California heiress’ remains identified 45 years after vanishing
Authorities say forensic genealogy helped identify Thelma Jeanette Gaston, whose convicted killer has been in prison for decades.
By Sal Moretti · Money Reporter
3 min read
Thelma Jeanette Gaston disappeared from California in 1981, leaving behind a mystery, a contested fortune and no body. Forty-five years later, authorities say her remains have finally been identified.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau said a renewed review of old cases, funded by a grant and aided by newer forensic tools, led investigators back to remains found in 1981. The bureau said genetic genealogy, dental records and advanced DNA testing by a private lab confirmed the remains were Gaston’s.
Gaston, an 80-year-old widow, was reported missing on June 28, 1981. The Los Angeles Police Department said at the time that the only clue at her home was a note saying she had gone to look for her cat.
The case quickly grew stranger. The Los Angeles Times reported in August 1981 that investigators later found letters purportedly from Gaston saying she had left to have “some fun in life” and had given her estate to Lawrence Remsen, a 39-year-old carpet salesman described in reports as her companion.
A fortune, forged papers and a missing woman
Reports from the period gave different estimates of Gaston’s wealth. The Los Angeles Times put it at about $20 million, while the Chicago Tribune reported her assets were close to $100 million.
Gaston’s relatives and business associates did not accept the idea that she had voluntarily disappeared, according to the historical reports. Remsen also vanished after Gaston did, then was arrested in September 1981 while crossing from Mexico into Texas, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Investigators believed Remsen killed Gaston and forged documents to gain access to her money, according to the Tribune. Police said they had evidence he forged her name on papers giving him power of attorney, moved $20,000 into a Cayman Islands account and tried to arrange sales of land she owned, the newspaper reported.
Gaston’s nephew, attorney John Mittrick, said then that a will left a large part of her estate to his daughters. He alleged the document had been taken from his briefcase, according to the Tribune. Other wills presented in court included a 1962 document leaving the estate to Gaston’s sister, Ella Wilcox, and a 1979 will naming Wilcox and Mittrick’s daughters as beneficiaries, with Mittrick as executor, the Tribune reported.
Wilcox and Mittrick have since died. NBC News reported it could not reach a woman listed in public records as Mittrick’s daughter.
Conviction came without a body
Remsen was convicted of Gaston’s murder in a 1983 nonjury trial even though her body had not been found. At trial, he testified that Gaston died of natural causes and that he used her death for financial gain, according to a Los Angeles Times report.
He also testified that he weighted her body and disposed of it at sea, the Times reported. The remains now identified as Gaston’s were found in November 1981 in a shallow grave near Sugar Loaf Mountain, according to the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office.
Superior Court Judge Gordon Ringer rejected Remsen’s account at sentencing, calling him an “incompetent scoundrel,” according to the Times.
Remsen received 15 years to life for the murder and an additional six years tied to forgery charges. He remains incarcerated at the California Institution for Men, according to NBC News.
Now 83, Remsen has been denied parole four times since 2016, and legal filings show courts have rejected appeals over his continued imprisonment. NBC News reported he has no attorney and that his daughter, listed in appeal documents, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
This story draws on original reporting from NBC News.