CA - Russell Jordan, 16, Los Gatos, 28 May 1982

The Santa Clara County coroner's office has spent two months fruitlessly searching its facilities for missing remains of a 16-year-old Los Gatos boy whose murder made headlines when a classmate was charged years after the 1982 death.

Coroner's officials have no answer for the disappearance of Russell Jordan's partial skeletal remains, which were first turned over to them in 1995 after being discovered by a hiker in Los Gatos. The remains were not identified until last year, and the case was recently resolved when Jordan's high school friend Sean Viehweg, 38, pleaded no contest to the killing in a deal with prosecutors. He was sentenced in January to six years in prison.

The head of the coroner's office said staffers had first discovered that some of Jordan's remains were missing at the beginning of the year, shortly before Viehweg was sentenced. They also found that the original file, as well as an antique belt buckle that helped identify Jordan, were also unaccounted for.

Records indicate the department was last in possession of the missing bones in 2000, she said.

"I don't have any explanation for this." said Diana Hunter, Santa Clara County administrative coroner. "I wish I did. I wish I had (all) the remains. We were charged with taking care of him, and we didn't do that."

Authorities still have remains that were analyzed and returned by the FBI, the agency that succeeded in identifying the bones.

The disappearance brings new scrutiny to the coroner's office, whose previous chief medical examiner, Dr. Gregory Schmunk, resigned in December after being accused of ignoring an alleged theft by an employee and running up travel expense bills.

After scouring the coroner's office, officials have extended their search to more than half a dozen laboratories and law enforcement agencies that may have handled the remains. When the department first received the bones, portions were sent to several outside laboratories to help identify them through DNA testing.

Story from SF Gate

I dont know how many of you have seen the dateline show last Friday night about Russel Jordan but I wanted to make sure you all knew about it. Russel disappeared in 1982 from his school in Southern CA. Nobody passed any missing fliers, nobody did anything because Russel was known as an outcast in school and a nerd. The disappearance went unsolved for 20 years when somebody finally told on a classmate who killed Russel. This story does not end here.... Russel's bones were finally found near the school where he disappeared, BUT nobody even searched for him. THe coroners had finally discovered it was Russel and was going to return him to his family so they could bury him. At this time, somebody lost the remains leaving Russel as once again "Missing".
This story totally broke my heart and I wanted to share with you a few articles on Russel. If somebody could help me, we should do a small website or something to honor this lost soul. He died in vain and nobody cared. Please take a moment to read about Russel. I am so sad for his family.



http://www.contracostatimes.com/mld/cctimes/8158714.htm?template=contentModules/printstory.jsp&1c

I did see Russell's story on Dateline. I think he is from the So. Bay Area, not that it matters

This story is so sad, it seems like no one fought to find him. When the story ended by saying his remains were lost by LE and he was never able to be buried by his family I cried.....

I am going to look back over the tape tonight so that I have the names correct, because I have a small site I made for Russell so that people could come leave messages and sort of have a vigil for this poor lost soul. He looked like such a sweet person. I cannot believe that something like this could happen and the killer only got 6 years. I know that building a site is not much, but I thought that by doing this, Russell has a voice in the community of internet users and it would show that somebody does care about what happened to him. I hope the poor little fella can rest in peace. My heart goes out to his family & everyone's family who has lost somebody like this.

He from Los Gatos, CA. It is in N CA. Near San Jose, at the base of the Santa Cruz mtns.

They did move from So CA, but his father's issues with the KGB would probably be the reason there was no flyers. He fell through the cracks in his own home. The conveniently placed phone call, stating he was seen at school taking items from his locker, help stop the police case. That is without proactive parents...who moved from the area.

I never heard of his case, until the Dateline report the other night. Poor kid.

That is very sweet of you to set up the site. The story ending with him still missing, is one I didn't expect.

May I ask...who is FindCarrie about? ETA...Found the site.

When the killer confessed to LE it sounded to me as if he lured Russell to the trail for some rough sex play and than killed him. The choking each other statement made me think of this. Who "plays" by choking each other? I guess we will never know....so sad...15 yrs is too young to die.

MysteryMomma said:

When the killer confessed to LE it sounded to me as if he lured Russell to the trail for some rough sex play and than killed him. The choking each other statement made me think of this. Who "plays" by choking each other? I guess we will never know....so sad...15 yrs is too young to die.

Click to expand...

To be fair, that choking game did go around our high school, during the same time. Both schools are located in the bay area, in N CA.

It used to freak me out, a few of my friends tried it. Mostly guys, not homosexuals. If I remember correctly, one would push up on the rib cage, from behind. Or in front, with a wall behind the other person for support. Pretty quickly, the other person would lose oxygen to the brain. Giving them a type of high or weird reaction. I saw people who let others do it to them, without knowing the final result...or what the process involved. Just, an "OMG, you've got to try this!",....type of thing. As well as, some who wanted to try it after it was done to someone else.

The way Russell's best friend described him he sounded like a gentle soul. It would surprise me if would agree to play the choking game with the school bully. I don't think Russell was gay, maybe his killer. Russell was a small young man I could see an aggressive peer over powering him. But you could be right. Weird games kids play.....can turn deadly....like huffing.

At my husband's high school boys would go into grocery stores and inhale the gases from canned whipped cream. I guess it is a high. Sometimes the kids would pass out and their "friends" would laugh and runaway and let the store manager deal with them......weird.

I put up a small website for Russell Jordan today. I will list it below so you all can go visit it. I contacted the producer who did the show on Carrie Culberson that writes sometimes to me and asked him if he would help me find Russell's parents. He said that he would see that the producer who did Russell's story got the website information and pass it along to his parents.

There was a very gracious lady who is on Court TV's message board under the missing person's section who posted some informative articles on Russell today. If she is on this board, I'll say thank-you again.

I was tormented after seeing that last Friday night and had to do something to help give awareness to Russell. Although I know I cannot help everyone, I had to do ONE more just for this poor young man.

Here is the website. It is small, but I feel better knowing that Russell has a place that people can visit him.

www.geocities.com/RememberRussell


Thanks
JILL B

I do think his killer's confession was self serving about the choking game.

Especially, when you take in account the story he told to his friend about the knife.....and the gurgling sounds....Russell continued to make.

Who knows if he did it to Russell on that day, the weeks previous,....or ever.

Maybe Russell was lured into trying the game, like others I saw, and reacted badly. Then fought back.

The bully seemed to have bad impluse control if someone crossed him.....and would hold a grudge. It could of been another issue, that set him off.

I don't know, but please don't think I'm making excuses for that murdering punk. It's just that game was going around our high school the same year....and at times the person didn't know the process involved. With Russell it seems no place was really safe for him.

ETA....Mystery you summed it up perfectly...with "friends".

Jill,

Did you know Carrie, or did she warm your heart such as Russell did?

I'm happy for her family to see more progress on her case.

ps..Again that is very sweet of you to think of Russell, and try to pursue it.

There is a update on Russels website that findcarrie did for him. His family finally recieved some of his bones to bury. This story really is heartbreaking. How no one looked for him.

www.geocities.com/RememberRussell

move this to located?

How can his killer only serve 6 years! Out in as early as 2? Gimme a break.