OC Files· Orange County cold casesYour choices are saved in this browser.
Behind every file is a person: a son, a daughter, a parent, a friend. Here are the 24 people on Orange County's public cold-case lists, oldest story first. Some are still missing. Others were taken from their families, and no one has ever been held responsible.
10 people who walked out of their lives and never came back. Someone may know where they are.
A 21-year-old from Newport Beach was dropped near San Juan Hot Springs in July 1974 to live off the land in the Cleveland National Forest. He never came back.
A 21-year-old checked out of a Tustin motel in October 1981 and vanished. Depressed after a divorce, he was known to hitchhike up the coast to Washington.
A 29-year-old mother vanished from her El Toro apartment in June 1984. A coworker found the door unlocked and the home in disarray. Police call it suspicious.
A 24-year-old left her Perris home in 1986 and phoned her family from Kansas for 18 months, sounding afraid. Her car later turned up in Huntington Beach.
A 37-year-old Dana Point woman planned to kayak from the harbor in December 1997. Her car was found there with her dog locked inside. No one saw her launch.
A golf-club designer whose irons won the Masters and U.S. Open walked out of his Lake Forest home in 2006, leaving his wallet, keys and phone behind.
A 36-year-old woman left a friend's San Clemente home early one morning in September 2009 and vanished. A message later claimed she'd returned to Mexico.
A 35-year-old San Juan Capistrano woman left home on a June morning in 2010 and was last known to be shopping at Marshall's on Del Obispo Street.
A 58-year-old left his Dana Point room in 2013, reportedly for dental work in Tijuana. His Jeep was found near the border; his phone roamed in Mexico.
A 34-year-old woman originally from Jamaica drove away from her Lake Forest home in a yellow Porsche Boxster in early 2016. The car was sold weeks later.
14 people whose deaths have never been answered. Some waited decades just to be given back their names.
A 41-year-old man was beaten to death in his Anaheim home in August 1966. His stolen white 1963 Chevrolet turned up in Long Beach two days later.
Two teenagers vanished walking in Lake Elsinore in August 1970 and were found strangled miles apart, one off the Ortega Highway, one near San Juan Capistrano.
An Iowa teenager found dead near Laguna Hills in 1974 was buried as John Doe until DNA named him in 2023. He is believed to be an early Randy Kraft victim.
A Stanton mother vanished from a hospital parking lot in 1980 after months of threatening calls. A man phoned her parents for years claiming he'd killed her.
A 15-year-old vanished walking home in Fullerton in June 1980. Her remains were found in Brea's oil fields. Investigators have released a sketch.
A young man shot in the face and left in the Brea oil fields around 1979 was a John Doe for 43 years. DNA named him Lonnie Raymond Thomas, 20, in 2023.
A 30-year-old was found dead in his parents' ransacked home in 1981, a day after his car was driven behind a Garden Grove business and set alight.
Remains found in a Lake Forest culvert in 1983 were a Jane Doe for 41 years until DNA named Maritza Glean Grimmett. OCSD named two persons of interest in 2025.
A young couple were found stabbed to death in their Sunset Beach home in October 1984. The house was ransacked and a safe had been ripped from a closet.
A 24-year-old woman's body was found in a bag beside Jeffrey Road in Irvine in December 1985. She had no known address and used several names.
El Ranchito owner Joe Avila was shot at least 14 times in his Porsche near his Santa Ana Heights home in 1987. Police called it a professional hit.
Remains found in a shallow grave on remote Rancho Mission Viejo land in 1998 were identified by DNA in 2024 as Donald Loar, 54, missing from Bellflower.