Found Deceased CA - John Sturkie, 55, planned to go to the beach, Oceanside, San Diego County, 4 Jan 2019

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OCEANSIDE, Calif. — Police are searching for a 55-year-old man from Oceanside who has been missing for nearly a month.

John Sturkie was last seen around 5 p.m. on January 4 at his Oceanside home, according to police. Sturkie’s wife said he came home in a rush and said he planned to go to the beach. His phone was tracked to El Cajon on Jan. 5 and 6, until his phone died.

Police say Sturkie frequents Palomar Mountain, Julian, Brawley/Calipatria and mud caves in Anza-Borrego.

He is described as 6’5″ and 243 pounds. He has blue eyes and is bald with a salt-and-pepper goatee. He drives a 2015 silver Toyota Tundra 4WD with lift kit and California license plate No. 62517F2.

Anyone with information should call Elizabeth Bunn of Oceanside Police Department at 760-435-4069 or email ebunn@ci.oceanside.ca.us.

Oceanside Police Department

Police search for missing Oceanside man
 
Why would he be going to the beach at 5pm? The sun sets around 5:20pm. When did the wife report him missing? Something seems off.

All of the places mentioned as places he likes to frequent aren't anywhere near El Cajon, nor on roads you would take to get there (76 or 78).
 
Theresa Sturkie said John, an electrician, came home from work Jan. 4 and ate a quick dinner because he was in a rush to get out the door.

“He said that there was going to be an event with some friends. That they were going to do a bonfire and have some readings and stuff that they were going to do,” Theresa said.

Concern set in when she woke up the next morning to find her husband was not home and he was not answering his phone. She told KSWB that she used an app to trace his cellphone to El Cajon, about 45 miles south, but did not find him or his silver 2015 Toyota Tundra with California license plate No. 62517F2.

"He’s such a family person. I’ve been married 20 years and he always comes back home,” she said.

Theresa said John is not only a family man who deeply loves his kids but is also very involved in his church and Boy Scouts and had an upcoming trip that he would not have missed.

Theresa also mentioned that her husband has not pulled any money from the bank and has not used his cards.

Search continues for California father of four, missing for nearly a month
 
First question: what do his friends have to say? Does the whole beach—bonfire—readings sound like anything they did that evening—or for that matter, anything they’d done in the past?
 
Just heard about this today thanks to Daily Mail. I guess I'll weigh in, since I haven't seen my theories posted yet.

I think it is 1 of 3 possibilities. Most likely IMO is the Wife is involved in his disappearance, making his death much more probable than not. 2nd theory is he had a drug problem, and he had been headed to pick some up without letting his wife know. 3rd possibility IMO is he was having an affair, and something bad happened that night.

If I HAD to place a bet, I'd say the story about him going to a beach party was completely fabricated by his wife, along with the religious stuff she said they did before he left. It would help to know exactly when she reported him missing? I'm not married, but if I was, and I realized my spouse had not come into bed the night before, I'd be on the phone to 911 the second I woke up. Actually, I would not go to sleep in the first place, if my spouse, who was supposedly going to a party, did not return.

Now if I were the wife, and had killed my husband, and came up with the beach party story as a way to make it seem like I wasn't involved, when the police undoubtedly asked about "which friends" he was going to meet, my response would be...."I don't know, he didn't say." Because obviously, if I did name some of the friends he was going to meet, the next people the cops would interview would be those friends, who would then destroy the whole beach party story.
 
"He’s such a family person. I’ve been married 20 years and he always comes back home,” she said.

He always comes back home??? So he's got a history of leaving?
Maybe I'm reading too much into the statement. Reading between the lines, I think their marriage may not have been great but he really loved his kids and therefore would not get divorced. I'm leaning toward theory #3.
 
FlamingoLady said:
He always comes back home??? So he's got a history of leaving?
Maybe I'm reading too much into the statement. Reading between the lines, I think their marriage may not have been great but he really loved his kids and therefore would not get divorced. I'm leaning toward theory #3.
Click to expand...

If he was having an affair, I think the authorities would be able to learn about that fairly easily, especially if they checked phone/internet records. Of course, I've watched enough Lifetime & ID shows to know that this only increases the likelihood of the spouse somehow being involved. Each day that goes by without any sign of an affair, makes it less and less likely there was one IMO.
 
SoCalDavidS said:
Just heard about this today thanks to Daily Mail. I guess I'll weigh in, since I haven't seen my theories posted yet.

I think it is 1 of 3 possibilities. Most likely IMO is the Wife is involved in his disappearance, making his death much more probable than not. 2nd theory is he had a drug problem, and he had been headed to pick some up without letting his wife know. 3rd possibility IMO is he was having an affair, and something bad happened that night.

If I HAD to place a bet, I'd say the story about him going to a beach party was completely fabricated by his wife, along with the religious stuff she said they did before he left. It would help to know exactly when she reported him missing? I'm not married, but if I was, and I realized my spouse had not come into bed the night before, I'd be on the phone to 911 the second I woke up. Actually, I would not go to sleep in the first place, if my spouse, who was supposedly going to a party, did not return.

Now if I were the wife, and had killed my husband, and came up with the beach party story as a way to make it seem like I wasn't involved, when the police undoubtedly asked about "which friends" he was going to meet, my response would be...."I don't know, he didn't say." Because obviously, if I did name some of the friends he was going to meet, the next people the cops would interview would be those friends, who would then destroy the whole beach party story.
Click to expand...

I have questioned the same. The religious aspect also seemed very odd to me. Especially that she told him to say it to her back. If this was something they did often throughout their 20 year marriage, wouldn’t he know to repeat it back? MOO
 
So she traced his phone to El Cajon, went down there but didn't find him or his truck. El Cajon is a city. She looked all over the whole city? Or was the phone traced to a specific spot/house/business and she's just not relaying that info? I don't know....just sounds hinky.
 
FlamingoLady said:
So she traced his phone to El Cajon, went down there but didn't find him or his truck. El Cajon is a city. She looked all over the whole city? Or was the phone traced to a specific spot/house/business and she's just not relaying that info? I don't know....just sounds hinky.
Click to expand...
I was guessing like the find iPhone app. It will give you an exact location the phone is at. It shows street names. My husband and I use it and if I were looking for him, I would wait until my phone showed in the same spot as his. Hope that makes sense.
 
FlamingoLady said:
"He’s such a family person. I’ve been married 20 years and he always comes back home,” she said.

He always comes back home??? So he's got a history of leaving?
Maybe I'm reading too much into the statement. Reading between the lines, I think their marriage may not have been great but he really loved his kids and therefore would not get divorced. I'm leaning toward theory #3.
Click to expand...
I was thinking along the same lines. "He always comes back." Always comes back? Back from where? It makes it sound as though he does this often, but always comes back.
If you have ever used some of those locator apps, not all are very accurate. Some will just get you into the area.
Which, brings me to this though... what if she needed to explain why she was in that area, also? I guess I would start looking for him there.
 
Yeah, I forgot about the phone thing. So when she went to the authorities, she happened to have the phone already, since she supposedly went to El Cajon to retrieve it? If I were a cop, my next question would be EXACTLY where in El Cajon did you find it? Take us to that spot. Of course, IF she did kill him, it wouldn't have been too difficult for her to locate the phone. Next step....scour that phone and the call records for the last activity. Watching too many of these "murder" shows is making me lean more and more to the spouse. Only thing that would sway me in the other direction, is if she had concrete answers to questions that a spouse would logically be able to answer about their partner of 20 years.

Just like the other thread I'm hooked on, with the cops playing RR, what seems logical? Does it pass the smell test? Sure, to convict, evidence & motive are key, but does it add up? None of my friends who have been married 20+ years, would just say they were going to a nighttime beach party with some friends, without Much More detail. And not to bring seasons into the situation, but a beach bonfire in January? What exactly was the temperature that night?

Playing defense attorney now....if the authorities were to figure out there was no beach party, that in no way proves she is deserving of conviction beyond a reasonable doubt. Her next move would be to say that's just what he told her. She can easily say that she thought he was being honest about where he was going, and thus she has no real idea what happened to him. This is because the person telling the lie is not her. The person telling the lie is the dead guy, who is not here to contradict her.
 
I don't think she found his phone. I thought she said she went to El Cajon but did not find him or his truck. I don't think anything was mentioned about finding his phone. She just tracked it there. Which then begs the question--Well if you tracked there but you couldn't find anything, did you keep tracking it to see where it went?
Or did the phone die?
Also, I live in SoCal and a bonfire on the beach in January is very doable.

Edit to add: I just realized you have SoCal in your name/profile:)
 
I agree—a bonfire on the beach sounds believable to me—January or not—IF it’s something that his friends might actually do.

I think there’s a possibility #4, a carjacking. El Cajon is a plausible direction for a carjacker to drive. Of course, that also makes it a good place for someone who’s inventing a story.
 
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