CA CA - Michael Lawrence Mondini, 22, San Fransisco, 1979

[victoriarobinson642]

NAMUS:

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

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Missing Age - 22 Years
Current Age - 64 Years
First Name - Michael
Middle Name - Lawrence
Last Name - Mondini
Sex - Male
Height - 5' 11" (71 Inches)
Weight - 200 lbs
Race / Ethnicity - White / Caucasian
Date of Last Contact - December 31, 1979
Location - San Francisco, California 94110
Circumstances of Disappearance - Michael Mondini was last known to be in San Francisco, California in 1979.
Hair Color - Brown
Eye Color - Brown
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[MadMcGoo]

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Found floating in the SF Bay. Same height with evidence of track marks. Could explain weight loss.

The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

By bringing people, information, forensic science and technology together, NamUs helps resolve cases.

www.namus.gov

Suicide I presume. Almost a year later.

 

[MadMcGoo]

Is it me or does he look older than 22 in that picture?

 

[victoriarobinson642]

Is it me or does he look older than 22 in that picture?

He does. Perhaps his choice in facial hair?

 

[MadMcGoo]

He does. Perhaps his choice in facial hair?

Possibly. His hands looked older to me.

 

[johniac]

Thank you for creating this thread. I’m Mike’s cousin. There are some errors in the NamUS entry that I’m trying to figure out how to correct. He was actually last seen January 1 or 2,1985. And his middle name is spelled Laurence. I’m not sure when the photo was taken, but I’m guessing early 80s.

 

[heartanium]

Thank you for creating this thread. I’m Mike’s cousin. There are some errors in the NamUS entry that I’m trying to figure out how to correct. He was actually last seen January 1 or 2,1985. And his middle name is spelled Laurence. I’m not sure when the photo was taken, but I’m guessing early 80s.

Hi John, the Namus regional program specialist for Michael's case is Allison O'Neal, her email is aoneal@rti.org. Shoot her an email and she'd likely be able to get that information sorted out for you.

 

[johniac]

Thank you. I’ve tried emailing and calling Allison before. She’s really hard to reach.

 

[Ciriii57]

Thank you for creating this thread. I’m Mike’s cousin. There are some errors in the NamUS entry that I’m trying to figure out how to correct. He was actually last seen January 1 or 2,1985. And his middle name is spelled Laurence. I’m not sure when the photo was taken, but I’m guessing early 80s.

Hi there @johniac I just wanted to confirm with you that last contact with Mike was January 1985 and not 1979 as that is a big difference. Also, I wondered if you could give us any further details of his last contact? Thanks

 

[Odyssey]

Hi @johniac Thank you for joining us! Do you know if he was 22 in 1979, or was he actually 22 when he went missing?

Did he live in San Francisco or was he just visiting? It seems like a lot of people vanished from San Francisco who didn't live there, so I'm curious. I checked the San Francisco city directories from 1978-1982 (there arent any later ones) and didnt find him listed. I was trying to narrow down where in San Francisco he might have been last seen.

Do you know anything about the circumstances of his disappearance? Do you think he left voluntarily?

 

[Bit of hope]

Hi @johniac Do you have any idea where the pictures in the Namus file are coming from and in what years they were taken? I see one picture with him wearing glasses. Was he used to wearing them or/and had contact lenses? Do you know his date of birth. If he went missing in 1979, being 22 he is born approx. 1956/1957.

In My Heritage I found this.

 

[johniac]

Thank you all for you help. Mike lived in San Francisco. Last known address was 3410 22nd St, Apt 1. He was born in Oct 1957. The photo is from the early 1980s. He was last heard from in early January 1985 when he called his mother saying that he had gotten a job with a chemical company and would be traveling. He was last seen shortly before that, when he got on a flight from Las Vegas to San Francisco, after having a big argument with his father. A friend in San Francisco supposedly found Mike’s motor scooter abandoned at the San Francisco airport.

I’ve looked into the Las Vegas Desert Inn Rd address before and that appears to be a red herring. One of his sisters lived there and apparently used Mike’s SSN once, and so it gets picked up in public records.

Sometime in the 1990s, the Salvation Army tried to locate him and could not, but they reported that he had learned he was in Dallas, Texas in December, 1987. They did not provide any other details, or the source of the information, and it doesn’t seem to fit with any of the other known details.

 

[Bit of hope]

I found this.

 

[Bit of hope]

I found this. View attachment 439336

Can this be explained? Yet another use of his social security number? Is Michael declared deceased?

 

[Maat99]

And just confirming, not only did no one see him after he boarded his flight, but his belongings were also all left at his apartment in SF?

 

[buyerninety]

Maat99, possibly the sequence of circumstances is
that he flew in to San Francisco, did or did not get
the chemical company job, lived at an apartment
(with other{s}?), and disappeared. I hope the relative
can clarify these things (and an opinion of what any
housemates/associates were like), as if his things were
still at the apartment, it seems more likely to me that,
IMO possibly he was invited to meet/go to somebodies
place, he went there on his scooter, something went
bad & he ended up dead, then the somebodies realized
they had to get rid of the scooter - they could hardly
dump it in the street/forest as, if some citizen reported
finding it, the 1st thing the police would do is make
enquiries with suspicion, 'where is the owner'... instead,
by parking it at the airport, any police force would
probably be more likely to ultimately pass it off as that
he had simply (flown) left the city/State.

 

[Odyssey]

then the somebodies realized
they had to get rid of the scooter

Honestly, what has me a little baffled is how he could have gotten to the airport on a scooter. It's possible that there are backroads I don't know about, but I've driven to and from that airport many times and as far as I know, you have to take 101 and you couldn't drive a scooter on that freeway.

Understandably, since Michael had said he would be traveling, he probably wasn't reported missing for some time, likely too late to check cameras, flight logs, talking to neighbors, etc.

There are SF city directories online but the latest one is from 1982. It might help to find the owner of the apartment, in case he also lived in the same building and maybe knew him? Let me know if you'd like me to look. I'm not sure if this has already been done by the family or police.

 

[Ciriii57]

Honestly, what has me a little baffled is how he could have gotten to the airport on a scooter. It's possible that there are backroads I don't know about, but I've driven to and from that airport many times and as far as I know, you have to take 101 and you couldn't drive a scooter on that freeway.

I don't know the area but all I can say is that if we believe the friend (I have no reason to doubt them) then that scooter did get there somehow either by Michael or by somsomeodespite the roads lol
If it wasn't driven then it would have to have been dropped off in another vehicle, probably a van or truck.
I know I don't know the area but surely there must be other roads that lead to the airport that aren't as busy? Or maybe in the 80s people did take mopeds on the freeway?

If someone other than Michael put the scooter there then I'm struggling to see why? To cover up that they'd murdered him...it seems an unnecessarily risky and over complicated way to cover up when you could just say "he never came home".
My own favoured ideas would be that he flew somewhere (someone knows where) and unfortunately something occurred at this location (accident or foul play) and he was unable to return, perhaps local LE were unable to identify him at the time.
Or he took himself off to start a new life elsewhere. Either he left the scooter because he left of his own accord and just never returned to collect it or he hoped it would throw people off the scent (I don't think that makes sense though)

JMO of course

 

[Maat99]

Honestly, what has me a little baffled is how he could have gotten to the airport on a scooter. It's possible that there are backroads I don't know about, but I've driven to and from that airport many times and as far as I know, you have to take 101 and you couldn't drive a scooter on that freeway.

Understandably, since Michael had said he would be traveling, he probably wasn't reported missing for some time, likely too late to check cameras, flight logs, talking to neighbors, etc.

There are SF city directories online but the latest one is from 1982. It might help to find the owner of the apartment, in case he also lived in the same building and maybe knew him? Let me know if you'd like me to look. I'm not sure if this has already been done by the family or police.

i am also willing to take the word of Michael’s friend only because if he really did something, he didn’t need to volunteer info. No one else was even looking for Michael.
Plus I have this vague bad memory of getting off of a gridlocked freeway by the airport and driving home via side streets. But it would have been very unsafe. That area is/was very industrial, there isn’t a straightforward route - definitely something only a broke, impulsive guy in his 20‘s would try IMO. Maybe he really did have a tiny scooter and he took it onto Bart, got off at Daly City and only used it for the remainder of the way? But when it came time to go home, based on his perilous journey to the airport, he hitched a ride.
Or impulsively decided to hop on a flight elsewhere. IDK.
But if he did make it back home, it’s hard to understand why the scooter being left at the airport is a part of the story from the cousin.

 

[Ciriii57]

Should You Ride a Motor Scooter on the Freeway?

Berts Mega Mall | Powersports HubThe law in California states that any motorcycle with 150cc displacement or more is legal to ride with a motorcycl...

www.bertsmegamall.com

This article says that though not advisable it is perfectly legal in California to ride a scooter on the Freeway. So in this way I see no reason why he wouldn't or couldn't have done just that.