Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

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...

At 2:13pm 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 to 25 year old white and/or Hispanic male, with his estimated age group on NamUs being "Adult - Pre 30." He had straight, medium-length dark brown hair, with no facial hair. His eye color is un...

UPDATE: On April 3, 2026  it was announced that Jane Doe has been identified as Victoria Jean Hargrove.  For more details, a full update can be found here . This post was originally published on Aug. 18, 2025. Aside from this update (in bold), I have not edited the contents in any way since Feb. 16, 2026. This post will remain standing as it is, containing all information about the victim prior to her identification that was known as of Feb. 16, 2026. Furthermore, due  to her identification, some of the links may no longer work or have since been edited to reflect the recent developments. At about 11:00am on Monday, February 18, 1980, three tourists from Canada stopped at a mountain viewpoint on Highway 74 about four to six miles south of Palm Desert, Riverside County, CA. As the tourists peered over a guardrail, they spotted a body either at the bottom of a 20 to 30 ft gully, or about 35 ft down a ravine near a turn-out in the highway. The body was determined to be that ...

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...

Rosa Maria Vasquez was born on August 14, 1952 in Texas. According to one contemporary source, she may have grown up in Albuquerque, New Mexico.  By 1973, Rosa, a 20-year-old Latina woman, was living at 834 Bush St in San Francisco, California along with at least one female roommate. She was working as a keypunch operator at the Letterman General Hospital at the Presidio in San Francisco. Rosa was white and Hispanic. According to one source, at the time of her death she was 4'9 and 106 lbs, with brown eyes, medium-length black hair, and pierced ears. It is unknown what she was wearing when she was last seen alive. Rosa was last seen by her roommate, Frances Almazan, when she left their residence on Saturday, May 26, 1973 for the Memorial Day weekend. One source — an SFPD bulletin published in August of that year — indicated that Rosa was last seen alive on May 28th. Photo from the 1975 CA DOJ report. On the morning of Tuesday, May 29, 1973, the nude body of a young woman was f...

At 11:18am on Sunday, March 16, 1980, the decomposed body of a man was located on the dirt shoulder of Avenue 50 between Polk & Tyler St.s in Coachella, Riverside County, CA. He had multiple gunshot wounds, and had been dead for one to two days, putting his death somewhere between March 14th to 15th, 1980. He was fully dressed, but did not have any identification or personal belongings on him. His page on the Riverside County Sheriff's cold case website specifies that, "It is unknown where death occurred," indicating that he had been killed elsewhere before being dumped at the location where he was found. John Doe was a white man with possible Hispanic ancestry who stood 5'9 tall and weighed 160 lbs. While NamUs and Doe Network put his possible age range at 20 to 30 years old, The Desert Sun  and the Riverside County Sheriff's Office (RCSO) puts him at 20 to 25 years old. His estimated age group on NamUs is "Adult - Pre 30." John Doe had light to med...

UPDATE: It was announced on March 18, 2026 that "Emigrant Gap Jane Doe" has been identified as Melinda "Pip" Beardsley. For more details, a full update can be found here .   At about 4pm on Saturday, December 17, 1977, a married couple walking their dog nearly four miles west of the Highway 20-Interstate 80 interchange, east of Emigrant Gap in the eastern part of Placer County, CA, discovered the recognizable remains of an unidentified woman in a snowbank. They spotted the body about 30 ft off a wide section of Highway 20 and/or approximately 30 ft from a roadway turnout, in Bear Valley near the Nevada County border. Finger marks on the victim's neck indicated that she had been manually strangled. She had apparently also sustained a blow or blows to the head, though the official cause of death was strangulation. Jane Doe was nude when found. She had been dead for two to six days at time of discovery, putting her date of death somewhere between Sunday, December ...

On Saturday, January 15, 1977, three 17-year-old boys — Steven Lawton, of Canoga Park, and Bill Power and Nicholas Schmeets, both of Reseda — were, "coming home from the beach when their car overheated, [so] they stopped to let the engine cool down" near Seminole Hot Springs in either Agoura or Malibu, LA County, CA (sources vary). While waiting for the engine to cool, the three teens hiked around the area where they had stopped, 0.5mi south of Triunfo Canyon Rd and 2mi west of the Ventura Freeway. While hiking they discovered the body of a young man "in some bushes on a hillside" about 50 yds off of Kanan Rd. Lawton, Power, and Schmeets promptly notified authorities, and LA County sheriff's deputies responded to the scene.  At the time of discovery, the remains  were partially skeletonized, with some soft tissues remaining: A preliminary report from the coroner's office noted that the body  was "'not so much decomposed as eaten,'" and ...

On Saturday, September 17, 1977, two employees of the Pickwick Hotel in San Diego, San Diego County, CA noticed a peculiar smell after parking in the hotel's basement parking lot. They reported it to hotel officials, who stated that the foul odor was coming from a vent in the garage. After noticing the foul odor again the following day — Sunday, September 18, 1977 — the two employees — a bellman and his brother — decided to investigate it themselves. They pinpointed the smell as coming from the area of a van that was parked in a remote spot of the basement garage. Upon looking into the van shortly after noon, the two brothers discovered a decomposing body partially covered by bedding in the back of the vehicle. They promptly notified the night manager, who then reported the discovery to the police. [Note: the Sept. 19, 1977 edition of the  San Diego Union specifically states that Jane Doe was discovered by the brothers "shortly after noon" on the 18th. That same clipping ...