Residents have vanished with little or no trace
POLICE HDQTRS. — Authorities throughout the country are looking for Santa Monica residents who have vanished. And in some cases, they’ve been missing for nearly a decade.
The whereabouts of five individuals posted on the Santa Monica Police Department’s Web site remain a mystery to family members, as well as to authorities who have been looking for them with the help of a variety of resources.
SMPD detectives have been continuously working with agencies throughout the United States, and in some cases, the United Kingdom, to find the missing Santa Monica residents. But even working with Interpol, the Department of Justice, the INS, the IRS, credit card companies, banks, as well as local, state and other national authorities, Santa Monica detectives have run into dead-ends finding the missing persons.
The SMPD’s Web site serves as an additional resource in hopes that someone will recognize the individuals and contact detectives.
“After going through all of our checks and balances and exhausting our resources, they’ll ultimately go on the Web site in hopes that the public can help locate them,” said SMPD Sgt. Dan Salerno. “The five here are cases that are long-term missings that we’ve had no successes in finding.”
The SMPD will enter a missing person’s information into its own database so if the individual has any contact with police, like arrests or traffic tickets, officers will be alerted to their status. Any information given to the SMPD by the person who reported them missing — like dental records, photographs, or DNA — is forwarded onto the DOJ and other agencies like the sheriff’s department, the coroner’s office and the morgue.
“The DOJ will send us teletypes if they come across anything that resembles body types or descriptions,” Salerno said, adding that as gruesome as it may sound, body parts are regularly analyzed to determine if they came from a missing person file.
There are many more Santa Monica residents who are missing but for a variety of reasons, they haven’t been posted on the Web site.
“If we run into a dead end or have a dry run in the investigation, we’ll put them on the Web site,” Salerno said. “Most of the cases we can find on our own but circumstances dictate what goes on the Web site... If we don’t have a photograph, we are dead in the water.”
Sometimes police will locate missing persons only to find out they didn’t want to be found. If that’s the case and they appear stable and not in any danger, authorities will tell family members or the reporting party that their loved one was found.
“We won’t leave the reporting person hanging,” Salerno said. “Sometimes these people are missing because they don’t want to be found. If we find them and they don’t want to be found, we’ll let the family know that, or they’ll let the family member know that they are alive.”
SMPD at least once a year communicates with the reporting party on the status of the case, as does the DOJ, which requires annual notification.
Anyone having information regarding any of the missing persons is asked to contact the Santa Monica Police Department at (310) 458-8451. Police have little information on the following individuals who have been missing from as long ago as 1994 and as most recently as 2003: #1: GEMMA CORONEL Coronel, also known as Kirsty Jane Ormerod, or Gemma Michelle Taylor, is the most recent missing person case posted on the SMPD Web site.
The 22-year-old, originally from Wales, vanished in 2003 when she failed to meet her 50-year-old husband after a routine work-out. She was last seen on Sept. 3, 2003 at the Santa Monica YMCA, 1300 Sixth St. Coronel said she would meet her husband in the YMCA lobby but when he got there, the receptionist said Coronel had already left. She never showed up and did-n’t tell anyone she was leaving. Her husband reported her missing a few days later.
“She kind of up and left,” Salerno said, adding further investigation revealed that Coronel was initially reported missing in Wales in 2002. “She had a past that the husband did not know about... she has a history of moving on when she is tired or fed up... she just moves on.”
Working with a private missing person group in the United Kingdom and Interpol, SMPD detectives learned that Coronel went missing after she traveled from Wales to Chicago for a Guns and Roses concert in November of 2002. According to family members, she was expected to return to Wales on Nov. 20, 2002. But she never came home. Salerno said Coronel met her future husband in Las Vegas. She moved to Santa Monica with him. Her husband, who still lives on the Westide and her mother, continue to be very concerned about Coronel’s whereabouts, police said. She has not contacted her husband or any common friends. According to her husband, Coronel believed she was pregnant with their child.
Height: Five feet, six inches tall Weight: 130 pounds Hair: Blonde Eyes: Blue Born on either June 12, 1982 or Dec. 6, 1982. Coronel is described as slim with a fair complexion. She has dime-size burns that cover both forearms from a scalding. She has a thick British accent and poor teeth. #2: GRAYSON LYONS Also a Brit, the 35-year-old Lyons was last seen on Nov. 29, 1994. At the time of his disappearance, Grayson lived in Santa Monica with friends. Lyons’ mother had normally been in frequent contact with him but had had a fight with him shortly before his disappearance.
“He may have psychiatric problems and could be living on the street,” Salerno said. “And he could be using an alias which makes it that much harder to find him.”
The last activity on Lyons’ case within the SMPD was in August of 2004. Local detectives are working with Interpol on Lyons’ whereabouts.
Height: Five feet, eight inches tall Weight: 165 pounds Hair: Brown Eyes: Blue Grayson speaks with a British accent. #3: JOHN A. RANDALL The 59-year-old electrical engineer resided in Santa Monica and left his home in August of 1997 but wasn’t reported missing by family members in Greece until a year later. He left behind his cat and other personal belongings. Randall wired $50,000 to his mother in Greece in 1997 and had called his brother in Greece in October of 1997, advising him that he was possibly going to Asia and would contact him once he relocated.
“After that, he wasn’t heard by the family,” Salerno said.
Randall was last seen October of 1997 in Carson City, Nev. He sold his car to a car dealership and cashed the check at a local bank. He had a backpack and suitcase with him, and was last seen on foot.
“He’s a very interesting case and a lot of time and effort has gone into it,” Salerno said. “We have no idea where he went or why.”
Salerno added that Randall has been difficult to find because he was elusive while he lived here — using only P.O. boxes. There’s been no activity on his driving record, bank accounts or credit cards. The case was revisited by the SMPD in October of 2004 after teletypes by outside agencies were sent on Randall but local detectives have come up with nothing.
Height: Five feet, eight inches tall Weight: 145 pounds Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Born on May 5, 1945 California driver’s license number: N7227871 #4: JOHN CLIFTON BUTLER Butler, now 53 years old, was last seen in 1994 living on the streets of Santa Monica. He was reported missing in September of 1999 when a family member tried to locate him to inform him that his father had died and left him a substantial amount of money.
“He’s one of those indigent people that the family hadn’t seen for a long time,” Salerno said, adding the SMPD has checked with all of the local homeless shelters and social service agencies looking for Butler.
He has been in and out of mental institutions from California to Oregon. In 1984, Butler traveled to Belgium but was immediately sent back to the United States due to his mental condition. He suffers from paranoid schizophrenia.
Height: Five feet, 10 inches tall Weight: 130 pounds Hair: Brown Eyes: Brown Born on July 22, 1951 #5: DONALD MARCELINO ALVAREZ-VALLECILLO The 42-year-old has been missing since 1999 but not reported as such until March 2, 2003 when Denny Hirley reported that she had not seen or heard from her uncle, Donald Marcelino Alvarez- Vallecillo.
“He basically just vanished,” Salerno said. “He was single, had friends here. One day he said he was going to return and never did. We think he may have gone back to Nicaragua.”
Alvarez-Vallecillo was temporarily living with Hirley at 1249 Lincoln Blvd. #5 in Santa Monica. He left home during the last week of February 1999 with two Latino men. He has not been seen or heard from since. Upon leaving his residence he said to Hirley, “I’ll be back tonight.”
“We ran in-house checks, with the INS, IRS, anything to link whether this guy is still around,” Salerno said. “If he’s stopped by U.S. Customs, they’ll use the same databases and they’ll notify us.”
He is described as Latino, five feet, eight inches tall, 150 pounds, brown hair, brown eyes. He was born on May 9, 1962. He has a medium build and complexion, and wears a mustache. He has scars above his left eye. He was last seen wearing a black leather jacket, white T-shirt, blue jeans and tennis shoes. He was a passenger in a red Toyota, unknown year. The vehicle had a white colored California license plate.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on January 4, 2005. Read the original PDF.