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<\/p>\nA “severely decomposed female body” found in a shallow grave 45 years ago in Southern California has been identified as a missing 80-year-old multimillionaire killed by her much younger lover.<\/p>\n
Thelma Jeanette Gaston, a real estate investor from Los Angeles County worth an estimated $20 million, was murdered by 39-year-old Lawrence Remsen, who forged documents in an attempt to transfer her wealth to him after her disappearance in June 1981.<\/p>\n
Gaston was identified as the “Jane Doe” female corpse discovered in a shallow grave near Sugar Loaf Mountain in November 1981, the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office announced Wednesday.<\/p>\n
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A guard walks outside the California Institution for Men in Chino, California, on May 24, 2011. Corbis via Getty Images<\/p>\n
“After more than four decades, investigators with the Riverside Sheriff’s Coroner’s Bureau and the Riverside Cold Case Homicide Team have positively identified a female homicide victim as Thelma Gaston. Ms. Gaston was the victim of a 1981 homicide that occurred in Los Angeles County,” the sheriff’s office said.<\/a><\/p>\n The conditions of the remains made it impossible for investigators to identify the victim until “significant advances in forensic science” opened avenues for a possible identification.<\/p>\n Using dental records and genetic genealogy, officials solved the near half-a-century cold case in May.<\/p>\n Gaston was last seen on June 28, 1981, with her last known communication being a note she left at her Rancho Park home saying she was leaving the house to look for her cat, the Los Angeles Times reported.<\/a><\/p>\n Additional letters, allegedly written by Gaston, stated she was turning over her affairs to Remsen because “everyone is after my money,” and “I am going to have some fun in life and nobody is going to stop me.”<\/p>\n The letters left behind did not fit Gaston’s character, her nephew and longtime associate, John Mittrick, told police, describing the woman as a “shrewd businesswoman who made a great deal of money purchasing tax-repossessed real estate,” according to the outlet.<\/p>\n