A “severely decomposed female body” found in a shallow grave 45 years ago in Southern California has been identified as a missing 80-year-old multimillionaire killed by her much younger lover.
Thelma Jeanette Gaston, a real estate investor from Los Angeles County worth an estimated $20 million, was murdered by 39-year-old Lawrence Remsen, who forged documents in an attempt to transfer her wealth to him after her disappearance in June 1981.
Gaston was identified as the “Jane Doe” female corpse discovered in a shallow grave near Sugar Loaf Mountain in November 1981, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.
“After more than four decades, investigators with the Riverside Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau and the Riverside Cold Case Homicide Team have positively identified a female homicide victim as Thelma Gaston. Ms. Gaston was the victim of a 1981 homicide that occurred in Los Angeles County,” the sheriff’s office said.
The conditions of the remains made it impossible for investigators to identify the victim until “significant advances in forensic science” opened avenues for a possible identification.
Using dental records and genetic genealogy, officials solved the near half-a-century cold case in May.
Gaston was last seen on June 28, 1981, with her last known communication being a note she left at her Rancho Park home saying she was leaving the house to look for her cat, the Los Angeles Times reported.
Additional letters, allegedly written by Gaston, stated she was turning over her affairs to Remsen because “everyone is after my money,” and “I am going to have some fun in life and nobody is going to stop me.”
The letters left behind did not fit Gaston’s character, her nephew and longtime associate, John Mittrick, told police, describing the woman as a “shrewd businesswoman who made a great deal of money purchasing tax-repossessed real estate,” according to the outlet.
The documents were found to have been certified by a stolen notary stamp with Gaston’s signatures being forged, SFGate reported.
Remsen, a former carpet salesman and burglar alarm company worker, conned his way into Gaston’s life, portraying himself as her lover as the two even discussed marriage before her death.
Police discovered Remsen had attempted to sell Gaston’s possessions and extract over $100,000 from her bank accounts, the outlet reported.
The con-artist went on the lam shortly after Gaston’s disappearance, but police raided his West Los Angeles apartment and found several stolen items belonging to the octogenarian, along with her Mercedes in the garage.
Police didn’t confiscate the car because it wasn’t stolen, but when officers returned to the house a day later it was missing.
Remsen was captured by police in Texas attempting to cross the border into Mexico in September 1981.
He later claimed Gaston died of natural causes inside her home and he buried her body at sea.
A judge convicted Remsen of second-degree murder, saying he killed Gaston “intentionally and with malice” in 1983.
Despite Gaston’s body not being positively identified, Remsen was sentenced to life in prison with the judge calling him an “incompetent scoundrel.”
He was sentenced to life in prison, despite her body not being positively identified.
Remsen, 83, has been denied parole four times since 2016, including on April 12, 2023, and his appeals against further incarceration have also been denied, NBC News reported.
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