Cedric Horn was a 77-year-old retired dentist last seen leaving his Santa Ana home on March 7, 1986, for a business trip to Northern California. He told his daughter he would later visit her in Oregon but then phoned to say he intended to return straight to Santa Ana. He was reported missing on March 13, 1986.

On April 7, 1986, Horn’s car was found abandoned in Houston, Texas. The passenger seat headrest was soaked with blood; later DNA testing matched the blood to Horn, a development that shifted the case toward foul play. Horn’s body has never been recovered.

Investigators focused on a business associate, Steven Wayne White, who in 1986 was about 29 and had befriended Horn. White attempted to cash a $60,000 check from Horn’s account after the disappearance and was an early person of interest, though prosecutors initially lacked sufficient evidence. Decades later the cold case was reopened; White was charged in June 2015, confessed after extradition from Florida, and in October 2017 pleaded guilty to second-degree murder and received 15 years to life.

Did anyone who knew Horn or his business dealings in the mid-1980s ever notice anything unusual about his travel plans or associates?