Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

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...

Patricia Tan, who was also known as Pat, was born on November 4, 1943 in Morris, Illinois, where she also grew up. At the time of her death she was described as "Eurasian": her mother was white, and her father was Indonesian. By early spring 1970, Patricia, 26, was a college student and had been living in California for the past two years. She had a strong interest in movies, and purportedly may have been trying to break into the Hollywood movie scene. She was very tall, possibly about 6'. Patricia's 1961 Morris Community High School senior yearbook photo. At 2pm on Sunday, April 19, 1970, Patricia's body was found by a man named Thadeius Koslowski in a wooded canyon in the area of Bootjack Camp on Mt Tamalpais. She was found hanging from a tree limb with both feet on the ground. Two electric cords and a white cotton rope, woven together, were around her neck, which had deep rope marks around it. She had several bandaids on her left hand and right leg. There were ...

On Wednesday, November 15, 1972, two teenagers were chasing rabbits on a hillside when they discovered human skeletal remains in a shallow grave at the Baldwin Hills Reservoir in Los Angeles. The grave was about 125 yds east of Cloverdale Ave near the old Baldwin Hills Dam, and was believed to have been uncovered by recent rains, and/or the remains had been strewn about by animals. The skeleton was determined to be that of a woman of unknown/uncertain race. Jane Doe was a 17 to 30 year old female, though NamUs specifies that her estimated age group is "Adult - Pre-30." Furthermore, one contemporary newspaper article stated that she was estimated to have probably been, "between 20 and 25 years old, but [investigators] added the age could range anywhere between 17 and 34."  Jane Doe was about 5'1 tall in life. Her weight and eye color could not be determined due to the condition of the remains. While modern sources state that Jane Doe had reddish-brown hair, a con...

On Saturday, January 6, 1973, a hiker named Barbara McAninch discovered partial skeletal remains scattered over a 25-foot area in a gully at the top of Mt Tamalpais in Marin County, CA. It was in a wooded area near the outdoor Mountain Theater — aka the Cushing Memorial Amphitheater — within the Mt Tamalapais State Park. The remains were comprised of a nearly complete human skeleton, though the skull was missing. McAninch, a college student majoring in anatomy, took the bones home to San Francisco to study them. She decided to call authorities on about January 9th. On Wednesday, January 10, 1973, then-Deputy Coroner Bill Thomas told the press that he expected to receive the skeleton that day. At the time the remains were believed to be that of a male, and Thomas stated that the body could be of a victim of foul play; as he said, "Marin County often serves as a dumping ground for San Francisco's murder victims." A photo of Marin County coroner Dr Donovan Cooke examining th...