CA CA - Johnnie Herrera, 20, Oxnard, 27 Aug 1971

Bobby88 said:

Big news! Branwynbreeze recently sent an e-mail to the Ventura County Star newspaper in Oxnard asking them to do a story on the 40th anniversary of Johnnie's disappearance (which is this Saturday) and they are considering it. The reporter e-mailed me to get info about the detective and I gave her my phone number in case she needed to ask me anything else. About twenty minutes later, she called me and interviewed me over the phone about how I got interested in the case, what other info I'd found, and my theories as to what may have happened.

She seemed very interested in doing this story.

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Wow, wow, wow, wow!!! OMG I hope they write the story and use your quotes. How exciting. Sending that email may actually pan out and I hope someone comes forward finally. It's decades past time for closure.

WTG Bobby, you might be the catalyst to solving this mystery!

:woohoo:
:great:

Well done guys! Really hope it gets printed and maybe shake loose some memories

Tomorrow will be 40 years to the day that Johnnie never arrived home from his friend's bachelor party. With any luck, the article that the Ventura County Star will catch the eye of someone who has direct knowledge of what happened and that person will finally come forward.

I also told Cindy (the reporter form the Ventura Star who called me) that maybe the reason Johnnie and the car have pretty much ceased to exist is because whoever killed him (when she asked me what I thought had happened, I said that due to the circumstances, I felt strongly that there was foul play) could have easily taken both his body and car across the border into Mexico and dumped it all there. Given that So. Cal. is relatively close to the border, it's not such a far-fetched idea.

I just heard back from Cindy and she said that she will be working on the story next week. She was able to contact a few of Johnnie's relatives and said that they were happy about the article and that they hoped it would help the investigation.

It was 40 years ago today that Johnnie's disappearance was reported to the Oxnard PD who then officially declared him a missing person, a status he still maintains.

I just noticed something on Johnnie's Namus page that has me a bit confused. Under the case info section, it shows the LKA (last known alive) date and time as August 27, 1971 at 00:30. 00:30 in military time is 12:30am in standard time. This has me confused as to when the party he attended actually took place. I also out of curiosity looked up a 1971 calendar and found that 8/27 was a Friday.

Did the party begin on the night of 8/26/71 (Thursday) and carry on until after midnight into the very early hours of 8/27/71 (Friday)? Or did the party start on the night of the 27th and last until after midnight, which would mean he was last seen alive in the early morning hours of 8/28/71 (Saturday)?

It would seem reasonable to assume that something like a bachelor party would be held on a Friday night. The time of 12:30am may have just been a ballpark figure by the people who last saw Johnnie alive; they had no way of knowing that he would never be seen or heard from again, so they would have had no reason to actually check their watches and record the time he left.

The question I've always grappled with is: did Johnnie even leave the party at all that night? Or did something happen to him there that prevented him from ever going back home?

Cindy from the Ventura County Star said the article on Johnnie should be in their paper tomorrow and should be online later this evening. She said she'd send me link to it as soon as it's up. :woohoo::great:

Bobby88 said:

Cindy from the Ventura County Star said the article on Johnnie should be in their paper tomorrow and should be online later this evening. She said she'd send me link to it as soon as it's up. :woohoo::great:

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Great news Bobby, look forward to seeing it :loser:

Dang, I didn't check thread and could have had my BIL get me paper. Will see if I can still get a copy when I am feeling better.

I received an email from a former workmate who I think lived close and went to same school about same time. He thought I was asking about Hernandez, I sent email back saying Herrera. See if anything comes from it.

Just heard from Cindy again. She saidthestory got pushed back and will be in tomorrow's paper.

Yippee!! Will get a copy one way or another.

I went to Oxnard to get paper, but do not see article :-(

Story ran today, asked my hubby to get me a copy.

http://www.vcstar.com/news/2011/sep/15/71-lost-twin-case-still-open/

Thanks, branwynbreeze.

I find it interesting that someone at the McDonald's where Johnnie hung out said they thought they saw him. I wonder if it was the same day as the party.

In any event, what happened with that sighting? Was the witness one of Johnnie's friends from this hang out, or was it simply a random customer or employee? Did the witness actually see this man in or near the McDonald's itself, or somewhere else in town? What did the man do? Was he acting strangely? I take it that this witness never actually spoke to this man, otherwise (assuming that this witness actually was a friend) that would have likely confirmed whether or not the man was really Johnnie.

It's funny that Johnnie's brother Ralph described him as a "smart dresser" because I always got the impression from his photos that Johnnie was the type of person who went out of his way to look stylish and well-groomed at all times. I don't think there's so much as a hair out of place in any of his pictures!

I logged into VCStar and posted Johnnie's WS link

This is the street on which the party was held:

http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1T4...code_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q8gEwAA

If he was still living with his parents at 1325 W Juniper St., this is the route from Cedar Street to there.

http://maps.google.com/maps?rlz=1T4...code_result&ct=title&resnum=1&ved=0CB4Q8gEwAA

Someone posted a link to Johnnie's article on this blog:

http://coldcaseusa.blogspot.com/2011/09/no-clues-in-1971-johnnie-herrera.html

It looks that Johnnie's case may be attracting attention even 40 years later. Better late than never.

I don't know what took me so long to post this, but Saviers Road where the McDonald's at which someone thought the saw Johnnie is only 6 minutes from Cedar Street where the party was held.

I'm really interested in knowing when the witness from McDonald's actually saw the person they believed to be Johnnie. If the info on Namus is correct and Johnnie was last seen alive at 00:30 (12:30am), it seems unlikely that the witness would have encountered Johnnie at the restaurant at that hour as the place would likely have been closed. Also, people back then didn't stop for fast food on the way home from places like they do now; such meals were usually more of a treat.

Anyway, I have a feeling that the sighting is likely an honest case of mistaken identity. If Johnnie was actually at the McDonald's after he disappeared, why was he there and why did he not go home after the party? Even he faked his disappearance and wanted everyone to think he'd been abducted for some reason, why would he then go to a McDonald's that was not only just 6 miles from the party he'd just left, but one where he hung out regularly and would almost certainly have run into people he knew?

Given that Johnnie and Joe are identical twins, isn't it possible that the witness (assuming they didn't see the person he/she thought could have been Johnnie up close) could have actually seen Joe somewhere on Saviers Road when he was on unrelated business and mistook him for Johnnie?

Another important question for the witness would be whether they saw "Johnnie" (that's how I'm going to refer to the man allegedly spotted at the McDonald's, instead of just referring to him as "the man thought to be Johnnie") either enter or exit a car and what type of car was it. I think if we found the car, it would eventually lead us to what happened to Johnnie.

The more I think about this case, the more mysterious and disturbing it seems. A man and his car disappear 7 minutes from home in a heavily-populated residential area and no one knows anything?!? Not buying it.

I found this UID and despite the almost four-year gap between Johnnie's disappearance and this man's death, their general descriptions are rather similar.

http://www.doenetwork.org/hot/hotcase462.html

I just sent an e-mail to the Fresno Sheriff's Dept. asking them whether or not Johnnie has ever been compared to their John Doe.

If for some reason it is Johnnie, where would he have been all that time?

I just got this PM earlier today:

Hello, my name is Elidet Bordon, and I have a new magazine coming out called Ventura County's Cold Cases.

I was reading your threads about a cold case regarding Johnnie Joe Herrera and was wondering if you were interested in writing for our magazine regarding this case.

The pay isn't much, we pay $60 for an article.

I would love to have you write regarding this case if you are up to it.

I can interview people you think are relevant to the case, as I get the information for our local law enforcement and pass on the info to you, since I know you aren't local.

Please let me know if this interests you.

Thank you.

Elidet Bordon
805-832-0351

I sent a message back requesting that she contact me. I think I'm gonna do the article.