Date: November 29th, 2017 12:30 AM
Author: Obsidian Headpube
http://www.ukiahdailyjournal.com/general-news/20130929/where-have-all-the-missing-persons-gone
The discovery of a human skeleton in a creek bed in Standish-Hickey State Park north of Leggett this week is but the most recent skeletal find in the north county.
For years rumors have abounded in Emerald Triangle tales of marijuana workers being buried in remote areas of the triangle as a result of business disagreements or greed. Occasionally weathered remains are found, such as the recent find near Leggett, and law enforcement struggles to find an identity. Mendocino and Humboldt counties have vast areas of wild lands where few people go. Concerns over personal safety have placed large areas of these lands off limits for most hikers and hunters. The chances of stumbling across the remains of anyone buried in the back woods are slim. Nonetheless, occasionally remains are discovered.
In September 2005, Michael William Desmet and Joseph Clarence Wilma Jr. were reported missing to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office. The duo was thought to have disappeared in the Covelo area. In April 2007, a hiker found a human jaw northwest of Covelo. The hiker picked up the bone and left the area, which was in the midst of a large marijuana garden. Officers returned to the area and found a human leg bone and eventually Wilma's vehicle. The two bones were subsequently confirmed as Wilma's. Desmet is still missing. Authorities have classified Wilma's death as a homicide and they believe Desmet is also a homicide victim. Despite an extensive search of the area, Desmet's remains have never been found.
In October 2012, human remains were found buried in a shallow grave along the Eel River near Piercy. Detectives have not been able to identify the victim. The victim, dubbed John Doe, is between 25 and 45 years old and between 5 feet 11 inches and 6 feet 5 inches tall. He is believed to be a victim of a homicide. The remains are believed to be several years old.
In May, a hiker discovered charred human bone fragments and teeth in a burn pile on a secluded area along Highway 162. No further details on the victim's identity are available.
Many families of missing persons in the Emerald Triangle can only wait and hope. Chris Giauque has been missing since August 2003. His father, Bob Giauque believes his son was the victim of murder and robbery in the Spy Rock Road area of Mendocino County. The Mendocino County Sheriff's Office is treating the case as a possible homicide. No remains have been found.
Since 1996 between 31,000 and 41,000 missing adult reports were filed in California each year, according to the California Department of Justice. During this period about 6.9 percent of those reported missing were never accounted for on an official basis.
Of the reports filed in California for 2012, about 51 percent of those reported missing either did not consider themselves missing or returned on their own. Another 34 percent were located by law enforcement. About 9 percent of missing persons reports were cancelled or withdrawn. Last year 412 persons listed as missing (about 1 percent) were found to be deceased. The percentage of unsolved cases for missing adults was 4.6 percent, the lowest rate since at least 1996.
During the past eight years Mendocino County has had slightly better success compared with the state average in closing missing persons reports filed with local law enforcement with a 6.1 percent unsolved rate. This still amounts to 74 adults unaccounted for, according to statistics filed with the California Department of Justice.
Humboldt County has substantially higher percentage of unsolved missing adults cases with a 17.1 percent unsolved rate, totaling 196 adults over the past 8 years.
It is unlikely all of the missing persons were the victims of foul play, but the cases of those whose remains were found years after they were reported missing confirm the difficulty in locating human remains in the woodlands of Mendocino and Humboldt counties. Even when law enforcement has a targeted search area, after a few years finding any identifiable remains is a challenge.
These figures also do not include any persons reported missing in other counties or other states or other countries who may have come to Mendocino or Humboldt counties and disappeared.
Area media reports on missing persons
Compiled by Linda Williams
The Willits News
Humboldt County
April 2001: Burges Gene Kone, 55, of Bridgeville was reported missing and considered a possible homicide victim. June 2001, burnt and broken-up human remains were found in three locations along Highway 36 in June 2001. These remains were eventually identified as belonging to Kone and in 2004 Chester Evans, 36, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and was sentenced to 12 years 8 months in prison. Evans apparently killed Kone so he could grow marijuana on Kone's property.
July 2003: Rex Donald Shinn, 32, of Loleta was reported missing. His remains were found on private land near Honeydew in January 2007. Forensics established Shinn had been shot serval times. The man accused of shooting Shinn was acquitted on first degree murder charges and the jury could not agree on second degree charges. The crime was considered marijuana related.
August 2003: Chris Robert Giauque, 36, was reported missing after leaving Humboldt County on a trip to Spy Rock Road in Mendocino County. His father considers it a robbery-murder case. The possible homicide is considered marijuana related.
September 2003: Christopher Aleksiewic was reported missing in the Humboldt area. Two femurs found by dogs in Cooper Gulch in 2006 and 2007 were identified in 2010 as his by the California Department of Justice.
February 2004: Human remains found near Pepperwood for an adult male deceased between one and two months. In February 2005 he was identified as Robert John Tobaka, 53, of Eureka. Tobaka was reported missing in March 2004. While his death was being investigated as a homicide no further updates were issued.
September 2004: The remains of a female was found at Grizzly Creek State Park, later identified as Lori Ann Jones. Two men were arrested in 2005 for her murder and subsequently convicted.
September 2005: Joseph Clarence Wilma Jr. 52, of Redway; Michael William Desmet, 33, of Shelter Cove reported missing. Wilma's leg and jawbone were located in Covelo April 2007 in a 4,500 plant marijuana grow. Homicide suspected, Desmet's remains have not been found. The possible homicides are considered marijuana related.
December 2005: Jason Dee McElroy, 26, of Idaho was reported missing from the Hoopa area. His remains were found May 2006 near Weitchpec by police. A Hoopa woman told authorities she spotted the body months earlier but she didn't report it because in Hoopa, "snitches go in ditches." Carlyle Blake, 29, pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter in 2009. This may have been methamphetamine related.
2006: Jon Poschman was reported missing. A femur found in 2008 by a dog in Cooper Gulch was identified in April 2012 as Poschman's .
2006: Todd Robertson, 32, was reported missing. Skeletal remains were found in Cutten in May 2008 were positively identified as Robertson's.
Oct. 2006: Male human skull found in Fieldbrook. No identification. The skull was thought to have been in the area where it was located about 1 year. No further remains were found.
April 2007: Stephanie Lee Fowler, 33, left a cigarette shop in Loleta. She was a mother of six and her skeletal remains were located in a burned out Loleta church in Aug. 2009. Cause of death was never released by detectives after her remains were sent to a forensic scientist in Nov. 2009.
Feb. 2008: Gary Lee Rogers, 37, was last seen at a truck stop in Alton.
Sept. 2008: Monica Bradshaw was last seen by neighbors. Despite intensive searches law enforcement could not locate her remains. Her husband pleaded guilty to voluntary manslaughter and eventually provided a location of the wooded area where her remains were located.
Nov. 2008: Christine Walters, 23, went missing in Eureka.
Jan. 2010 Jerry George, 29, of McKinleyville, was reported missing. Jacob Charles Steele was convicted of murdering George in an apartment in 2012. George's body was dumped into the mouth of the Eel River and was never recovered. Methamphetamine was involved.
Feb. 2010: William Reid, 46, of Willow Creek (Humboldt) was reported missing. Charred bones were found in several locations scattered around his property. Two men were arrested for the murder. The first man's trial resulted in a mistrial.
April 2011: Edward Burton Jenson, 54, of Blocksburg, was reported missing. His remains were found in July 2011 beside the Eel River near Weott. The death has been called a homicide.
Dec. 2011: Skull found in Arcata by young boys, search teams found aditional remains the next day. The remains were identified in February 2012 as a man missing since April from Altoona, Pennsylvania. The coroner ruled it a suicide.
June 2012: Katherine Gillham, 40, left Grants Pass, Oregon on her way to Big Lagoon. She was last seen in Crescent City at 3 a.m. on June 11.
Dec. 2012: Garret Rodriguez, 30, of San Diego, was last heard from after arriving in the Garberville area to work at a marijuana grow on "Murder Mountain." He was reported missing in April 2013. A private investigator hired by the family found Rodriguez' broken down truck in southern Humboldt County in June 2013.
Mendocino County
Nov. 1999: Tony Joseph Griffani, 38, left a Ukiah residence to go to Gualala and was never seen again. His car was found in January 2000 near Willits. In 2003, a human skull was located near where the pickup was found. His disappearance is considered suspicious.
Dec. 2003: Michael Ray Larsen, 49, of Fort Bragg, was reported missing. In July 2009, a skeleton was found on South Harbor Drive by people clearing brush on the hillside. The remains were identified as Larsen within a few weeks. There was no evidence of foul play.
May 2004: Chad Richard Kirkendall, 23, of Caspar, was reported missing following a crash.
Dec.2004: Kathryn Rebecca Lamadrid, 40, was last seen walking across the old Noyo River Bridge.
May 2005: Donald Cavanaugh, 63, of Illinois, was reported missing. His vehicle was subsequently found in Westport.
(http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=3793155&forum_id=2#34795237)