CA CA - Elizabeth 'Beth' Funchess, 6 mos, San Jose, 9 Sept 1977

[TSL7584]

Missing 45 years

 

[John/Jane Doe]

Elizabeth Dorothy Funchess – The Charley Project

 

[MissMendo]

BUMP .

 

[John/Jane Doe]

3011DFCA - Elizabeth Dorothy Funchess

 

[MissMendo]

California Death Index, 1940-1997 Record
about DIANE EDITH FUNCHESS
Name: FUNCHESS, DIANE EDITH
Social Security #: 267940131
Sex: FEMALE
Birth Date: 26 Dec 1946
Birthplace: MASSACHUSETTS
Death Date: 16 Sep 1981
Death Place: SANTA CRUZ
Mother's Maiden Name: PIERE
Father's Surname: CROOKE


Is this her?

Yes

 

[MissMendo]

A search of Ancestry.com yielded an Elizabet D. Funchess, born Feb 20th, 1977, in Santa Clara County CA. Mother's maiden name is Crooke. I believe this may be the missing daughter.

St Pierre was the grandmother's maiden name.

 

[MissMendo]

Hope this message gets to you. I'm not sure what I'm doing. I knew Diane when she lived in Pompano Beach, Fl. back in the '60s. Please write me.

Would you mind if I did? If open to it, I'd like to see if you can answer a couple of questions

 

[MissMendo]

I looked on intelius and there is an Elizabeth Funchess living in FL age 32. Does any have a DOB of the child? It would be very unlikely if she was abducted as an infant that her name was not changed by the abductor so this is probably not her.

Thank you CTaylor for the links to the old articles about all the psychic visions on the Diane Funchess (and Baby Beth) murder/abduction. These articles helped shake loose some old memories. First, I remember the reporter Ron Laytner very well. I remember he said he was going to chronicle Diane's dissapearance in a book he was going to call "The Psychic Search." I guess that never came to be, but in checking on his status...he is quite a decorated photojournalist/journalist. I remember him as very high energy, and quite glib.

I do remember all the psychic leads that were being tracked, but I remember the one psychic's prediction proved accurate. I thought that was Clarisa Bernhardt? She did predict how, and where Diane's remains would be found. (In a shallow grave after the rains). I remember seeing a clip on the news (maybe ten years later) of her Dad standing next to where they found her body in the Santa Cruz mountains, near the Locatelli Ranch, where her husband worked at one time.

I remember there were many theories on her dissapearance at the time. Her husband Ken was initially the prime suspect, as husbands always are. He mentioned to me that he and Diane had gone through some rough times, but that once they purchased a water bed, things picked up, and then the baby was born. I thought this was a very strange thing to be telling me (I was a stranger to him, a volunteer (I had a friend that knew the family), who was helping post flyers on the dissapearance of Diane and Beth.)

I remember that Ken was under great scrutiny for two specific reasons, other than just being the husband, and therefore the usual prime suspect. First, a bloody hunting bag was found in the garage but did prove to be deers blood from a hunt he had conducted the day before (or of) the dissapearance. Strange coincidence....Second, there was a good friend of theirs, "J", who was a glitzy, buxom blonde. I remember lots of speculation on the nature of "J's" and Ken's friendship. None the less, I was told that Ken did pass his polygraph.

One thing is consistent in my memory. All the psychics and police experts believed that Baby Beth was alive. The common theory was a black market baby abduction. The child was blonde/blue eyed and beautiful. I would also say that the article where the one psychic suggests that Diane left on her own accord does not seem probable considering she could not see without her thick glasses, which were left behind with her purse, diaper bag, etc.

Thank you again CTaylor for the news articles. It really shook loose some old memories. SOMEONE OUT THERE KNOWS WHO KILLED DIANE FUNCHESS and took BABY BETH. It's been over thirty years, but I can never forget her. All of you on this thread, please don't give up. Diane deserves justice. God Bless.

Everything I have seen indicates the child to have had dark hair and blue grey or blue green eyes? Maybe I misunderstood.

 

[MissMendo]

Well Diane, post number 4000 is dedicated to you. When I joined this forum almost 7 years ago to post about you, I never had any idea I'd still be posting 7 years later! Maybe your case led me here to help others in whatever little way I do....

But still we don't know, these 39 years later who murdered you, or whatever happened to Baby Beth.
But i've never forgotten you. I will keep sleuthing, and I think the right place to look now is for Beth.
I think whomever murdered you would be in their 70's now, and thinking about their own mortality. Maybe they want to make peace, and will speak. We can only pray.

So honoring you, Diane, with my 4000th post, and thinking of you this Thanksgiving week. God Bless you!

I think I might have something that is in my opinion EXTREMELY worthy of sending in. I'm going to be doing a little bit more research tonight and tomorrow I plan to attempt to connect with someone. I don't know if anyone's still visiting this thread but if so, I will be updating with the conclusion as soon as I get a confirmation or rule out .

 

[MissMendo]

This is from a 1981 Santa Cruz Sentinel article. This should put to rest that her remains were not found at the Locatelli Ranch.
Santa Cruz Sentinel from Santa Cruz, California

Detectives today said they are still sifting through clues in the murder of Diane Crooke Funchess. whose remains were found in a garbage-strewn ravine off Skyline Boulevard.

I wonder what those clues were

 

[MissMendo]

Hi lets find beth. My name is bill o'gorman . I am diane funchess cousin. Have you read about how the golden state rapist in california was caught. By chance he entered his dna to one of these ancestory dna sites and it came back as a match. As you probaly know these dna sites have millions of samples in their data banks but these sites are private and the police can not access them with out search warrants which they won't do unless they have specific information. I do not know if they have dna samples from diane. I talked to cousin sally dianes sister last night. The police took a dna sample from her about six years ago. I know that your uncle ken passed away a couple of years ago but do you know if he ever gave a dna sample to someone. He might have gave it to the police or if he has any children. Now this could be a long shot providing beth dna is in the data base like millions of people are and every year millions are added. I know because my family is in one of these data base's.If we submit kens and sally's dna to these dna web sites and wait to see if there is a hit. Keep in mind that ken and sally are not blood related so if we get both lists of possible relations of the dna tests and we have the same name on both lists as possible relatives then i would presume this would be beth and we can take it from there. <modsnip>

I'd like to talk to you. Do you have an email or social media account that I can contact you on? I don't always remember to check here.

 

[SophieRose]

I worked with Diane in 1970 at First Valley Bank in the Data Processing department. She was abducted I believe on September 9, 1977, that might have been the date of the article, but I think it is the actual date of the abduction. A similar case happened while I was living in the Sacramento area in 1991 which caused me to go and look up the info. Across from the State Capitol are the state archives which has newspapers from all over the state. I knew that it had happened before I moved out of San Jose in November of 1977, so I just went back to the date I left (11/17/77) and started working back. I printed off a copy of the article from the San Jose Mercury but I can't find it at the moment. When my wife and I were considering moving back to California in late 1981 and early 1982 we started getting the Santa Cruz paper and during this time is when Dian'e body was found near the Santa Cruz Summit on Highway 17. As far as I know the baby was never found and the baby was about 6-7 months old when the abdution happened. I knew when I first read about it in the paper that when her glasses were found it was not good as she could not see very well at all without them. As far as I know the case is still open with the Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Department, at least it still was when I checked with them in 1991. I turned over all the information I could to the Placer County Sherriff's Department because of the similarities between the two cases. The other case that I'm refering to is that of Cindy Wanner of Granite Bay that happened on 11/25/1991. Her body was found two weeks later in the Sierra foothills in an area similar to where Diane's body was found. There were simliarities between the two women as well the manner of abduction. They were roughly the same age at the time of their abductions (earlu 30's), height (5-8 to 5-10), were rather plain in appearance and taking care of young children at the time of their abduction. In the other case the child wasn't taken. Diane from my memory of her belonged to a fundementalist church as did the other woman. There were some differences in that the community that Cindy Wanner was abducted from was pretty upscale from the description in the paper while Rainbow Drive in San Jose was not any thing too fancy from my recollection of the area at that time. Actually I was somewhat surprised to hear that she was living in San Jose because when I knew her she was living off Highway 9 in the Santa Cruz Mountains near the 'Chateau' and loved living up there.
Engima, thanks for bringing this case up as it has bothered me for years. She had an influence on my life as quite often we talked about religion and relationships at work. She acted like an older sister to me in giving me advice even though I was her supervisor, but I was a little bit younger. My parents were seperated at the time and most of the people that I knew at the time seemed unable to maintain relationships. Diane was always very positive about her marriage and her husband and I knew that she wanted to have children. Which is one of the reasons why I think I get so upset about this case. Here she is 7 years later with a young child finally and this happens. I was very glad when the husband was cleared as that would have been too upsetting for me to handle, plus we, the husband and I, share the same first name. What is another oddity for me is that my wife and I named our daughter Elizabeth which I didn't realize until I went back and re-read the news article in 1991. I may have some other information that may be useful but can't think of it right now, so please feel free to contact me. Thanks again engima, it is nice to know that someone else still cares about Diane other than her family.

The Chateau was a rock and roll bar/club located on Old Santa Cruz Highway from sometime in the 1960s til 1980. It was located above Lexington Reservoir, and has a Santa Clara County address. It's not near Highway 9 (close to Highway 17) but area still considered part of the Santa Cruz Mountains. Also nothing business near it but the stained glass shop in Holy City.

I had always heard about the place but never knew where it was. Then in the 1990s did a bicycle ride from Santa Cruz to San Jose and passed it. It had long been closed but had a plaque up about its history including some of the famous musicians who played there. Most people associate the Doobie Brothers with the place.

 

[Kermitti]

My family situation is kind of messy (and my parents are already dead), and I would like to rule out the possibility of being Elizabeth. I just turned 48, my birthday is 3.9., according to my birth certificate. At this point I have absolutely no trust in any authorities, and they're already probably thinking I'm some totally crazy person. Is there any close relatives of Elizabeth still alive?

 

[Beekarina]

You could take a DNA test and see if your results make sense based on what you know of your identity, and that of your parents of record. That would be a good place to start.

Since they are deceased, you should be able to put together a family tree going back a couple of generations fairly easily with public information. Ancestry and similar sites are usually straightforward.

If you already did this, and learned your parents are not your biological parents, you could probably easily enough figure out who Elizabeth's surnames would be and if you match those people. If you do, then bringing that information to the authorities would be tangible and I would think something they would take seriously. It is a bit different than saying "Hey I wonder if I could be such and such a person...."