Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

On Wednesday, April 19, 1978, the decomposed body of an unidentified man was found floating in the Pacific Ocean "off the northern side and western end of the Santa Monica Pier" in Santa Monica, LA County, CA. The man has never been identified, and is currently known only as Santa Monica John Doe 1978. John Doe was a white adult man believed to be 25 to 40 years old at the time of his death; alternatively, the LA County Medical Examiner's Office (LACME) lists his approximate age as 30 years old. John Doe's height measured in at 5'7" (1.70m), and his weight was estimated to be 160 lbs. His eye color is unknown due to the condition of his remains. When his body was discovered he was wearing only black cut-off corduroy pants and a belt. John Doe had wavy brown hair, as well as a mustache and beard. On NamUs, his head hair is specifically described as "Wavy medium brown hair." The user-based Unidentified wiki interprets this description as meaning that...

On Monday, March 23, 1981, a homeowner was digging a post hole on his property at 5229 Palmer Canyon Rd in Claremont, LA County, CA when he discovered partial skeletal remains with some soft tissue remaining. According to NamUs, the remains consisted of a skull and mandible.   I could not find any newspaper articles mentioning the discovery, and overall there is very little information available in this case. Due to the condition of the remains, the decedent's race/ethnicity, eye color, hair color, height, and weight could not be determined. Their sex was also undetermined until sometime between 2017 and 2020, based on information from NamUs posted to WebSleuths. The skull and mandible are believed to have belonged to a man aged 18 to 34 years old. His year of death is estimated at 1971 to 1981. His cause of death, if determined, has not been released to the public. There were no clothing items or pieces of jewelry found with the decedent.  John Doe's NamUs case, #UP4346,...

Note: While this write-up was originally published on July 29, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, check for updates, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc., and then make note of when I last did so, no matter how minor. When updates are extensive or significant, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last edited on February 4, 2026.   On Sunday, October 21, 1979, a motorist named Tony Trudnich became stranded in a rural area of Clark County, NV, somewhat near Las Vegas. He noticed a foul odor and began looking around for the source. There he discovered human remains "wrapped and bound in a sheet," lying partially in a culvert pipe on I-15 near mile marker 61, and/or north of mile marker 60 (according to her 2016 NamUs page), near Apex (a neighborhood of North Las Vegas). The victim's legs were extending outside of the pipe.  The decedent's torso, as well as one or more limbs and one or more hands were not recovered. The remains were not recognizable...

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...

On Saturday, September 20, 1980, a dog discovered a human leg bone in the area of Littlerock, LA County, CA. Investigators were notified, and they soon found a shallow grave on or near Pearblossom Highway.  The Doe Network describes the location of the grave as "on Pearblossom Highway, ½ mile East of Avenue V" in Littlerock. This description, however, is confusing for a few reasons: a) there is no roadway specifically named just "Avenue V" in Littlerock, b) there  is  E Ave V (i.e., East Avenue V), as well as E Ave V-8, E Ave V-9, etc. up to E Ave V-14, and c) all of the E Ave V's run east-to-west, parallel to Pearblossom Highway, so there are no locations where the highway is east  of  any of the avenues. Because of this, I believe the intended meaning of "East of Avenue V" could instead be simply "E Ave V," however which one is intended — as well as its relation to the gravesite — is uncertain on my part. Regarding the shallow grave, the ar...

On Sunday, August 3, 1980, a hiker named John Bryant Collins found human remains in unincorporated San Mateo County, CA. Collins found a skull off of Little Butano Creek Trail, which is a 1.5-mile (one way) trail in Butano State Park. Collins turned the skull over to State Park Ranger Thomas Lindsey, who notified the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office. Investigators from the sheriff's and coroner's offices responded to the scene and recovered the remains, and conducted multiple searches over the following weeks for further bones or evidence.  Twenty to twenty-five additional bones were found by LE after Collins's initial discovery, including teeth, several vertebrae, and "what appear to be arm bones." The remains were not recognizable as a result of consisting of partial skeletal parts only. The unidentified person's torso, as well as one or more limbs and one or both hands, were not recovered. Also listed among the inventory of remains on NamUs is "he...

Note: While this write-up was originally published on August 5, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, check for updates, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc., and then make note of when I last did so, no matter how minor. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last updated on October 19, 2026.    From the Sept. 14, 1977 edition of the  Fremont Argus. Background   Kurt Theodore Kaikinger was born on November 18, 1948 in San Francisco, CA to parents Theodore Joseph Kaikinger and Elaine Barbara Botzer, who had married in April of that year. Theodore's parents were originally from France. Kurt was the oldest of three boys, with his younger brothers Karl and Christian being born in 1950 and 1956, respectively. By 1950 the family was living in Oakland, Alameda County, CA before moving to San Leandro in the same county. Kurt graduated from Pacific High School in San Leandro in 1966.  According to classmates of his, who posted on t...

Note: While this write-up was originally published on June 20, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, fix any typos or formatting errors, check for updates, ensure that I have exhausted all sources, etc., and then make note of when I last did so, no matter how minor. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last updated on January 16, 2026.   Background  Bruce Edward Erickson was born on September 27, 1950 in Minneapolis, MN to parents Edward and Gladys Erickson (nee Endreson). Edward was an immigrant from Sweden. Bruce had two sisters, one older by five years and the other younger by twelve. Their parents eventually divorced, and both remarried by 1967. Gladys moved to Palmyra, WI with her new husband and her youngest daughter. Very little could be found about Bruce, including where he may have gone to school. It seems that he grew up in either Minneapolis or Montrose, Wright County, MN. It is unknown which parent he was living wit...

Ernest Glenn Beight was born on February 10, 1940 in Mahoning County, Ohio. He was living in Arizona by 1965. He married his second wife, Eloise, on July 17, 1968 in Imperial County, California, and together they had one daughter. Ernest worked for American Linen Co at the time of his death. He lived with his wife and daughter at 2206 E 14th Place in Yuma, Yuma County, AZ. Ernest, 28, was in California for an unstated reason on Saturday, December 14, 1968. One of his sisters lived in Napa at the time; it is possible that he had been visiting her, though this is just speculation on my part. At about 12:30am on Sunday, December 15, 1968, Ernest asked a service station attendant in Los Angeles, LA County, CA for directions to Yuma, AZ. Police believe he had been hitchhiking at the time. Approximately fifteen minutes later, at 12:45am, Ernest's body was found on the side of the southbound lane of the Harbor Freeway near the Slauson Ave on-ramp in Los Angeles. He had been shot in the ab...

Early in the evening of Saturday, February 9, 1980, trappers were "setting lines in the brushy growth" along the banks of the Pajaro River when they discovered a human skeleton on the north bank. The body was found near the confluence of the Pajaro and San Benito Rivers, just west — and/or "2000 yards southwest"  — of the US Highway 101 crossing. The trappers called authorities to report the body. Detectives from San Benito County were the first on the scene, which was along the county line; they soon, however, turned the case over to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office, as it was in their jurisdiction, about four miles south of Gilroy, Santa Clara County, CA. The remains were not recognizable, as they consisted of a complete or near-complete skeleton. They were determined to be that of a female. The body had been in the water and/or riverbed for at least a month, i.e., since at least early January 1980; an updated or more specific PMI is not available. Auth...