Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

Lynn Ruth Connes, 20, was from North Carolina. At some point seemingly after high school she left her mother and younger brother, Lee, to move to California, where she could foster her artistry. According to Lee, he always looked up to his older sister, who he described as loving, passionate, and naturally talented. At the time of her disappearance Lynn lived in an apartment at 2817 Regent St in Berkeley, Alameda County, CA and worked part-time as a telephone solicitor in Marin County. Lynn had recently advertised for employment as a photographer's model in the newspaper The Berkeley Barb , and a man who identified himself as "Jeff" called her, answering her ad. They agreed to meet at the Bateau Ivre Restaurant at 2629 Telegraph Ave, four blocks from Lynn's home. Photo from NamUs. On Thursday, May 20, 1976, Lynn was last seen at her residence, which she then left to meet with "Jeff." This is considered the last definitive sighting of Lynn. An unidentified wa...

Background  Rosa Linda Zuniga was born on January 22, 1953 in San Antonio, TX, the oldest of four children born to parents Leonardo Cortez Zuniga and Maria Yrenia "Irene" Cantu. Her first name(s) may have been Rosalinda or Rosalind; I am using the most common version I could find, which was also used in the TX birth index on Ancestry. According to Rosa Linda's friend Ellen, she may have also gone by the nickname Rosie. Both sides of the Mexican-American family had deep roots in Texas, spanning all the way back to when the land was still a part of the Republic of Mexico. By 1959, the Zuniga family moved to Watsonville, Santa Cruz County, CA. The parents split up sometime afterward, with Leonardo moving to Ohio and all four children living with their mother. Soon afterward Irene remarried to a man named Jose "Joe" Gamez (occasionally misspelled as Gomez). Photo courtesy of Ellen [last name withheld for privacy]. Accessed from FindAGrave. Rosa Linda graduated from ...

Patricia Ann Tigard was born in Sacramento, CA on February 15, 1958 to parents Mary Eleanor Bergman (nee Canon) and Beverley Finley Tigard. It was both of the parents' second marriages. Eleanor (who went by her middle name) and Beverley separated by 1961, when Patricia was three years old; that same year Beverley married a woman named Virginia Pirrone/Garcia. He also possibly remarried in 1968, then yet again to a woman named Bertie Frye in 1975. In October 1970 Patricia's mother Eleanor died in a car crash in Medford, Jackson County, OR. After her mother's death, Patricia, 12, moved in with her maternal grandfather, William Canon, in Klamath, Del Norte County, CA. Patricia, who also went by the name Patti, eventually attended Del Norte High School in Crescent City, Del Norte County before reportedly transferring to the American Legion High School in Sacramento in 1975. She seems to have eventually returned to Del Norte County, and has been listed among decease...

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...

Deana and an older girl, Tonna, were adopted from an orphanage in Hong Kong by their (white) foster father Dean Hooper in 1966; because of this, Deana and Tonna regarded each other as sisters. Deana, her adoptive parents, her older sister, and a brother lived together in Sonoma. Eventually her sister became married and moved to Vallejo, Solano County, CA. Deana lived in Yountville at the time with her family. Photo from the March 13, 1975 edition of the  Vallejo Times-Herald . Edited by me for clarity.   At the time of her death, Deana, 18, was staying with her older sister, Mrs Tonna Albright, who lived at 901 Georgia St in Vallejo. According to the missing person's report filed by Tonna on July 15, 1974, on Monday, July 11th, she and Deana had attended a party at the Enlisted Men's Club on Mare Island, and when it came time to go home, Tonna couldn't find Deana. That was the last time she was seen. When Deana did not return home following the party, Tonna called their fat...

In early 1969 twelve-year-old Deborah Lee "Debbie" Shelton was living in Aptos, Santa Cruz County, CA with her mother Marcia, 28, and sisters Victoria, 11, and Melissa, 6. They had moved to the Rio del Mar area of the county from Los Gatos, Santa Clara County, CA about a year earlier. Her father, James Vern Shelton, was killed in a car accident at the age of 28 in 1966. Aptos is an unincorporated town in Santa Cruz County, CA. According to Wikipedia, it consists of several different small villages, including Rio del Mar, where Debbie's family lived, and nearby Aptos Village. The villages that comprise Aptos presently have a combined population of 24,402, with Rio del Mar itself consisting of 9,128 of that number. Debbie was born on July 25, 1956. She  reportedly visited her paternal grandparents in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, CA often, and had made several friends her age in the Santa Rosa area. Debbie was a seventh grader at Aptos Junior High who was on winter break at...