Missing son's fate leads to decades of anguish
BY CHRISTIAN HILL
THE OLYMPIAN
Sunday June 12, 2005
After the Fourth of July in 1974, Robert Cox drove his son, James, from his Olympia home to Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The younger Cox, fresh out of boot camp, was to fly to San Diego to begin his training as a Navy medic.
During the drive, they chatted about Robert Cox's time in the Marines and Air Force, and his son's prospects for a successful military career.
"It's the kind of thing the dad does to give him a pat on the back and send him on his way," Robert Cox said last week.
James Cox was 17, but his birth mother had given permission to let him enlist in the Navy, family members said.
James had had a troubled youth and spent some time in a state-run treatment center for juveniles with mental problems. Dropping him off at the airport, Robert was pleased to see that his son was getting his life on track. That was the last time he ever saw his son.
For three decades, family members sought answers about the fate of James Cox as they fended off what they considered harassment by investigators from the Navy and FBI, who were convinced James Cox was a deserter.
They lobbied unsuccessfully for years to get the Navy to follow up on a 1984 lead that they felt could reveal James' fate.
Nearly 31 years after that final father-son trip to the airport, the Cox family has found out that DNA testing by the military had identified human remains exhumed from a San Diego cemetery as belonging to James Cox.
"As long as he was unaccounted for, there was no way they were going to have any peace," said Beverly Cox, Robert Cox's wife. "It was something they were sad and jubilant about at the same time because of the closure."
Amanda Kopplin, James Cox's sister, who briefly took up the family's quest to find her brother in 1991, said she is infuriated by the treatment the family received from the Navy.
"How many families in America are subjected to the military's -- and in our case, the Navy's -- callous attitude that your child or loved one isn't here, and we're going to harass you however we can, but we're not going to help you?" she asked.
On Wednesday, the Navy released the following statement about James Cox's identification:
"The United States Navy followed established procedures over the years to locate and return Hospitalman Apprentice James S. Cox to military service," it said.
"Regretfully, the search has ended, for the family and for the Navy, with the recent positive identification of his remains by the Armed Forces Medical Examiner's Office. We offer our condolences to the family and we are doing everything we can to support them at this time."
Robert Cox, 73, is convinced his son was among the dozens of unidentified victims of serial killer Randy Kraft, who sits on California's death row. A lead prosecutor in the case said it was possible James was one of Kraft's victims.
James Cox was last seen hitchhiking from the home of his mother, Patricia LaRosa, in Long Beach, Calif., the weekend of Sept. 28, 1974. He would make such trips on weekends and then return to San Diego to continue his training.
Robert Cox said he had hitchhiked from Long Beach to Camp Pendleton when he was stationed there as a Marine while married to LaRosa, who now lives in Louisiana. They divorced in 1964, and Robert moved to Washington state.
"It was a pretty easy thing to do," Robert Cox said. "She never thought about the fact there were serial killers out there preying on young servicemen."
The Navy reported James Cox missing when he didn't report for training at the Naval School of Health Sciences on Sept. 30, 1974.
Less than a month later, two children stumbled on human remains in a ravine near Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., a wealthy community outside of San Diego. The remains were spread over a wide area, and included a skull, ribs and part of a right arm, according to the autopsy report. There was no evidence of trauma, a pathologist wrote in the autopsy report, but the remains had been disturbed by wildlife. A copy of the report was obtained by The Olympian.
The cause of death was listed as "undeterminable," according to the death certificate.
The remains were buried Dec. 2, 1974, at El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.
Presumed deserter
A month earlier, Navy officials informed Robert Cox that his son had deserted.
"By the time the Navy had told me he was a deserter, they (law enforcement) had already found his body, but they didn't know who he was," said Cox, a longtime Capitol tour guide who helped establish three war memorials on the Capitol Campus.
What followed, according to Robert Cox, was a pattern of harassment by the Navy and FBI, which then investigated deserter cases. Investigators would call him frequently to ask whether his son had been in contact, and agents would stake out the homes of family members for days at a time, he said.
Logs kept by the Navy Absentee Collection and Information Center noted only occasional contact by the military with family members of James Cox, said Cmdr. Randy Lescault, spokesman for the Navy Personnel Command in Millington, Tenn. The log goes back only to the 1980s.
"It certainly doesn't appear to be harassment or anything like that," he said. "They are required by law and policy to check on a quarterly basis."
In 1984, Robert Cox launched his own investigation into his son's disappearance. A series of initial contacts linked him up with the Orange County District Attorney's Office, where an official told him a suspect in a series of unsolved murders was in custody. Randy Kraft had been arrested May 14, 1983, after he was pulled over by a sheriff's deputy for erratic driving along the San Diego Freeway. The body of a Marine was found in his car.
The prosecutor advised Robert Cox to call San Diego County, where several unidentified bodies had been found that were potential victims of Kraft. He did so and eventually learned about John Doe No. 146. Authorities sent him a copy of the autopsy report, and Robert Cox noted the similarities between the description in the autopsy report and his missing son.
"I had a gut feeling that was him," he said.
What he didn't have was proof.
A family's search
Robert Cox attempted to obtain a copy of his son's military dental records as a way to confirm the identity by comparing them with the autopsy report. But the Navy didn't conduct a dental exam on James Cox, a routine part of an induction physical for any sailor. It's unknown why the exam was never done.
He then checked with the Echo Glen Children's Center, a state-run juvenile detention center where James had spent time, to see whether it had dental records.
He learned that the state had destroyed the records.
San Diego County wasn't interested in pursuing the case because of the cost and because Kraft soon would face trial in Orange County. The Navy refused to test the remains for identification purposes. Robert Cox didn't have the money at the time to pay to exhume the remains and have them tested.
Disillusioned, Cox gave up the investigation. He followed Kraft's case until his conviction in 1989 for 16 murders. Kraft has maintained his innocence as he awaits execution.
In 1991, Robert Cox's daughter, Amanda Kopplin, resumed the family investigation.
She didn't get much further.
Resolution and closure
In a Dec. 3, 2002, letter sent to the family, the Navy provided an update on its investigation "to resolve the situation of your son's disappearance and possible death."
The letter noted that Navy investigators also had reviewed the autopsy report for John Doe No. 146.
It said James Cox had been removed as an individual wanted by the FBI and would soon be taken off the list of active deserters.
Investigators also had reviewed the Kraft case and talked to its lead prosecutor, who said James Cox was likely one of Kraft's victims, but Kraft wasn't talking, the letter said.
It suggested the family amend the death certificate of John Doe No. 146 to include the name of James Cox. That would give the Navy the authority it needed to exhume the body for identification.
"They took that as an application to have DNA testing," Robert Cox said. "In other words, it was putting the onus on the Navy to do that test."
The military exhumed the remains of John Doe No. 146 in the spring of 2004, according to Kopplin.
On Jan. 21, 2005, the remains were examined at the Dover Port Mortuary in Delaware.
Further scientific examination and DNA confirmed that the remains were James Cox.
Kopplin wondered why the Navy waited so long to take those steps.
When asked, Lescault, the Navy spokesman, said the military doesn't take disinterment lightly.
"Some people made some judgments," he said.
"They looked at the available evidence ... they put two and two together and then they had to work through all the hoops to actually make it happen."
Links to a killer
The Cox family was notified of the results Monday.
Family members are convinced that Kraft is James Cox's killer because many of Kraft's victims were servicemen hitching rides to or from military bases in Southern California.
Bryan Brown, the lead prosecutor in the Kraft case, said "it's a possibility" that Cox was one of Kraft's victims.
Investigators found a sheet of paper with more than 60 comments on it, which they determined was a coded list of Kraft's murder victims. In 1983, Kraft, also known as the "Scorecard Killer," was arrested for the 1972 murder of what was thought to be his first victim."The sheriff who found it characterized it as a death list," said Brown, who retired last year as a senior assistant district attorney for Orange County. "It would seem to me that Kraft was available to kill between 1972 -- or earlier -- and 1983."
Kraft lived in Long Beach at the time of Cox's disappearance, Brown said.
Within days, the Navy will correct James Cox's record to "lost while on active duty." The change will make the family eligible for all military benefits owed them, including a death gratuity.
Robert Cox said the Navy has been supportive of the family's effort in recent years, but that doesn't excuse the earlier behavior of many of its representatives.
"They had closed minds; very difficult to work with," he said.
James Cox's remains are being held at the Dover mortuary and soon will be flown to Washington state with a military escort. Spc. Seanna Mitchell, James Cox's 22-year-old niece who served in Iraq, has volunteered for the job, Robert Cox said. The family plans to bury him at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent, where a family member is expected to receive a folded American flag, in honor of his service.
Events in the life and disappearance of James Cox
July 1974: Robert Cox of Olympia sees his 17-year-old son, James, for last time, dropping him off at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport.
Sept. 28-29, 1974: James Cox is last seen hitching a ride to San Diego, where he was stationed, after a weekend visit to his mother's home in Long Beach, Calif.
Sept. 30, 1974: The Navy reports James Cox missing after he fails to show up for training at the Naval School of Health Sciences in San Diego.
Oct. 25, 1974: Two children discover human remains in a ravine next to a road in Rancho Santa Fe, north of San Diego.
Nov. 1, 1974: The Navy notifies the Cox family that James is suspected of desertion and begin efforts to find him.
Dec. 2, 1974: The remains of John Doe No. 146 are buried in El Camino Memorial Park. A coroner's report notes "no evidence of trauma" and the cause of death is listed as "undeterminable."
March 29, 1975: Randy Kraft, a computer systems analyst, commits the fifth of 16 murders on or around this date.
May 14, 1983: Kraft, 38, is pulled over for erratic driving on the San Diego freeway. The body of a 25-year-old Marine is found in the car.
1984: Robert Cox begins his own investigation into his son's disappearance and learns about John Doe No. 146. He reviews an autopsy report showing the victim shared similarities with his son.
1989: Kraft is sentenced to death for 16 murders. Prosecutors believe he is responsible for more than 60 murders.
December 2002: In a letter, the Navy acknowledges Cox probably is dead. They suggest the family amend the death certificate of John Doe No. 146 to include his name, which would give the Navy the authority to exhume the body and attempt to identify the remains.
Spring 2004: The remains of John Doe No. 146 are exhumed from El Camino Memorial Park in San Diego.
Jan. 21, 2005: The remains are examined at Dover Port Mortuary at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
June 6, 2005: The Cox family is notified the remains are those of James Cox. The Navy begins the process of changing Cox's deserter status to "lost while on active duty." Funeral arrangements are pending at Tahoma National Cemetery in Kent.
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