CA CA - Johnnie Herrera, 20, Oxnard, 27 Aug 1971

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It's so annoying when they don't have more basic info on these things, even the state of remains. If they were skeletal, I'd buy it, even if it's odd that he'd be so far away by that point. I'm still glued to the theory that he died within 48 hours of being at that bachelor party.

I've read the whole thread in a night (3am, whoo!) and I honestly think, Bobby, you should just bite the bullet and email everyone again. His brother Ralph, Det. Fenton, her supervisor, Ms. Bordon, and even his son for the first time. Despite being only 10 months at the time, it stands to reason he may have done some searching after all these years. Even if Annette poisoned her son against his (presumably late) father, you'd think he'd be curious about him.

If you email LE again, be a little more cautious. I think what may have gotten the hostile response the first time was the abundance of questions--all good and necessary questions, mind you--that they may or may not be comfortable discussing. I highly doubt anything they answer is going to jeopardize a 40+ year old investigation, but as a rule LE tends to be less forthcoming than a private investigator or one of us armchair detectives may be. (Just ask them to throw you a bone, ANY tidbit they haven't revealed yet. If you're sympathetic enough, even the *beechy* supervisor may be willing to work with you.)

Were I in your position I'd be feeling bad about further contacting the family. But it's obvious they had wanted to look for him, too. Have you thought about contacting the reporter who did the article, asking her for Joe's address? A letter might be a good, passive way to initiate contact to get his help. I love seeing family members get involved in cases like this, since they're often the source of the most leads. :\
 
I wonder if Johnnie's case could be like that of the recently-closed 1970 case of Jimmy Williams, Leah Johnson, and Thomas Rios in Oklahoma.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...ssing-40-years-found-at-the-bottom-of-a-lake/

The key is finding Johnnie's car. Either he would be in it or not.

I wonder if there's a particular reason that Johnnie's family seemed to make a point to look in L.A.'s Skid Row for him. Even now, Skid Row is known for its poverty and homeless population, and I've read that it was even worse in the late 60s to early 70s. Did they think he abandoned everything and just lost himself among the homeless by choice?

I really don't think Johnnie lived long after leaving the party. That is, if he left at all, which no one really seems able to confirm.
 
I also wonder if any drugs were done at this party. In Oregon in 1975, 16-year-old Brian Page was last seen leaving a party and like Johnnie, neither he nor his car have ever been found. In the Websleuths thread, Brian's sister posted these details about the night her brother vanished:

Brian and his friend, David, had taken LSD this night, and were listening to music at their friend's home in Salem. When my sister and her friend returned from a party, David said he was freaking out, and he left the home. David's sister told Brian to go after him.
Brian, being a good friend, followed David out of the house. The Volkswagen bug was David's car, and they took off in this. The police picked David up around 5:00 am. He had broken into a car dealership and was racing down State St in the stolen car.
He said that he had been having a bad trip and thought he was in hell. So sometime between 2 am and 5 am my brother disappeared. He was driving the Volkswagen.
He was a good kid, and always let my mom know when he was going to be late. He also watched out for his siblings and friends. He may have e+perimented with drugs, but that was common for this time. It did not make him a bad kid, or make him irresponsible. He was a wonderful brother, and even though I was the oldest, he would look out for me.
I know that David was hypnotized to see if he could remember what happened to Brian, but it was not successful. My dad was always convinced that David had something to do with his disappearance, but I don't know that this is true. I do know that the police were judgmental and not at all sympathetic or helpful. They considered him to be just another runaway, and would not help my family. My mother (now deceased) would always break into tears when talking about the policeman who came to take the report. The lack of police response allowed my brother's disappearance to slip into oblivion.
I did go to see a psychic who worked with the police, and she said he was driving away from Salem and trying to sober up. She said the car skidded on ice and went into Detroit Lake. This lake does dry up quite a bit in summer, and I don't know how deep it is behind the dam. I'm sure it's possible, but with all the fishing and water sports on this lake, it seems something would have turned up by now. It is still heartbreaking when I think of Brian's disappearance. I just wish we knew what happened to him.
I checked into the Portland police cold cases, but his name's not listed there. It appears you have to have a body to be considered murdered or dead. If you're missing, you do not have a voice.

Could Johnnie have had some LSD or similar drug at the party that caused him to lose touch with reality and drive off somewhere?
 
Johnnie has been missing 44 years today.
 
I just added Johnnie's case to the Unresolved Mysteries section of Reddit.
 
Chocofreak13 said:
It's so annoying when they don't have more basic info on these things, even the state of remains. If they were skeletal, I'd buy it, even if it's odd that he'd be so far away by that point. I'm still glued to the theory that he died within 48 hours of being at that bachelor party.

I've read the whole thread in a night (3am, whoo!) and I honestly think, Bobby, you should just bite the bullet and email everyone again. His brother Ralph, Det. Fenton, her supervisor, Ms. Bordon, and even his son for the first time. Despite being only 10 months at the time, it stands to reason he may have done some searching after all these years. Even if Annette poisoned her son against his (presumably late) father, you'd think he'd be curious about him.

If you email LE again, be a little more cautious. I think what may have gotten the hostile response the first time was the abundance of questions--all good and necessary questions, mind you--that they may or may not be comfortable discussing. I highly doubt anything they answer is going to jeopardize a 40+ year old investigation, but as a rule LE tends to be less forthcoming than a private investigator or one of us armchair detectives may be. (Just ask them to throw you a bone, ANY tidbit they haven't revealed yet. If you're sympathetic enough, even the *beechy* supervisor may be willing to work with you.)

Were I in your position I'd be feeling bad about further contacting the family. But it's obvious they had wanted to look for him, too. Have you thought about contacting the reporter who did the article, asking her for Joe's address? A letter might be a good, passive way to initiate contact to get his help. I love seeing family members get involved in cases like this, since they're often the source of the most leads. :\
Click to expand...

Exactly what I was going to post. You want information, the people who have the most information are the cops and the family. You could have gotten a lot more details the last couple of years if you had contacted them, if you only had tried. And it doesn't matter that his son was a baby, he could have done plenty of research himself or have heard a lot which could really help you.

I applaud you for keeping this case alive and doing what you did, but I just really don't understand why you haven't tried contacting the family.
 
They might have moved or died. It was a few years ago that the article was written, after all. :0

(However, might be the best lead here.)
 
Johnnie has been missing 45 years today.
 
Speaking of his photos, does anyone else find the picture of Johnnie where he's not smiling to be mildly haunting in a "Patricia Meehan's mirror selfie" sort of way (you UM fanatics know what I'm referring to)? It looks like he wants to smile and loosen up, but can't or won't do so. I think a user on here once said she thought he looked kind of sad and intimidated. What do you think?
 
The bachelor party was around 3 miles from the beach and very close to the 101. Southern California is filled with highways with nothing but rocky, mile-high cliffs and little to no rails on the side. Some go directly into parts of the ocean with lots of trees and no public access (as in a designated beach), some go down 50 feet into a forest below.

I think it's possible a serial killer might have gotten Johnnie, or someone random could have murdered him for unknown reasons. But, I think it's way more likely that Johnnie had too much to drink and ran off the road off of one of those scary cliffs. I don't think he'll ever be found, unfortunately.

Is it confirmed that Johnnie's parents are from Mexico? Many first generation Latino immigrants of his age at that time wouldn't have necessarily been fluent in Spanish. Many tried to Americanize themselves by losing the ability to speak Spanish. I don't think being in a bad marriage, if Johnnie even was actually in one, would cause him to leave town entirely and not contact his family, and I especially don't think he'd have to cross the border just to leave his wife. Other than his car, I don't see that he had some huge fortune or owned land, so I don't think divorce would have been a big thing for him if he wanted out.

I just saw a video on youtube about a guy that scuba-dived in a river. He pulled up a bunch of money, phones, shoes, and a bunch of other wild stuff. Maybe a youtuber will dive into the ocean on the side of the PCH one day. I hate to think of what he'd find if he did.
:/
 
NL007 said:
The bachelor party was around 3 miles from the beach and very close to the 101. Southern California is filled with highways with nothing but rocky, mile-high cliffs and little to no rails on the side. Some go directly into parts of the ocean with lots of trees and no public access (as in a designated beach), some go down 50 feet into a forest below.

I think it's possible a serial killer might have gotten Johnnie, or someone random could have murdered him for unknown reasons. But, I think it's way more likely that Johnnie had too much to drink and ran off the road off of one of those scary cliffs. I don't think he'll ever be found, unfortunately.

Is it confirmed that Johnnie's parents are from Mexico? Many first generation Latino immigrants of his age at that time wouldn't have necessarily been fluent in Spanish. Many tried to Americanize themselves by losing the ability to speak Spanish. I don't think being in a bad marriage, if Johnnie even was actually in one, would cause him to leave town entirely and not contact his family, and I especially don't think he'd have to cross the border just to leave his wife. Other than his car, I don't see that he had some huge fortune or owned land, so I don't think divorce would have been a big thing for him if he wanted out.

I just saw a video on youtube about a guy that scuba-dived in a river. He pulled up a bunch of money, phones, shoes, and a bunch of other wild stuff. Maybe a youtuber will dive into the ocean on the side of the PCH one day. I hate to think of what he'd find if he did.
:/
Click to expand...

I found the obituary of Johnnie's eldest brother Fernando online a while back (he died in 2004). According to the write-up, both parents were from the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Fernando was actually born there in 1941, as was his younger sister Argelia in 1943. The family moved to Oxnard in 1945 or 1946 and all the other children were born there. You raise a good point about Johnnie not necessarily speaking fluent Spanish. Just because he was Mexican and lived in Southern California doesn't automatically mean he had direct ties to Mexico.

To be honest, I'm not even sure the marriage was actually bad. The detective in charge of his case told me via email in 2010 that there were "indications" (whatever that means) that he and Annette were having money and marital woes and that some people (his friends, I suppose) were convinced that the marriage only happened because he got her pregnant. Money problems are no surprise; Johnnie was 20 and Annette was 18. They had a young son. Of course they're not going to be the most financially stable or mature couple; they were kids! Marital problems can mean anything, even something as simple as the occasional bicker over Johnnie leaving the seat up or farting. And as far as the apparent rumors that Johnnie only married Annette because of the pregnancy, he likely did. But, in my opinion, that doesn't automatically mean that they didn't love each other or were constantly at each other's throats. I never believed that he just abandoned his wife and son.

I don't remember where I read about this case or if it was ever solved, but it was years ago. A person (don't remember if it was man or woman) went missing with their car. Years later, the car was found in a river or something. The victim's skeletal remains were found inside and quickly identified, but that wasn't the end of things. There were two bullets lodged in the skull. Since no gun was found in the car to indicate suicide, the death was ruled a homicide. There's no indication that anyone wanted to harm or kill Johnnie, but one can never be totally sure.
 
Very true. The family didn't like Annette, right? Perhaps they inflated the claims of marital strife, as a way to get back at her or paint her with a black brush. I'm not sure why they would, since it'd be detrimental to the search for their relative, but good judgement isn't exactly something in spades when one is emotional. It's possible that their anger or panic clouded their judgement.

Do we know if Johnny had any romantic rivals for Annette? That period of time, combined with her age, meant she could have had a couple boyfriends. I'm not trying to slander her; indeed, I feel like she got the short end of the stick here. But there was a case in NY in the early 60's where a man went missing; it later came to light that he was shot by a romantic rival, who then dumped the poor man's body in a local river. Just a thought.
 
Bobby88 said:
I found the obituary of Johnnie's eldest brother Fernando online a while back (he died in 2004). According to the write-up, both parents were from the Mexican state of Guanajuato. Fernando was actually born there in 1941, as was his younger sister Argelia in 1943. The family moved to Oxnard in 1945 or 1946 and all the other children were born there. You raise a good point about Johnnie not necessarily speaking fluent Spanish. Just because he was Mexican and lived in Southern California doesn't automatically mean he had direct ties to Mexico.

To be honest, I'm not even sure the marriage was actually bad. The detective in charge of his case told me via email in 2010 that there were "indications" (whatever that means) that he and Annette were having money and marital woes and that some people (his friends, I suppose) were convinced that the marriage only happened because he got her pregnant. Money problems are no surprise; Johnnie was 20 and Annette was 18. They had a young son. Of course they're not going to be the most financially stable or mature couple; they were kids! Marital problems can mean anything, even something as simple as the occasional bicker over Johnnie leaving the seat up or farting. And as far as the apparent rumors that Johnnie only married Annette because of the pregnancy, he likely did. But, in my opinion, that doesn't automatically mean that they didn't love each other or were constantly at each other's throats. I never believed that he just abandoned his wife and son.

I don't remember where I read about this case or if it was ever solved, but it was years ago. A person (don't remember if it was man or woman) went missing with their car. Years later, the car was found in a river or something. The victim's skeletal remains were found inside and quickly identified, but that wasn't the end of things. There were two bullets lodged in the skull. Since no gun was found in the car to indicate suicide, the death was ruled a homicide. There's no indication that anyone wanted to harm or kill Johnnie, but one can never be totally sure.
Click to expand...

Wow, great research, and you're completely right. We really can't be sure.

Has anyone compared UIDs with Johnnie's stats lately? New cases are added to Namus constantly, and of course many of the new cases are actually very old ones that have only recently been submitted.
 
Chocofreak13 said:
Very true. The family didn't like Annette, right? Perhaps they inflated the claims of marital strife, as a way to get back at her or paint her with a black brush. I'm not sure why they would, since it'd be detrimental to the search for their relative, but good judgement isn't exactly something in spades when one is emotional. It's possible that their anger or panic clouded their judgement.

Do we know if Johnny had any romantic rivals for Annette? That period of time, combined with her age, meant she could have had a couple boyfriends. I'm not trying to slander her; indeed, I feel like she got the short end of the stick here. But there was a case in NY in the early 60's where a man went missing; it later came to light that he was shot by a romantic rival, who then dumped the poor man's body in a local river. Just a thought.
Click to expand...

Well, that was just my theory that the family didn't like Annette. And that was only based on the fact that in that article from 2011, they don't mention her name and used the very non-committal term "former spouse" rather than the more common term "wife". However, that could very well be the writer that chose to put it in those terms.

As far as the marital problems, we don't know specifically who mentioned that to the detectives back then. It need not have come from the family. Perhaps Johnnie's friends were interviewed and they mentioned it. In the article, Johnnie was said to have been fairly happy with his life at the time of his disappearance. I always wondered if he was secretly suffering from depression or anxiety due to stress of being a married father at such a young age, but kept it hidden even from his own twin brother.
 
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