Crime & Safety
Homicide Victim's Remains Found In Western Illinois In 1966 ID'd As Missing Ventura County, California Teen
The Ventura Sheriff's Department said he was formally reported missing on Oct. 25, 1983, though he had vanished nearly 20 years earlier.
January 16, 2026
Sixty years after a homicide victim's remains were found in western Illinois, he has been identified as a California teenager who had been missing since 1965.
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The remains were identified as Ronald Joseph Cole of Fillmore, California, which is about 25 miles from Santa Clarita, California, by the DNA Doe Project.
The Ventura County Sheriff's Department said he was formally reported missing on Oct. 25, 1983, though he had vanished nearly 20 years earlier. Family told police they suspected he disappeared under suspicious circumstances, and that his half-brother was responsible.
