Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

At about 11:00am on Monday, February 18, 1980, three tourists from Canada stopped at a mountain viewpoint on Highway 74 about four or 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 20-30 ft gully, or about 35 ft down a ravine near a turn-out in the highway. The body was determined to be that a young woman. All parts were recovered, and Jane Doe's face was recognizable. It is believed that she had died only one or two days before discovery, putting her death at about Saturday or Sunday, February 16 or 17, 1980. NamUs erroneously states that Jane Doe was found on Saturday, February 16, 1980. Whoever entered the data seems to have incorrectly interpreted the date listed on the Riverside County Sheriff-Coroner's Bureau website, Feb. 16th, as the date of discovery, when it seems to instead be the estimated date of death. All newspaper reports consistently place the discovery of the body as ...

At about 12:05am on Saturday, July 5, 1969, Darlene Ferrin, 22, and Michael Mageau, 19, parked at the parking lot of secluded Blue Rock Springs Park on the eastern outskirts of Vallejo, Solano County, CA — a popular area for couples — to talk. Darlene parked 70 ft from the lot entrance. Soon, another car parked about 80 ft to her left. The driver turned the headlights off and sat motionless at the steering wheel before leaving the parking lot at a high speed. Michael Mageau and Darlene Ferrin. Five minutes later, the other driver returned and parked a few feet next to Darlene's vehicle at the passenger side. He exited his car and shined a flashlight into Darlene's car; the couple assumed he was a police officer and rolled down the passenger side window. The man wordlessly fired a gun into the car. One bullet hit Michael in the right arm, and the other Darlene in the neck, causing her to slump towards the steering wheel and become motionless. After five shots were fired, the man...

Sixteen-year-old Christopher Wells was last seen in December 1972 in Seattle, King County, Washington. Sources differ as to when he went missing: the date provided by NamUs — as well as the Charley Project and the Doe Network, which use NamUs as a source — is Saturday, December 16, 1972, while, according to NCMEC and the Washington Missing Persons Database, Christopher was instead last seen three days earlier, on Wednesday, December 13, 1972. Photo of Christopher c.1972 from NamUs. According to NamUs, Christopher was reported missing on Saturday, December 16, 1972: this is either the day he was last seen, or three days after, depending on the source. The most likely explanation is that Christopher was last seen on Wednesday the 13th before being reported missing on the 16th, and that the reported date was mistakenly entered as the missing date on NamUs, then taken as fact by the Charley Project and the Doe Network. Along with the discrepancies regarding the date, there are very few det...

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 Linda Rosa, Rosalinda, or Rosalind; I am using the most common version I could find, which was also used in the TX birth index on Ancestry. 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). Rosa Linda graduated from Watsonville High School in June 1971. By July of that year she was taking classes at Cabrillo College, a community college in Aptos, Santa Cruz County, while also working as...

Yvonne Quilantang was born on July 11, 1957 in San Francisco to parents Terezo Vincent Quilantang and Evelyn Marie Quilantang (nee Leroy). Yvonne and her siblings were biracial, half white, half Asian: their father, Terezo, was an immigrant from the Philippines. Some sources from the 1970s mistakenly list Yvonne as Black. However, thorough research on Ancestry indicates that she was not Black, but instead Filipina. She was baptized Catholic. She was the youngest of six children: her older siblings are Sharon, Vincente, Michael, Linda, and Thomas; the latter was only two years older than her. Yvonne's father was a seaman. Her mother eventually grew unable to care for her, so Yvonne was "taken into a foster home, where she had lived almost since she could remember." She seemed to still be in contact with her birth family. From the June 24, 1973 edition of the  San Francisco Examiner   In early June 1973, Yvonne was 15 years old and attending Opportunity II High School. She ...

On Sunday, March 16, 1980, the decomposed body of a man was located on the 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 14-15, 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." 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-Coroner puts him at 20 to 25 years old. John Doe had light to medium brown hair, medium in length; hazel eyes; a reddish-brown mustache; and a thin reddish-brown goatee. No scars, tattoos, or disfigurements were found. John Doe was wearing brown pants of an unknown...

In the early afternoon of Saturday, May 22, 1971, three youths were out hiking in a rugged area when they discovered partial human skeletal remains in a ravine at the base of a 300 ft cliff at/south of the 18900 block of Braemore Rd in an isolated area of Porter Ranch in Northridge. The location of the body is also described as being in/near the Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles. One or more of the decedent's limbs were not recovered. Neither the COD nor an estimated DOD/PMI could be determined. However, one contemporary newspaper article stated that Jane Doe was, "believed to have been dead at least three months." A fire had passed through the area in September 1970, and there had been heavy rains as well as an earthquake since that time. Because of this, the skeletal remains — which were determined to be those of a female — may have moved from their original location as a result of these natural events, which also could have affected the availability of any evid...

On Saturday, April 28, 1979, the body of a white male was found concealed above the shoulder/near the side of North Meridian Rd in Vacaville, Solano County, CA. All parts were recovered, though his remains were deemed not recognizable due to insect/animal activity. John Doe had suffered a blow to the forehead and a possible fatal laceration of the throat. He is estimated to have died two weeks prior to discovery, putting his date of death at about Saturday, April 14, 1979. The man's death has been considered a homicide from the onset, as his body was deliberately covered with grass. According to NamUs, John Doe was a 35 to 55 year old white male who weighed 185 lbs and is estimated to have been 5'5 to 6'1 tall. However, the bulletin released at the time — which is available in the Documents section of his NamUs profile — states that he was approximately 40 years old, 6'1, and 185-190 lbs. The April 30, 1979 edition of the Vallejo Times-Herald puts him as in his 20s or ...

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 18-25 year old white and/or Hispanic male. He had straight, medium-length dark brown hair, with no facial hair. His eye color is unknown. John Doe was measured as being 6'0 and about 185 lbs. He was wearing blue ...

Mark Wendell Wilson was born on October 4, 1954; if alive today, he would be 70 years old. According to Ancestry, Mark was born in San Diego County, and his mother's maiden name was Comstock; his middle name is alternatively spelled "Wendall" on the site. Mark's mother is named Betty, and his father is named Richard James Wilson. Mark was an eighth grade student at Quincy Junior-Senior High School at the time. His nickname is Wilson. Shortly after 2 pm on Saturday, November 4, 1967, Mark, 13, left his home in Meadow Valley, Plumas County, CA on foot. He told his parents that he was going to hitchhike to Quincy, Plumas County, CA — 7mi away — to go see the matinee show of a movie. According to Project Jason, Mark "asked his mother for some money out of his small saving account which she refused, so it is thought that he only had a few dollars with him." Mark never returned and has not been seen or heard from since. On all databases Mark is listed as missing f...

Debra Theresa Pscholka was born on November 7, 1958 to parents George and Sharon Pscholka (nee Hampton) in San Diego County, CA. According to NamUs, she used the nickname Debbie. She was the oldest of five siblings. Sometime between 1969 and 1971 Debbie's family moved from LA County to Corona, Riverside County, CA. By 1973, the Pscholka family resided at 19076 Quebec Ave in Corona. According to WebSleuths user glosski, who claims to be one of Debbie’s maternal cousins, at the time of her disappearance Debbie’s family’s home “was located near the library on a fairly major street next door to what used to be a pretty well known mortuary.” Photo from NamUs. On Saturday, June 5, 1971, Debbie, who was 12 years old at the time, went to a movie theater with friends on 6th St in Corona. The staff caught her smoking and asked her to leave. Debbie told her friends that she was going to the local park. Which park Debbie intended to go to has not been specified in any of the sources that I cou...