Andrea LaDeRoute was 21 when she disappeared from Fortuna, California, in March 1980. She had been living with her 22-year-old boyfriend, John Arthur Annibel, who reported her missing on March 18, 1980. Investigators found human blood of Andrea’s type A on a mattress, bedsheet and pillowcase in the cottage they shared, and suspicion immediately focused on Annibel. He left his job at Pacific Lumber Company and moved to Denver soon after reporting her missing; an arrest warrant led to his extradition back to California, but prosecutors did not charge him with murder at that time because Andrea’s body had not been found.

The case went cold for more than two decades until August 2002, when forestry workers on Pacific Lumber Company property near Carlotta discovered a human skull. Dental records identified the skull as Andrea’s. DNA testing later matched Andrea to the blood evidence recovered from the apartment. Examination of the skull suggested blunt force trauma to the head. By then Annibel was serving a life sentence for the 1998 first-degree murder of Deborah Sloan and was the prime suspect in another earlier killing; authorities named him the only suspect in Andrea’s death.

Anyone who knew Andrea, where she lived, worked, or socialized in Fortuna in 1980 is asked to share information that could shed light on her death.