"Ronald Joseph Cole was a 19-year-old with a shy smile and a buzz cut in 1965, the year he moved from San Diego to Fillmore, a town about 25 miles from Santa Clarita. He was just starting out in life and, hoping to find a job, moved in with his older half-brother David LaFever. By May 1965, Cole had stopped contacting relatives. He had disappeared."
"That year, LaFever was arrested in Arizona on suspicion of a heinous crime. Then 47 years old, LaFever and his common law wife Margaret Skaggs, 35, were running the gift shop at the Glen Canyon Visitor Center. Inside the gift shop, they took photos of LaFever sexually abusing their 11-year-old foster daughter, police said. The couple had six children, but as the investigation continued, police learned not all of them were their biological kids, leading to speculation some had been kidnapped."
"As detectives went through the couple's photographs, they located some of a young man who they couldn't identify. The couple's relatives said the man was Jon Brian Skaggs, Margaret's younger brother who had been missing since 1977. Police also learned about Cole, then missing for almost 20 years. As they kept digging, they also found rumors that LaFever was connected to an unsolved triple homicide in Indiana and a killing in Olympia, Wash."
A body identified halfway across the country renewed attention on Ronald Joseph Cole, who vanished in 1965 after moving to Fillmore and living with half-brother David LaFever. Cole's family did not report him missing until 1983, when LaFever and common-law wife Margaret Skaggs were arrested in Arizona on suspicion of sexually abusing their 11-year-old foster daughter. Photographs seized from the couple included images of an unidentified young man later linked to Jon Brian Skaggs, missing since 1977. Police uncovered rumors connecting LaFever to an unsolved Indiana triple homicide and a killing in Olympia, Wash. A makeshift grave in Galt contained Jon Skagg's remains; he had been shot in the head.
Read at SFGATE
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