Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

Jack James Kroecker Jr. was born on May 1, 1945, and grew up in Parma, OH. His father, Jack James Kroecker Sr, was the vice president of Permold Inc, an aluminum foundry in Medina, OH.  In 1963 Jack graduated from Parma High School, where he was a district wrestling champion. He then completed three years as a mathematics major at the University of Dayton before being drafted into the US Army in May 1968.  He graduated first in his class at Army Finance School at Ft Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, IN and took basic training at Fort Knox, KY. At the time of his death he was working in the finance section of Fort Carson in Colorado.  Photo from FindAGrave. Jack, 23, spent Christmas Eve 1968 celebrating the holiday with a fellow soldier in downtown Colorado Springs, El Paso County, CO. They had driven there from Ft Carson in the friend's car. Jack was wearing civilian clothes.  At about midnight on Wednesday, December 25, 1968, Jack returned to his friend's car and l...

At the time of her death, Ollie George, 19, was a student at American River College. Her father, Rev. C.D. George, was the minister of the Church of God in Christ. She had two younger sisters and an older brother.   Ollie left her home at 75 Butterworth Ave in North Sacramento at about 4:00pm on Monday, February 23, 1976 to buy some nylons at a shopping center in Sacramento. She was then seen by two clerks at the Safeway Store she had driven to.  Photo from FindAGrave. At about 5:30pm, Ollie called her mother to say that the car she borrowed from her brother wouldn't start. An employee at a nearby McDonald's reportedly saw Ollie some time after he started his shift at 5pm.  At about 6:00pm, Ollie's 17-year-old sister, Laurenda, and her brother's girlfriend, Beata, went to go help Ollie, but when they arrived 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 M...

On Sunday, August 24, 1980, a teenager discovered the remains of a girl in the Montecito Hills Regional Park at Griffin and Montecito in East Los Angeles. The teenager did not report the body to the police until six days later. At 10:00am on Saturday, August 30, 1980, the LA County Sheriff's Department (LASD) located the mummified remains where the teenager had indicated, on the ground at the base of a ravine in a remote, fairly inaccessible wooded area of steep hills and dense foliage 0.25mi east of the 110 Freeway. According to the Doe Network, it was determined that Jane Doe had been murdered, and that she was killed at the location where she was found. All parts were recovered. The decedent's face was not recognizable due to mummification, and there are no reconstructions available of her. It is believed that Jane Doe had died the same year that she was found. Her unidentified wiki page states that the PMI was weeks to months. The information provided by the website of the ...

At the time of his death, Everett Lloyd Bradley, a 19-year-old Black man, was employed as a cook. At either 7:00 or 7:41pm on Friday, February 1, 1974, Everett's wife Emma and her mother-in-law  — Everett's mother, Rosa  — returned to the couple's home at 80 West Point Rd in San Francisco. Emma had been in the hospital, and had not seen Everett since Wednesday, January 30. Upon returning home, Emma and Rosa discovered Everett's body sprawled behind a couch in the living room. He had been stabbed several times in the back. According to investigators, there was evidence of a violent struggle in the front room of the house. While newspapers don't state when he was last seen by anyone other than Emma, his death date is listed as February 1st on all records and clippings that I could find, so it seems that it is believed that he died on the same day that he was found. Everett Lloyd Bradley was born in Jefferson County, TX on September 2, 1954 to parents Robert Lee Bradle...

Adam Ashley and his twin brother Marc Ashley were born in Palm Springs, Riverside County, CA on May 18, 1964. They have a sister named Terri who is one year older than them. Their father Arthur was killed in a plane crash in March 1968, and afterward their mother Martha struggled to care for her three young children alone. The brothers, "grew up surfing and skateboarding in the beachside community of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, near San Diego." Adam was a good-natured person who "knew how to relate to other people." He had a good sense of humor and was athletic and musical.  By the time they were teenagers, both twins began to drink alcohol and smoke marijuana. Adam is said to have had anger issues, and would become violent during fights with his siblings. Adam Ashley. Photo from the City of San Diego Cold Cases page. In fall 1978 the twins began their freshman year at San Dieguito High School, and the family attended counseling. However, Adam still needed additional suppor...

Barbara Nantais. Photo from FindAGrave. On the weekend of Saturday, August 12, 1978, Barbara Jane Nantais's parents Ralph and Judy left San Diego to visit friends. A family friend was looking after Barbara and her three siblings. Practically as soon as Ralph and Judy left, Barbara, 15, and her boyfriend Jim, 17, as well as friend Rick Selga and his girlfriend, got together and drove to Torrey Pines State Beach, where they all hung out together. The Perseid meteor shower was visible in San Diego after dusk. Around 9:30pm the friends called it a night. Rick and his girlfriend decided to sleep in the station wagon that they had driven, while Jim and Barbara went down to the beach for some privacy. They zipped their sleeping bags together, crawled in them, had sex, and then went to sleep. Barbara was lying in Jim's arms when they fell asleep. The next morning, Jim woke up cold and alone, covered in blood. Blinded by blood and disoriented, he had to feel his way along a fence up the...