Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

At about 12:05am on Saturday, July 5, 1969, Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22, and Michael Renault 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 w...

On Friday, December 20, 1968, David, 17, drove his mother's station wagon to Betty Lou's, 16, house at 8:00pm. They left in the car at 8:30pm for the house of one of Jensen's friends. Sometime after 9:00pm they then drove to the outskirts of Vallejo, Solano County, CA and parked at a gravel parking area — a lovers' lane — along remote Lake Herman Rd. This is near/at the entrance to the city of Benicia, Solano County. A passing motorist noticed the couple between 10:15-10:30pm, parked on the side of Lake Herman Rd, on a gravel runoff near the gate to a Benicia water pumping station. They were spotted again at 11:00pm. David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen. Photo from Wikipedia. Sometime between 11:05 and 11:10pm, an unknown assailant pulled his car up next to David's, about 10 ft away from the passenger's side of the vehicle. The unidentified man left his vehicle and approached the couple's car, firing several shots inside. The bullets hit various parts of the c...

Mona Jean Gallegos was likely born in 1952 or 1953. She went by the nickname "Tuni" among family, and she had five siblings, two sisters and three brothers. Having previously lived in Colorado, the Gallegos family moved to southern CA in 1968; Mona attended Wilson High School in LA. In 1971 the family returned to CO, which is where Mona graduated from high school that same year. The Gallegos family eventually moved back to southern CA, where they lived at 4944 Vincent Ave in Covina, LA County, CA. Mona briefly attended Mt San Antonio College, then decided to go to work full time; she was a seamstress for awhile, then got a job as a waitress. For the last six months before her disappearance, Mona had been a waitress at Coffee Dan's in West Covina. She had reportedly planned to enroll again at Mt SAC in the fall, "probably to prepare for a career in social work." At the time of her disappearance Mona, 22, lived at 4944 Vincent Ave with her mother, Alice Gallegos, ...

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...

On Saturday, January 7, 1978, human remains of a female were found by a hiker in a rugged area of the Antelope Valley in LA County, 0.5mi from the nearest road. According to previous postings of database entries to WebSleuths from 2016, Jane Doe may have been found in a canyon wash "at Rock Formations 150th Street East & Avenue P-8" in Palmdale, LA County, CA.  The website of the Los Angeles County Medical Examiner's Office (LACME) states that Jane Doe had been dead for less than one year. According to NamUs, her estimated year of death is 1978; considering the fact that she was found on January 7th of that year, this could be incorrect, or she had been killed only a few days before she was found. Jane Doe's remains were decomposed, and were unrecognizable at the time of discovery. The body's condition was partial remains with soft tissues. One or both limbs, as well as one or both hands, were not recovered. Jane Doe's COD is unknown, though her death is b...

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...

Photo from CBI. Larry Gene Loucka was born on June 6, 1946. He first lived in Arizona starting in at least 1961; he may have been born there. He attended his freshman year of high school at Camelback High School in Phoenix, Maricopa County, AZ in 1962. Larry then attended Norte Vista High School in Riverside, Riverside County, CA for his sophomore and junior years; it is unknown if he graduated. He then lived in Denver, Colorado for a period of time before moving back to Phoenix, AZ.  In early September 1974, Larry moved back to Denver from Phoenix. Larry was a 28-year-old white man who was known to his friends as "Smiles". His last known address according to one clipping was 1630 Humboldt St. According to his obituary, his address may have been 281 Sherman St. At 11:10pm on Sunday, September 8, 1974, Larry was walking on the sidewalk down the 400 block of E. 11th Avenue, holding a portable radio to his ear. An unknown man then ran up behind Larry and fired three shots, at le...

Elizabeth seems to have been born Elizabeth Mary Underwood on March 21, 1942. At some point she married a man named Rodney B Winn; the pair divorced in November 1970 in Ventura County, CA. Elizabeth then remarried to a 25-year-old man named Robert N Byron in the same county on March 10, 1973; they had applied for/been granted their marriage license in late December of the previous year. Photo from NamUs. Some records on Ancestry give her first name as Mary and her middle name as Elizabeth rather than vice versa. At the time of her disappearance, Elizabeth's surname was Byron, though she may also use the surnames Winn or Underwood. Elizabeth was 36 years old when she was last seen at her home in Oxnard, Ventura County sometime in May 1978. The exact date of her disappearance is unknown. Very few details are available in her case. Based on the lack of information, including the uncertainty of the date of disappearance, it seems possible to me that Elizabeth was not reported missing u...

John Thompson, 20, was last seen on Tuesday, February 8, 1977, by a friend with whom he was staying in Mountain View, Santa Clara County, CA. John told his friend that he was going to go to a job interview. The company with which he had an interview is unknown. John was never seen or heard from again. The aforementioned friend was the one to report him missing, though the date the report was filed is not indicated in any sources I could find. Very few details are available in his case. 1973 high school yearbook photo from NamUs. John was wearing an army jacket, a dark shirt, and dark pants when he was last seen. He is a white male with brown hair and brown eyes. At the time of his disappearance he was 20 years old, 5'6, and 135 lbs. He was born on April 12, 1956; if alive today he would be 69 years old. John's dental x-rays are not available for comparison. His DNA seems to be on file, as he has 41 UID exclusions on NamUs. Only one of these, found in 2006, was from CA, while an...

At about 4:45pm on Wednesday, September 19, 1979, the body of a teenager or  young man  was discovered in the Los Angeles Riverbed, north of the Patata St overpass/trestle in Bell, LA County, CA. He had been deceased for only some hours prior, and his face was recognizable; a postmortem photo is available through a link on the Doe Network. The cause and manner of death have not been released. Artist rendering from NCMEC. John Doe was 15 to 25 years old, 5'8, and 129 lbs. The estimated age group listed by NamUs is "Adult - Pre 30." He was white and had brown eyes and short, thin, light brown hair. A reconstruction of him created by NCMEC is available. When found, he was wearing blue slacks, a Hawaiian print shirt from K-Mart, a brown leather belt, underwear, and white socks with a red stripe at the top. John Doe's dentals, DNA, and fingerprints are all available for comparison. He has six MP exclusions on NamUs, as well as one repeat: John Doe is not Donald Rexroth (wh...

Sandra JoAnn Rushing was born on August 27, 1960 in Denver, CO to parents Joe Bailey Rushing Jr and Shirley Joan Rushing (nee Otey). Sandra's mom's side of the family was from Denver, while her father's side was from Abilene, TX. Sandra had two older siblings, sister Brenda Kay Tate (nee Rushing) and brother Terry Joe Rushing. Brenda was a little less than four years older than Sandra, as she  was born in late 1956 . Terry was born in late September 1959, making him eleven months older than Sandra; despite this, the two of them were in the same grade in high school. This is likely because Sandra's birth date was on the cusp of the cut off; she was only seventeen years old when she graduated. Sandra's 1978 Lakewood High School senior yearbook photo. The Rushings lived in Denver proper up to at least 1969, though by 1973 they were living in Lakewood, Jefferson County, CO, a suburb of Denver. All three Rushing children went to Lakewood High School. Both Sandra and Terr...

Thomas Gregory Cristiano was born on December 19, 1950 in Denver, Colorado, where he also spent much of his early childhood. He lived with his parents, Joseph Frank Cristiano and Verna Louise Cristiano (nee Place), and his siblings, David and Virginia. Thomas attended high school in Montrose, Montrose County, CO, where his parents were living at the time of their son's death. Some sources may spell the family's surname as "Christiano." Thomas's father had moved his family to Montrose "to get away from the crime and violence we saw there" in Denver. Thomas, however, eventually went back to Denver to be near a school where he was taking a "correspondence computer course." He  was employed at the Western Drive Inn on East Colfax Avenue in Denver. Thomas also had an interest in art. According to letters written to his family, he had planned to paint a night scene of the State Capitol Building at some point.  Photo from CBI. Late in the evening of F...