Lonnie Raymond Thomas

Lonnie’s story

On May 1, 1980, a Shell Oil worker checking water lines for leaks in Tonner Canyon, in the unincorporated hills near Brea, found human remains down a small slope beside an oil well. An autopsy the next day found a gunshot wound to the face. The young man had probably been dead about a year. For more than four decades he had no name. [1][2]

In 2023, DNA and genealogy research identified him as Lonnie Raymond Thomas, 20. His family had last heard from him in November 1978 or 1979. Who shot him, and why he was in a remote oil field, is still unknown. [1][2]

Who Lonnie was

Lonnie’s mother was living in Compton when investigators found her in 2023. Beyond that, little about his life has been made public. The clothes found with him suggest someone particular about his appearance: a long-sleeved blue-and-beige checked shirt over a white T-shirt, grey corduroy pants that had been taken in a size, green socks, and dark blue suede ankle boots with crepe soles. [1][2][4]

The old case listing also records a key ring holding five house-type keys, described as duplicates. No wallet or identification was found. [4][5]

What happened

The remains were badly decomposed and scattered by animals. Investigators estimated the man was Black, 17 to 24 years old, 5’7” to 5’9” and 150 to 160 pounds. The area had been used as an illegal dumping ground until November 1979, when a gate was put across the entrance road. Through May 1981, detectives compared the remains with several missing-person reports without success. [1][2]

In December 2021, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children asked the Sheriff’s Department to try genetic genealogy. The remains were exhumed in May 2022. The lab Othram built a DNA profile, and the FBI’s genealogy team found distant relatives. Over the following months investigators traced a likely close relative, a woman in Compton believed to be his mother, and in May 2023 her DNA confirmed the match. He was reburied in November 2023 under a headstone with his name. [1][3]

Where it happened

Tonner Canyon runs along Orange County’s northern edge between Brea and the Los Angeles County line. In 1980 it was oil-field land, with roads used by workers and, until late 1979, illegal dumpers. Lonnie was found in a creek bed in a wooded part of the Shell field. [2][4]

Seven months later, in December 1980, the remains of 15-year-old Kerry Patterson were found by an oil worker in the same district near the 57 Freeway. No source suggests the two deaths are connected, but the area was evidently known to people looking for somewhere remote. [6]

What investigators have said

Now that Lonnie has a name, the Sheriff’s Department says its focus has turned to finding out what happened to him and who killed him. [1][2]

Where accounts differ

• Age estimate: 17–24 in the 2023 release; 17–23 on the current case page. Lonnie was 20. [1][2]
• Weight: the old listing is described online as giving 180 lbs; the official page gives 150–160 lbs. [2][5]
• When he died: “about a year” before May 1980, and family contact ended in November 1978 or 1979. The gate installed in November 1979 doesn’t establish when he was left there, because other access may have existed. [2]

Open questions

• Where was Lonnie living in 1978–79, and was he ever reported missing?
• What did the five keys open?
• Why were his trousers altered? A tailor or family member might remember.
• Who knew the gated oil-field roads well enough to drive in?

What you can do

• If you knew Lonnie Thomas in Compton, Los Angeles or Orange County in the late 1970s, or knew someone who stopped being seen around then, contact the cold case team.
• Research: search the Los Angeles Sentinel and Compton-area papers for 1978–80 under his name.