Remains of LA millionaire missing since 1981 identified after more than 40 years

Authorities in southern California announced this week that, after more than 40 years, they had identified the remains of a Los Angeles millionaire missing since 1981.The Riverside county sheriff confirmed in a statement that investigators, using genetic genealogy and dental records, had determined the remains found in a rugged area near Sugarloaf Mountain were those of Thelma Gaston.Gaston disappeared at age 80 in June 1981, and police believed she had been killed. The Los Angeles county district attorney’s office prosecuted the widow’s former companion, Lawrence Remsen, for her murder, alleging that he killed her to gain access to her $20m estate. The then 40-year-old was sentenced to life in prison.The identification of Gaston’s remains at last brings to close the tragic case.“The Riverside Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau extends its sincere appreciation to everyone whose dedication, expertise, and perseverance made this identification possible,” the agency said in a statement. “Together, these efforts have ensured that Ms Gaston has her name – and her story – returned to her.”Gaston, whose husband and son died in the 1950s, had amassed her substantial fortune by buying and selling repossessed properties, SFGate reported.She disappeared suddenly, with authorities finding a note on her door that said she was going to look for her cat, according to a 1981 article from the Los Angeles Times, but she never returned. Investigators with the Los Angeles Police Department quickly turned their attention to Remsen. The former carpet salesman had recently become connected to Gaston, and their friends suggested they were romantically involved, the LA Times reported.Police said that Remsen had tried to “siphon off” Gaston’s vast fortune, attempting to sell more than $1m of her property, and authorities found her Mercedes at his apartment. He disappeared during the investigation and was eventually arrested while crossing the border from Mexico into Texas.During his trial, prosecutors alleged that he killed Gaston with “pre-meditation and planning” and disposed of her body to gain access to her money, according to a December 1982 article from the Daily Breeze. Remsen testified that she had died of natural causes, and claimed he had dumped her body at sea in order to pretend she was still alive and liquidate her estate, the newspaper reported. He was ultimately convicted of second-degree murder.Meanwhile, deep in the desert in late November 1981, someone gathering firewood came upon severely decomposed remains, the sheriff’s office said in a statement. For more than 40 years, police were unable to identify the woman.That changed in May 2026, thanks in part to new funding from a Missing and Unidentified Human Remains grant, when investigators determined the remains belonged to Gaston, officials said.