Deborah Ann Dubs was 33 when she, her husband Harvey, 30, and their 16-month-old son Sean were last seen on July 25, 1984, in San Francisco. Deborah’s last known contact was a phone call with a friend during which she said two men had arrived at their home in response to an ad Harvey placed to sell video equipment. Witnesses later saw an Asian man leaving the Dubs’ residence carrying a box, and a neighbor tried to follow an unidentified vehicle leaving the area the next day but lost it.

A man calling himself Jim Bright later phoned Harvey’s employer, saying the family had moved to Washington, a claim that investigators found suspicious. Evidence recovered at Leonard Lake’s property included a receipt in Harvey Dubs’ name and video equipment belonging to the family. Authorities came to suspect Charles Chitat Ng and Leonard Lake, who had used classified ads to lure victims; Lake committed suicide after his arrest in 1985, and Ng was eventually convicted in 1999 of 11 counts of first-degree murder, including counts tied to Deborah, Harvey, and Sean Dubs. The family’s remains were not conclusively identified but are believed to be among victims whose bodies were dismembered and burned, complicating identification.