Linda Rose Grimm

Linda’s story

Linda Rose Grimm was 24 and lived in Perris, in Riverside County, when she walked out of her home on March 31, 1986. Her husband said she went to a local store and never came back. Her family says there were problems in the marriage. [1][7]

Linda wasn’t immediately silent. For about 18 months she phoned her mother from time to time, saying she was near Wichita, Kansas. She wouldn’t say exactly where, and her mother said she sounded afraid. In her last call, in October 1987, Linda said she was living on a farm outside Wichita with a truck driver named Robert Masters. She hasn’t been heard from since. [1][3]

Who Linda was

Linda was born on Nov. 11, 1961. She was small, about 5’2” and 100 to 110 pounds, with brown hair and eyes. She had a small scar between her eyes, a small mole on her nose near her left eye, and a cesarean-section scar, so she had given birth at least once. She was known as Lyn or Lin, and has used the surnames Raby, Scheske and Masters. [1][2][7]

What happened

• March 31, 1986: Linda leaves home in Perris, reportedly to buy cigarettes, and doesn’t return. [3][7]
• 1986–87: she calls her mother periodically. She says she’s doing well and is near Wichita, but refuses to give an address, and her mother thinks she sounds frightened. [3][4]
• October 1987: in the last call, she names Robert Masters, a truck driver, and says they are living on a farm outside Wichita. Robert Masters is named in official records only as the man she said she lived with. No source suggests he did anything wrong. [1]
• April 1989: her yellow Ford Pinto is reportedly found abandoned in a supermarket parking lot on Beach Boulevard in Huntington Beach. People who knew her believed she had friends in Huntington Beach. [3][4]

Her mother later placed an advertisement in the Orange County Register asking for information. [4]

Where it happened

• Perris is in western Riverside County. Linda’s case is held by the Orange County Sheriff’s Department, and the public record doesn’t explain why. One possibility is the Orange County car recovery, or a report made in Orange County.
• Near Wichita, Kansas is where Linda said she was living in 1986–87. No farm, town or address was ever confirmed.
• Beach Boulevard, Huntington Beach is where the Pinto was reportedly found in 1989.

What investigators have said

The Sheriff’s Department and the California Department of Justice list Linda as a missing person [5]; the Texas Department of Public Safety lists her case as “Endangered – Foul Play Possible.” Her dental records have been used to rule her out as a match for a number of unidentified remains. [1][2][6]

Where accounts differ

• Who saw her leave. The federal record attributes the account to her husband; another account cites her mother. Both describe the same errand. [3][7]
• The date. Most records give March 31, 1986; some agencies have given April 1986 or even April 5, 1985. [3]
• Her age. The Sheriff’s bulletin says 26 when last seen. Her birth date makes her 24 when she left and 25 at the last call. [1]
• Location label. The Texas listing describes Perris as being in Orange County. It’s in Riverside County. [2]
• Records disagree on scope. The federal record doesn’t mention the calls from Kansas, Robert Masters or the car. [7]

Open questions

• Where exactly was Linda living in 1986–87, and was it really near Wichita?
• Why did she sound afraid?
• Who drove her Pinto to Huntington Beach, and when?
• Why does a Texas agency carry her case?

What you can do

• If you knew Linda, Lyn or Lin in Perris, Huntington Beach or Kansas in the 1980s, or knew a trucker named Robert Masters with a farm near Wichita at the time, contact the cold case team. Don’t contact anyone yourself.
• Research: the 1989 abandoned-vehicle report from Huntington Beach police would show when the Pinto was found. Her mother’s advertisement in the Register may contain dates and details. Kansas unidentified-remains records from 1987–90 are worth checking against her description.