula Vista. It is believed that Jane Doe had been deceased for about two days, though a newspaper at the time said three to five days. Combined, these ranges indicate that Jane Doe likely died anywhere between Thursday, February 9th to Sunday, February 12, 1978, inclusive.  Reconstruction of Jane Doe created by NCMEC. Uploaded to and accessed from NamUs in July 2025.   While her COD is officially undetermined, Jane Doe had a dangerous amount of Meperidine in her system, which was ruled the likely cause of her death. According to Google, Meperidine is an opioid used to treat moderate to severe pain, with a high risk for addiction and dependence. It can cause respiratory distress or even death when taken in high doses or when combined with other subs...

On Wednesday, March 1, 1978, Delta-Mendota Canal personnel discovered the remains of a young female lying face-down on the side of Mountain House Rd, near mile marker 3.40, in Livermore, Alameda County, CA,  near the San Joaquin County line. Her lower torso, still clothed, was mummified, while her skull, collarbone, and some ribs were skeletal. Her arms and hands were not present, having been carried away by animals. Jane Doe had been shot in the head with what was believed to be a .357 caliber magnum slug. A towel still wrapped around her neck indicated that she had also been strangled. She was the victim of a homicide, and had died some months prior to being found, sometime in 1977 or 1978. One contemporary clipping specified that she had been dead for two to three months, putting her death at approximately December 1977 to January 1978. Based on the angle of the bullet's trajectory, which traveled from right to left, it is believed that Jane Doe was sitting up when shot. Investi...