After almost 10 years without any clear leads to explain the disappearance of Lompoc resident Dana McPeek, police announced last month they’d finally found some answers.
In December 2010, a local civilian found what appeared to be a human jawbone while hiking in a remote area outside Lompoc city limits near Miguelito Canyon. He turned the mandible in to the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, which sent it to the California Department of Justice for testing. A dental examination and DNA testing revealed it belonged to McPeek.
On April 5, the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department Search and Rescue Team and forensic specialists from the Department of Justice conducted a more extensive search for remains, but came up empty handed.According to a press release from the Lompoc Police Department, the search was conducted in two phases. First, authorities did a ground search of the extended area. Then they did a ground excavation of the immediate location where the bone was found.
“After many hours of slow, methodical, and arduous searching, no other remains or physical evidence pertinent to the investigation were found,” police said in the release. “There are still many questions surrounding the disappearance of Dana McPeek. The Investigations Section of the Lompoc Police Department is aggressively pursuing any new leads that have come to our attention.”
Sgt. Chuck Strange, the case’s supervising detective, said the department is working under the assumption that McPeek died under suspicious circumstances.
He explained it’s not unusual for investigators to have trouble locating remains after bones or other evidence has been found. This could happen for various reasons, including animal tampering or extreme weather conditions.
Still, the department is working hard to determine the circumstances of McPeek’s death.
“Dana’s case was real high profile because it was so unusual,” Strange said.
McPeek disappeared on May 4, 2001, after visiting Chumash Casino with a friend. She was last seen driving her 1992 Toyota pickup truck, which was later discovered abandoned in an alley. Police labeled McPeek a “high-risk” missing person because of a diagnosed mental illness.
The department is asking anyone with information pertaining to the case to call 736-2341.
Lost but not alone
McPeek is just one of the thousands of Californians who go missing every year.
According to a report from the California Department of Justice, approximately 35,000 adults went missing in 2009—the most recent year with reported data. That number explodes to more than 105,000 when it comes to missing children. The vast majority of cases ended happily, with the person either returning of his or her own accord or being located by authorities.
Lompoc’s Sgt. Strange said his department investigated 193 missing person cases from December 2009 to December 2010. He speculated that approximately 80 percent of those cases have been closed.
“That includes juveniles and adults,” he said, adding that many of the juveniles are runaways located soon after they’re reported missing.
“We’ve had a couple other long-term missing persons cases,” he continued. “One was a parolee who absconded and didn’t want to be found. That’s what we call a ‘voluntary missing.’”
The county as a whole saw similar numbers in 2009, according to the Department of Justice, with more than 83 percent of missing person cases being closed for similar reasons.
Still, those statistics offer little comfort to the families and friends of people whose whereabouts remain unknown.
One of Santa Barbara County’s most high-profile missing person cases is that of Victoria Cotton. On July 15, 2006, Cotton left her home in Goleta to go to the farmers market or French Festival in downtown Santa Barbara. Some people close to the case say she was last seen at the 7-Eleven in downtown Goleta.
Cotton was well known in her community. She moved to the area from Monterey in the 1970s to study physics at UC Santa Barbara. After graduating, she accepted a job at the Santa Barbara Research Center and continued working toward a master’s degree in electrical engineering.
Libby Patten, Cotton’s friend and officemate at Santa Barbara Research Center, said Cotton was a “very inclusive person who was upbeat and always had a smile on her face.”
“I was new to town, and she invited me to events and out on hikes,” Patten said. “She was a well-rounded person. … She was a pilot. She had her own plane and her own home.”
Not long after they met, Patten recalled, Cotton left work one Friday saying she didn’t feel very well. Then she didn’t come in on Monday.
“It turned out she had a brain abscess, which is pretty much an infection of the brain,” Patten said.
Cotton was unable to receive timely treatment, and the infection ended up permanently damaging her short-term memory and impairing her judgement.
“A lot of people with that kind of condition might just stay at home, but she still always wanted to do things,” Patten said, adding that Cotton would sometimes forget to make sure she met her basic needs, like drinking water.
Friends and family aware of Cotton’s vulnerablities, including Patten and co-worker Steve Tighe, organized a search effort soon after her disappearance.
“Steve was very energetic and passionate about doing something, so he launched that website [members.cox.net/helpfindvickie], and we went walking where she used to walk. It’s one of those things where you’re hoping to see something, but you don’t really want to, but you want closure,” Patten said, adding that Cotton would often go walking for hours on her own.
Patten also noted that people close to Cotton expressed some frustrations to the Sheriff’s Department about the case not being taken seriously enough.
“There’d be times when she wouldn’t come home one night, and she’d show up the next day at a friend’s house,” she said. “I could see how that could have been the case at first, but after the third or fourth day, it was obvious [she was missing].”
Patten said she used to hope Cotton’s disappearance was a “memory issue” and that she was lost and didn’t have her ID with her. But if that was the case, Patten said, someone surely would have found Cotton by now.
“She made it for almost 20 years with her condition. It’s just heartbreaking. She was a great person,” Patten said. “Sometimes I just do these mental exercises where I see her getting on the bus, I see her getting off the bus and going into 7-Eleven. You think if you just keep imagining what she was doing, you can figure things out.”
Drew Sugars, a spokesman with the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Department, said detectives are still investigating Cotton’s disappearance. People with any information regarding the case should contact the department at 681-4150.
Contact Managing Editor Amy Asman at aasman@santamarisun.com.
This article appears in Apr 14-21, 2011.
