A woman whose remains were found in a shallow grave in Riverside County, California, more than four decades ago has been identified as a multimillionaire real estate investor who vanished in 1981. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau said advances in investigative genetic genealogy, along with dental records, confirmed the victim was Thelma Gaston, 80, whose disappearance sparked a high-profile Los Angeles murder investigation.
Case Background
The case began on Nov. 28, 1981, when people searching for firewood near Sugar Loaf Mountain discovered skeletal remains protruding from a shallow grave. Riverside County sheriff’s investigators recovered the remains the following day near Highway 74, but the body had decomposed so extensively that authorities were unable to determine who the victim was despite extensive investigative efforts.
Prosecutors later accused Lawrence Remsen, then 39, of killing Gaston to gain control of her multimillion-dollar estate. Police described Remsen as Gaston’s ‘sometime companion.’ He pleaded not guilty to charges including murder, forgery, grand theft and attempted grand theft after authorities alleged business associates received forged letters naming him as the person who would control Gaston’s fortune.
Investigation and Conviction
The Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office later successfully prosecuted the case, and Remsen was convicted of murder and sentenced to life in prison. While the homicide investigation had long been resolved, what happened to Gaston’s body remained a mystery.
That changed after the Riverside County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau received funding through the Missing and Unidentified Human Remains Grant, giving investigators the opportunity to revisit long-unsolved unidentified remains cases with modern forensic technology. Investigators revisited the case in November 2024 by exhuming the remains for additional forensic testing.
DNA samples were later sent to Othram, a forensic laboratory in The Woodlands, Texas, where scientists developed a comprehensive DNA profile using the company’s Forensic-Grade Genome Sequencing technology, allowing investigators to use forensic genetic genealogy and dental records to positively identify Gaston in May 2026.
Original reporting: Fox News (HLL/CB) — read the source article.
