Found Deceased CA - Ronald Cole, 19, Fillmore, 1 May 1965 - remains found October 1966, identified January 2026

[historicallyaccurate]

A 1986 obit for Lucy LaFever is here, listing David LaFever of Arizona as a stepson. If so, then David LaFever wouldn't have been a half brother of Ronald by blood, just a half brother by marriage. It also lists no bio children for her. But some obits are selective versions of the truth.

Ronald and David have the same mother- Lara Hope Ladd. David's father is Harvey LaFever, otherwise known as Ted. Ronald's father is George Washington Cole.

 

[historicallyaccurate]

Current updates in research:
RONALD JOE COLE HAS HIS BIRTH YEAR LISTED INCORRECTLY ON ALL SOURCES. After countless hours of research, I found a spring census from 1950. Ronnie is 3 at the time and his older sister Myrtle is 4. Her birthdate is 100% confirmed as being October 16, 1945. So if she was born in 1945 and 4 at the time of the 1950 census, and Ronnie was a year younger, he'd have to have been born September 21, 1946- NOT 1945 as it's listed everywhere. Ronnie and Myrtle were full blood siblings- both parents were George Washington Cole and Lara Hope (Ladd) Cole. It's impossible that Ronald was born within a couple months of her either way, but she was definitely his older sister. I cannot for the life of me find is birth certificate, but I am fully confident in this discovery. If anyone wants to help with getting this corrected en masse- I've not been responded to by Henry Co Sheriffs office nor by the DNA Doe Project. Maybe I'm overly dwelling on this detail, but he deserves to have his birthdate listed correctly. He was 18 when he disappeared- not 19.
Ronnie (this was what his family called him) has maybe one living sibling- George Washington Cole Jr. He'd be about 77, but locating him is not proving fruitful. He would have been about 15 when Ronnie left to go to David Arthur LaFever's home, and was in the Fillmore are when Ronnie left there.
Siblings are as follows:
Arlene LaFever
David Lafever
Susan Tharp- I believe this is the sister he called when he arrived to David's house!
Myrtle Cole
Ronald Cole
George W Cole
Pamela Cole

His father George W Cole's obituary mentions a *Mrs* Judith Anne Baughman as a surviving child, and George Cole was married prior to Lara Hope, but I cannot find any birth records from the two of them.

Timeline for David Arthur Lafever (so far):
1950- Indiana with grandma
1965- San Diego
1969- Logan, Ohio - David and Margarett's son born
1974- Galt (Sacramento)
1977- h3015 San Carlos Way Sacramento - believe this is where Margarett's brother was buried
1983- Glen Canyon City, Utah (Big Water), 17 miles from Page, AZ
1996- Roff, Oklahoma
1997/98-2000- Phoenix, AZ
2000/2001-2007(death)- Anchorage Alaska

ETA: Records show Margarett and David filing for divorce in April 1974- trying to verify whether this was just a filing or whether it went through, because they stayed together after this time, clearly. Also still looking for their marriage license- thinking it was in Ohio (son born in Ohio, she's from Ohio, but divorce was filed in Sacramento)

 

[Rikissa]

Current updates in research:
RONALD JOE COLE HAS HIS BIRTH YEAR LISTED INCORRECTLY ON ALL SOURCES. After countless hours of research, I found a spring census from 1950. Ronnie is 3 at the time and his older sister Myrtle is 4. Her birthdate is 100% confirmed as being October 16, 1945. So if she was born in 1945 and 4 at the time of the 1950 census, and Ronnie was a year younger, he'd have to have been born September 21, 1946- NOT 1945 as it's listed everywhere. Ronnie and Myrtle were full blood siblings- both parents were George Washington Cole and Lara Hope (Ladd) Cole. It's impossible that Ronald was born within a couple months of her either way, but she was definitely his older sister. I cannot for the life of me find is birth certificate, but I am fully confident in this discovery. If anyone wants to help with getting this corrected en masse- I've not been responded to by Henry Co Sheriffs office nor by the DNA Doe Project. Maybe I'm overly dwelling on this detail, but he deserves to have his birthdate listed correctly. He was 18 when he disappeared- not 19.
Ronnie (this was what his family called him) has maybe one living sibling- George Washington Cole Jr. He'd be about 77, but locating him is not proving fruitful. He would have been about 15 when Ronnie left to go to David Arthur LaFever's home, and was in the Fillmore are when Ronnie left there.

I don't know how the information of the data on old birth certificates in the US was collected, stored, and later perhaps even photocopied/scanned on microfilm, or some other media. I can understand how the date of birth on an old birth certificate got wrong. What I have seen of old birth certificates, they were usually pre-printed documents, with space where additional info such as name, date of birth, and so on was filled in. Back in the mid-1940 the added info could either be written by hand, or typed in. Back then the typewriter tapes were made of fabric, and reused, often for a long time, and faded out letters/numbers could be difficult to interpret, especially from a photocopied original. It might be difficult to see the difference between a '5' and a '6', maybe even with handwritten ones.

 

[historicallyaccurate]

I don't know how the information of the data on old birth certificates in the US was collected, stored, and later perhaps even photocopied/scanned on microfilm, or some other media. I can understand how the date of birth on an old birth certificate got wrong. What I have seen of old birth certificates, they were usually pre-printed documents, with space where additional info such as name, date of birth, and so on was filled in. Back in the mid-1940 the added info could either be written by hand, or typed in. Back then the typewriter tapes were made of fabric, and reused, often for a long time, and faded out letters/numbers could be difficult to interpret, especially from a photocopied original. It might be difficult to see the difference between a '5' and a '6', maybe even with handwritten ones.

Definitely makes sense. A lot of the marriage certificates you can find are handwritten, and it can be hard to read. Even the census forms I read through, you'll see how Ai (or whatever software reads through the documents) will mistake a cursive "a" for an "o" or an "i" with a faint dot mistaken as an "e". And it is true that even David Arthur LaFever's own birth certificate doesn't even have his name on it yet, and it's all hand filled in. Also, Ronald did go missing the year he was turning 19- so maybe the math was done just based on the year, they started saying 19, and then it just went on from there. There's just not a lot out there on this young man, and it'd be nice to at least have his age/birth date correct.

 

[historicallyaccurate]

I'm not surprised his half brother was never charged with killing him back then, as there was no known body. But why wasn't his half brother, David LaFever, not ever charged with killing his wife's Margaret's brother!?

I also wonder why his body was found so faraway. His half brother had known connections to Indianapolis, but not Illinois. Of course, disposing of a body faraway lessens the chance of a correct identification, especially back in the day. Still, that's a long distance to transport a body if Ronald was killed in California. His body was indeed by a creek, as David LaFever claimed to a family member (that's mentioned in an earlier post on this thread), just not the much more obvious one near Fillmore, CA that David mentioned.

It would make sense he was traveling to Indiana and dumped him along the way

 

[beubeubeu]

It would make sense he was traveling to Indiana and dumped him along the way

Or he needed his help with carrying something maybe - like, pack up all this stuff, were going to X and then Im gonna drop you off at mom's place for few days, unload at the destination & die, you know too much.
Driving a body states away doest seem like an evolution point of a guy who murders his young brother in law and buries him in the family backyard (to me).

You did some great work, congrats.
But in same time its pretty sad news... cause it means that he got even less time to live. And possibly went to look for his first real job, hoping to set up a life close to his older siblings.
Over 60 years passed but he barely counted as "young man", still a kid.
I made it up in my mind so now I can haunt myself with it, that he got murdered as he had a hope of getting away from his monstrous brother and seeing home, mom and dad... and never did.

 

[historicallyaccurate]

Or he needed his help with carrying something maybe - like, pack up all this stuff, were going to X and then Im gonna drop you off at mom's place for few days, unload at the destination & die, you know too much.
Driving a body states away doest seem like an evolution point of a guy who murders his young brother in law and buries him in the family backyard (to me).

You did some great work, congrats.
But in same time its pretty sad news... cause it means that he got even less time to live. And possibly went to look for his first real job, hoping to set up a life close to his older siblings.
Over 60 years passed but he barely counted as "young man", still a kid.
I made it up in my mind so now I can haunt myself with it, that he got murdered as he had a hope of getting away from his monstrous brother and seeing home, mom and dad... and never did.

Very possible. The idea of driving from California to Illinois, in warmer weather, in 1965 when man cars didn't have AC, it has me leaning towards Ronnie being alive for at least part of the trip, then add the great point that he buried his BIL in his own backyard, and it pushes me even harder towards him being alive on the trip.
Also, yes!! He was a kid! And the idea he thought he was on a trip back to Indiana to see some family isn't far fetched. So very sad. That's partly why this case has gotten me wrapped up.

*side note- his mom was living in California at the time- I believe he even may have been living with her at the time he went to DAL's in Fillmore. His father was still living in Indiana, however, and I believe his sister Myrtle ("Sharon") also lived there.