CA CA - Patricia Crandall, Shasta County, 18-19 years old, 13 March 1949

[Shampooedrug]

Just for elimination purposes, Patricia Crandall from Chico was murdered in 1946 at age 15 by a 14 year old boy named Albert Jones! He also murdered a 47 year old housewife and planned to murder his best friend by drowning him. Yikes!

Patricia Ann Crandall (1930-1946) - Find A Grave...

Holy cow! That is evil.

 

[DS2021]

Bumping this back up

 

[rosesfromangels]

Very pretty girl. She would have attracted the attentions of many IWT. I wonder if she was going off somewhere for an illegal (at that time) procedure, and perished from it?

Amateur opinion and speculation

 

[alb1on]

The bump brought me back to this case after a few years. One small point to clear up is that the daughter of Patricia Von Ahn, Diane, is almost certainly the one associated with the Manson Family. Diane Von Ahn - CharlesManson.com. confirms two facts which support this link. Firstly it gives November 16 1949 as one of two possible birthdates for the Manson Diane which matches the birthdate on Diane Von Ahn in Ancestry family trees. Secondly, and perhaps more significantly, the Manson site refers to her returning to Oregon and dying in a racing accident.

I have revisited the various records on Ancestry and see no reason to change my view that the only match for the missing Patricia is Patricia Von Ahn as the other two possibilities can both be traced through Ancestry records which eliminate them as possibilities. But nothing new has emerged and I still consider this will only be resolved to the standard needed to call it definitively solved by LE or DNA testing.

 

[alb1on]

A new brick has appeared to slot into the mystery wall. I found a clipping on Newspapers.com at Record Searchlight from Redding, California showing a Reno marriage for Patricia Crandall age 19 and Gene Cline age 21 both of Redding in Shasta County and dated 9 July 1949. I attach the clipping. This was 4 months after the missing Patricia left and fits with running away, possibly pregnant, to get married. It would also reconcile the 1955 marriage to Curtis Von Ahm with the 1949 birthdate for Diane and does suggest she was born Cline and adopted by her mother's second husband. Obviously this is speculative but does offer a further route to look at; was Diane born Cline and subsequently changed her name to Von Ahn? Unfortunately her SSN was issued in the late 60s, long after any name change. Equally unfortunately the marriage and divorce records for Nevada only start from 1956 on Ancestry so it is not possible to confirm either the 1949 Crandall-Cline marriage or any subsequent Reno divorce. I am fairly sure Gene Cline is Eugene Bennett Cline, who is shown on Ancestry as born 1928 and living in Redding. There are several trees for him but none that show Patricia.
Finally, one other small oddity. I can no longer find Patricia listed on the California government site at Patricia Crandall. I do not know if this means anything.

 

[howdeeheather]

I also found the Crandall marriage notice recently, and additionally found a divorce notice in the Redding Record-Searchlight October 3, 1949 edition. So, seemingly a divorce three months after the wedding for "mental cruelty."
I also agree the husband seems to be Gene Bennett Cline, based on finding another story from the records about him joining the army at 17. Ages seem to match up. And then the divorce notice says "Gene B."
If that is the correct Gene, he died in 2009.

 

[iulia]

Her NamUs page has been removed.

 

[Darling136]

The California attorney page is also down, so this is interesting, does not seem like only Namus does some update or similar

 

[AirForceVet24]

So I had done a FOIA request on Patrcia's case before it was removed from Namus. It seems that this case was solved in 2024. It was a very interesting read, not much to it, but interesting nonetheless.

 

[Lilibet]

So I had done a FOIA request on Patrcia's case before it was removed from Namus. It seems that this case was solved in 2024. It was a very interesting read, not much to it, but interesting nonetheless.

Can you share anything?

 

[AirForceVet24]

Can you share anything?

Yes,

So she died in 1962 in a car accident under the name Patrcia Von Ahn. From the way I understand it, her missing persons case was essentially forgotten about over the years by the family and by law enforcement. While she had been initially reported missing in 1949, her parents had forgotten to tell the authorities that they had found her.

 

[Lilibet]

Yes,

So she died in 1962 in a car accident under the name Patrcia Von Ahn. From the way I understand it, her missing persons case was essentially forgotten about over the years by the family and by law enforcement. While she had been initially reported missing in 1949, her parents had forgotten to tell the authorities that they had found her.

Thanks! That’s what I thought. Glad you did the FOIA request and settled it once and for all.

Here on WS we had essentially solved this case in 2018.

 

[AirForceVet24]

Thanks so much!

Thanks! That’s what I thought. Glad you did the FOIA request and settled it once and for all.

Here on WS we had essentially solved this case in 2018.

You are so very welcome!! After reading the comments, all the sleuthers did such a great job and the research was absolutely correct!


I actually found it is so interesting, so when Shasta County sent me her file, they sent me the original police report from 1949 and It was like stepping back into history as I was reading it. It felt like Shasta County always thought that she was Patrcia Von Ahn, but they never dug deep enough to prove it. Luckily for us, Patrcia has one surviving child that was able to confirm it.