Lawrence Remsen was convicted of murder in 1982 without a body identified
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department confirmed Thursday that remains found in a shallow grave in a remote area of the San Bernardino Mountains belonged to Thelma Gaston, a wealthy Los Angeles real estate investor who was 80 when she vanished without a trace in June 1981. The identification, made in May 2026, was accomplished through a combination of genetic genealogy and dental records analysis, according to a statement from the Riverside County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau.
“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 its statement. “Together, these efforts have ensured that Ms. Gaston has her name – and her story – returned to her.”
Gaston’s disappearance quickly drew scrutiny to Lawrence Remsen, a former carpet salesman who had recently become connected to the widow. Friends told the Los Angeles Times at the time that the two were romantically involved. Police said Remsen had tried to “siphon off” Gaston’s vast fortune, and investigators found her Mercedes at his apartment.
The case took a turn when Remsen disappeared during the investigation and was later arrested while crossing the border from Mexico into Texas, according to the Los Angeles Times. Prosecutors alleged that Remsen killed Gaston with “pre-meditation and planning” to gain access to her estate, which they estimated at $20 million. At trial in late 1982, Remsen testified that Gaston had died of natural causes and said he dumped her body at sea to pretend she was still alive so he could liquidate her assets, the Daily Breeze reported. The jury convicted him of second-degree murder, and he was sentenced to life in prison.
Meanwhile, in late November 1981, a person gathering firewood stumbled upon severely decomposed remains in a rugged area near Sugarloaf Mountain in Riverside County. For more than 40 years, investigators could not identify the woman. The case remained unsolved on that front even as the murder prosecution proceeded without a formally identified victim.
New funding from a Missing and Unidentified Human Remains grant, the sheriff’s office said, allowed investigators to apply advanced genetic genealogy techniques to the remains this year. The tests confirmed what authorities had long suspected: the remains were those of Gaston.
Gaston, whose husband and son died in the 1950s, had amassed her fortune independently through buying and selling repossessed properties, according to SFGate. At the time of her disappearance, a note left on her door said she was looking for her cat, the Los Angeles Times reported in 1981. She never returned.