CA - Unidentified & possible missing victims of Randy Kraft, 1971-1983

[CALSAR]

It's really something else all of the people who this guy crossed paths with --when he lived at the 1727 1/2 Ocean Blvd address in the mid-1970s, he was neighbors with my parents (I think he moved before I was born). I remember my mom talking about his arrest with one of her friends (who also knew him from the beach neighborhood). Recently out of curiosity, I asked my mom if she thought that Jeff Graves had been his accomplice (since she was acquainted with both of them) and she said (in her opinion) that she didn't think so, that Jeff had seemed like to gentle of a person to do those things.

I'm not that familiar with Garden Grove except for the area that directly borders Seal Beach. I am trying to find the locations of the bars (as well as other places Randy Kraft frequented because I think that possibly this might help with understanding the list). I know where Ripples, Siver Fox, and the Sportsman are because they are still there and I read that the Buoy Shed and Broomhilda's were at 9th and PCH in Sunset Beach (this is where John Doe Hawth Off Head's leg was found). DOK West is a new one to me.

DOK was on Garden Grove Blvd a little west of Harbor. Kraft operated alone, I am certain of that as one can be. I think this was something he did do amuse himself.

I will write a complete detail of the events of that night and what followed as soon as I can. I am in San Diego for a meeting today and my iPad is down to 10 percent power.

 

[Ambercat]

Kraft operated alone, I am certain of that as one can be. I think this was something he did do amuse himself.

I thought that he usually operated alone, except there were a few cases where the victims had semen on them from a person with a different blood type than Kraft (I guess they could have been with someone else prior to their death, too). The only case that I can think of off the top of my head where LE was pretty sure 2 people were involved was John William Leras (according to Crime Library) --

Two killers were apparently involved in the December 1974 murder of John Leras, a 17-year-old high school student....Two sets of footprints marked the sand where he was carried from a car park to the water.

Bob Jackson claimed to be Randy Kraft's accomplice, yet LE did not find him to be credible. I am curious about what sort of person Jeff Graves was, hence the question to my mom.

 

[SurfieTX]

Carl Stuart describes his younger brother (Oral Stuart) as a mama's boy and didn't think his brother would suddenly leave what he loved so much.

"He was a victim of homicide and they believe he was the victim of a serial killer, he had no clothes on him, no ID, no nothing," he said.

Carl Stuart specifically recalls serial killer Randy Kraft, who was suspected of preying on men just like Carl Stuart's brother and was sentenced to death in 1989.

"That was his preference - young, soft looking and also the fact that he was a Marine," said Carl Stuart.

Kraft also picked up hitchhikers and young men at bars. Carl Stuart said his brother was drunk that night he was murdered and hitchhiked since about age 14.

"I figured he got in the car with the wrong guy and he killed him," he said.

http://www.kpho.com/story/17196518/police-connect-missing-marine-with-1974-murder

 

[Ambercat]

I came across an article in the May 20, 1983 Orange County Register. It gives a little more information about Gregory Jolley's murder --

Gregory Jolley, 16, of Orange. Parts of his body were found on Sept. 14, 1979, in trash bags dumped along Highway 330 outside San Bernardino. Other parts of his body were found in trash bins near Interstate 15. Cause of death was injuries to the neck.

http://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register/1983-05-20/page-122?tag=randy+steven+kraft&rtserp=tags/?pep=randy-steven-kraft&psb=dateasc
I was surprised to read this, because until now, I hadn't realized that any of Randy Kraft's confirmed victims were dumped [all or in part] near I-15 (the highway that takes you from the LA area to Las Vegas, NV.

 

[pjclover]

Something that confused me about the scorecard notations from the 1988 LATimes article:


31. 2 IN 1 HITCH--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder(s).

I've read that this is now associated with DeVaul and Nelson, which makes much more sense to me than the entry they were originally assigned to:

44. 2 IN 1 BEACH--

Does this mean than 2 IN 1 BEACH is now also unsolved/unassigned?

 

[CarlK90245]

I came across an article in the May 20, 1983 Orange County Register. It gives a little more information about Gregory Jolley's murder --

Gregory Jolley, 16, of Orange. Parts of his body were found on Sept. 14, 1979, in trash bags dumped along Highway 330 outside San Bernardino. Other parts of his body were found in trash bins near Interstate 15. Cause of death was injuries to the neck.

http://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register/1983-05-20/page-122?tag=randy+steven+kraft&rtserp=tags/?pep=randy-steven-kraft&psb=dateasc
I was surprised to read this, because until now, I hadn't realized that any of Randy Kraft's confirmed victims were dumped [all or in part] near I-15 (the highway that takes you from the LA area to Las Vegas, NV.

Multiple trash bags, some dumped in several roadside locations in the outskirts of the L.A. main population centers, and others in trashbins . That sounds more like Kearney's M.O. than Kraft's. But Kearney was arrested in 1977.

 

[Ambercat]

Multiple trash bags, some dumped in several roadside locations in the outskirts of the L.A. main population centers, and others in trashbins . That sounds more like Kearney's M.O. than Kraft's. But Kearney was arrested in 1977.

I think the difference was cause of death (Kearney shot his victims while Kraft usually strangled them). It also could be that when Kearney was arrested, he confessed to LE about the people who he killed and Gregory Jolley wasn't one of them? John Doe "Hawth off Head" was dismembered and found in trash bags in multiple locations.

 

[CarlK90245]

Kearney did strangle a couple of his younger victims.

 

[Ambercat]

Something that confused me about the scorecard notations from the 1988 LATimes article:


31. 2 IN 1 HITCH--Name unconnected to any unsolved murder(s).

I've read that this is now associated with DeVaul and Nelson, which makes much more sense to me than the entry they were originally assigned to:

44. 2 IN 1 BEACH--

Does this mean than 2 IN 1 BEACH is now also unsolved/unassigned?

Most of the definitions of the entries on the list were done by LE or maybe the writers of the LA Times article, since Randy Kraft has always denied killing anyone. :what:

Personally, I don't think all of the definitions are accurate (as soon as I saw the sign at the El Dorado Lakes Complex, I was sure that Lakes MC was Oral "Buddy" Stuart Jr. and not Gregory Jolley). I'm not sure which 2 in 1 entry refers to Rodger DeVaul and Geoffrey Nelson. I know that they don't believe that Eric Church is on the list, but recently I was wondering if he was the "England" entry towards the end of the list because he was from New England (Coventry/Hartford, Connecticut).

 

[Ambercat]

I found this article about Jeffrey Bryan Sayre (who is to the best of my knowledge still missing and not listed in NamUs, Doe Network, and the Charley Project) who disappeared on November 24, 1979 and thought to be the Westminster Date notation on Randy Kraft's list.
http://newspaperarchive.com/santa-ana-orange-county-register/1982-02-27/page-28?tag=westminister+bolsa+chica+station&rtserp=tags/westminister-bolsa-chica-station?page=3&psb=dateasc
I can't focus very well on the photo of Jeffrey that his mom, Arvetta Sayre, is holding. Does anyone know if there is a better photo of him available? When he disappeared he was a sophomore at Saddleback High School -- I am not sure if the yearbook for 1979-1980 school year is available on Classmates.

 

[CarlK90245]

Classmates doesn't have a 1979-80 Yearbook, but they do have a 1978-79 book.

Here is Jeffrey Sayre's freshman photo, and a photo of him with the cross-country team.

 

[Ambercat]

Jeffrey Sayre's disappearance on November 24, 1979 happened a few days before an unidentified young man was found in Kern County on November 30, 1979.

http://missingme.2007.angelfire.com/kern_county_john.html

The unidentified young man is described as having brown hair and being between 15 to 18 years old on The North American Center for Unidentified Persons page (which is actually the only place I can find him listed) – the Orange County Register listed his age as being between 19 and 25. Jeffrey Sayre looks like he has brown hair in one of the photos (in the track photo, he looks blond to me), but so do a lot of people. He doesn't appear to be listed on any of the missing persons websites and the OC Register Article unfortunately doesn't list any vital statistics for him.

According to the Orange County Register on August 3, 1983, William Bonin was acquitted of this young man's murder by a Los Angeles County Grand Jury.

John Doe, an unidentified male victim thought to be between 19 and 25, was discovered in a dry irrigation pond near Taft in Kern County on Nov. 30, 1979. Charges against Bonin were dismissed for lack of evidence in Los Angeles.

I wonder if LE had ever compared the UID found in Taft to Jeffrey Sayre; and are certain that the UID was killed by William Bonin (since he was acquitted by a grand jury) or could he have possibly been killed by Randy Kraft? I’ll try to check this out because, according to some of the news articles at the time, there were a few (I am not sure how many) murders that they were unable/unwilling to charge him with after Vernon Butts committed suicide because it was Mr. Butts’ confession that linked William Bonin to that particular murder. Because the UID found in Taft was not listed on the Kern County website, I e-mailed and asked about him, but I never received a response.

 

[Ambercat]

I received an e-mail from Sergeant Dan Edgerle from Kern County saying that the investigation of the UID found near Taft on November 30, 1979 was taken over and handled jointly by LAPD and LASO. He did not know if the person was ever identified (Kern County did not have a record of it).

Recently, the Long Beach Press-Telegram printed an article about the unidentified young man found on Division St near Corona in Long Beach, CA stated that his death was a homicide and that he was strangled. http://www.presstelegram.com/portal/news/ci_20769916/cold-cases-when-even-victims-are-mystery I think he might have been a victim of Randy Kraft -- he didn't mutilate all of his victims (Craig Victor Jonaites and Thomas Paxton Lee are two who were not and, coincidentally, both found in Long Beach).

 

[CarlK90245]

According to Murderpedia.com, Jeffrey Sayre was listed on Kraft's scorecard as "WESTMINSTER DATE" because Sayre was heading to his girlfriend's home in Westminster when he was picked up by Kraft.

http://www.murderpedia.org/male.K/k/kraft-randy.htm

ETA: I just realized that Ambercat already pointed that out.

 

[smile22]

could the oxnard be johnnie joe herrea ?

 

[Ambercat]

I was reading something that discussed an Iowa Lane in Manvel, TX. This made me think of the Iowa notation on Randy Kraft’s list. I looked to see if there was an Iowa Street in one of the cities that he was active in – sure enough, there is an Iowa in the city of Irvine near where the I-5 (Santa Ana Freeway) meets CA-261/Jamboree Rd. I am not sure if the street was there prior to 1983 and/or there were any dead men associated with it.

Ironically, there is an Angell Street in Downey that William Bonin lived on.

There is a street called Carpenter Ave in Studio City, but that isn’t really an area of Los Angeles County he was active in. Carpenter Street is near I-210 (Foothill Freeway) in San Bernardino. There is a Carpenteria in Irvine.

Oxnard Street appears to be a fairly large roadway in Van Nuys/North Hollywood, but it’s the same problem as Studio City – I don’t think it is an area Randy Kraft frequented.

England Street in Huntington Beach is near where Kevin Clark Bailey (Airplane Hill) was found in 1973. It is also close to Beach Blvd, the street Randy Kraft lived on in Midway City when he was growing up.

I looked at Hawthorne Blvd on Yahoo Maps to see if it intersected with anything remotely close to Head; so far the closest I found was a Hardy Street near Centinela Hospital, but that isn’t very close IMO.

 

[Ambercat]

I am really sorry if this is a duplicate, but today there were some modifications on an UID from LA County found on December 8, 1980 NamUs page and I thought that he could possibly be a victim of Randy Kraft. https://identifyus.org/en/cases/4362

The deceased sounds sort of like Amadeo Vigil if the burn scar on Mr. Vigil's right arm is near his elbow. https://www.findthemissing.org/en/cases/7147/108

 

[Ambercat]

Recently, there have been some changes/modifications made to NamUs UP # 4344, including more information about where he was found. https://identifyus.org/cases/4344

On 4/13/1981 skeletal remains were found in a brush area along side the roadway near 1900 N. Ivar St. in Hollywood, CA

1900 N. Ivar St. is very close (about block on Google Earth and Yahoo Maps) to the Hollywood (101) Freeway. I thought he could possibly be a victim of Randy Kraft. I guess since his probable year of death is estimated to be between 1980 and 1981, he could also have been a victim of William Bonin, too.

I couldn’t find this UID in the Doe Network.

 

[smile22]

got these names from doe


kraft score card listed portland on it number 16 no name associated with it other than portland

these are the poeple who went missing from ore

these are the people who went missing from ore in the mid to late 70s

Brian Joseph Page, 16, Salem, portland, 12 Jan 1975 he is the spotlight case right now on ws

John Haywood Barretoary 20, 1977 from Lake Oswego, Clackamas County, Oregon - but according to his family he was living in florida at the time he went missing so i am not sure why doe has him missing from ore

Jay Calvin Pringle
Missing since April 19, 1977 from Medford, Jackson County, Oregon. but he went missing in california hooked up with an unknown man could have been kraft and he named him portland cuz its the big city in ore

Edward Chester Nye
Missing since June 22, 1978 from Prospect, Jackson County, Oregon camping with a church group left to go fishing vanished

Randall Dean Leach
Missing since November 6, 1980 from Bend, Deschutes County, Oregon.
Classification: Missing last seen in idaho


number 16 on the score card for kraft "portland "jay calvin pringle went missing from california he was orginaly from medford ore but kraft could have been involved with him and listed him as portland because portland is the biggest city in ore?

 

[Ambercat]

Julie Haney, an NCIS investigator, went to San Quentin to speak with Randy Kraft after Oral Stuart Jr. was identified. He refused to talk to her about Mr. Stuart.

http://www.dennismcdougal.com/blog.htm?post=845631