CA - Stewart Simmons, 20, & Margaret Walden, 39, murdered, San Diego, June 1982 *arrest 2021*

SheWhoMustNotBeNamed

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Stewart Eric Simmons

Endangered Missing

Missing From: San Diego, California

Missing Since: June 19, 1982

Age: 20 -- Height: 5'9" -- Weight: 165 lbs -- Hair Color: Blonde / Lt. Brown -- Eye Color: Hazel / Green

Stewart has a scar above his left ear. He may use the last name Vandegrift.


Stewart was stationed in San Diego, California in the Navy. A minor altercation was going to send him to the Brig for a short period of time. He was released briefly to relocate his vehicle and never returned. Approximately three weeks after his disappearance Stewart's military ID was used on base to rent camping equipment. There is no way to know if Stewart was the person who used the ID.

A missing persons report was not filed until 1999. A check of Social Security records shows that his number has not been used since he disappeared. Stewart has ties to Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Mexico. Stewart disappeared out of California, but lived in Georgia, and the missing persons report was filed in Georgia, with Roswell PD. Simmons family lives in Georgia as well.


Doe Network

NamUs

Charley Project
 
http://www.doenetwork.org/cases/1369dmga.html
Stewart Eric Simmons
Missing since June 19, 1982 from San Diego, San Diego County, California.
Classification: Missing

Vital Statistics

Date Of Birth: December 6, 1961
Age at Time of Disappearance: 20 years old
Height and Weight at Time of Disappearance: 5'9"; 165 lbs.
Distinguishing Characteristics: Light brown / blond hair; hazel / green eyes.
Marks, Scars: Stewart has a fracture across the top of his head, from ear to ear, as a result of a fall as a child. Due to this injury, he also has a scar above the left ear of approximately 1 1/2 inches in length.
Medical Conditions: Due to the head injury, he may be suffering from amnesia. Doctors said re-injuring this area could cause amnesia or death. Stewart had his tonsils and adenoids removed in his teens.
AKA: Stewart Eric Vandegrift
Dentals: Available

Circumstances of Disappearance
Stewart was stationed in San Diego in the Navy. A minor altercation was going to send him to the Brig for a short period of time. He was released briefly to relocate his vehicle and never returned.

Approximately three weeks after his disappearance Stewart's military ID was used on base to rent camping equipment. There is no way to know if Stewart was the person who used the ID.

A missing persons report was not filed until 1999. A check of Social Security records shows that his number has not been used since he disappeared.
Stewart has ties to Georgia, South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Mexico.

Simmons disappeared out of California, but lived in Georgia, and the missing persons report was filed in Georgia, with Roswell PD. Simmons family lives in Georgia as well.

Investigators
If you have any information concerning this case, please contact:

Roswell Police Department (GA)
Lt. Neal E. Cobb
770-640-4100
 
Stewart's sister and I met about 14 years ago, when her children attended the school where I used to teach. She gave me all of the information posted on the Doe site and this has been one of my pet cases for years.

Because of Stewart's head injury as a child (he fell off a ladder), according to his sister, if he ever injured his head again, it could result in major trauma, memory loss or death. I have no idea how he made it into the military with that kind of injury.

Stewart was also involved, as a teen, in the controversial Anneewakee treatment center/process in the late 1970's. I attended a couple of "socials" there because a friend's brother was there, and it was a bit scary.

I have lost touch with his sister, but am looking for any help in getting the world out about his case and getting some information to LE. The reason LE is handling the case in GA and not Cali, is because, according to his sister, his parents were ashamed of Stewart's behavior and figured he just went AWOL and they wouldn't file a missing persons report. His sister filed it in 1999.
 
So many loose ends here. For starters, his pics show him with not-very-military reg-length hair. It would be nice to have a military photo, supplementary to this. It would be nice to know the nature of the scrape that landed him in the brig for a short while. I'm imagining that it was a disorderly conduct thing, and that the cops brought him to the base rather than put him in the hoosegow. Then he leaves to collect his vehicle, apparently off base, and is never definitely heard from again, although his ID is used a few weeks later to rent camping equipment on the base.

If he were AWOL at that time, it really would have been brazen to walk in and use his ID to rent the gear. On the other hand, whoever used it obviously knew that it could be rented there, and presumably would have to have passed security to get onto the base. If it wasn't him, it would have to be someone also stationed there who reckoned he'd be able to get away with it.

So, for starters, I wonder whether he got into an altercation with someone from the base, or whether the someone he got into an altercation with had connections there. Then, I wonder how it was discovered that his ID had been used to rent equipment. I'm imagining that that was the result of an internal investigation connected with his being AWOL. Then, I'm wondering what kind of vehicle he had, and where it was when he got picked up, and where that was. The idea that he got leave to search for his vehicle suggests that he was unclear about its whereabouts at the time he left the base.

So, he goes missing while searching for his vehicle. His ID is used weeks later to rent camping equipment. His vehicle is never recovered. Sounds pretty hinky to me.

Was the camping equipment ever returned? Just a lot of questions, here.
 
I guess full body x-rays weren't standard or they would've ID'd his skull fracture 32 years ago. RIP.
 
Wow! I would love to know how all the pieces came together.
 
Way it go Vermontaigne!!! Great catch on Margo and the similarities. Hopefully she will be going home soon too!
 
Glad Stewart can go home to his family. So sorry for their loss.
vermontaigne; awesome match! You've given Stewarts family their son back.

Victim of 1982 homicide identified A son, identified

While Bill and Joanne Simmons admit it is difficult to learn the circumstances of their son’s death, the couple is relieved that, after 32 years, he will soon return home.

“We will be eternally grateful to Det. Barter for the work that he did,” Joanne Simmons said.

According to Simmons’ parents, now in their early 70s, their son was a smiling, hardworking, motivated young man who joined the U.S. Navy after deciding college was not right for him.

“He was literally the apple of my eye,” Joanne Simmons said of her son.

Following boot camp, Simmons was set to be in the Navy’s nuclear program.

But, after arriving in San Diego, perhaps faced with the idea of being away from home for the first time, Simmons went AWOL (absent without leave). Despite that misstep, a Georgia congressman wrote a letter on behalf of Simmons and he was accepted back into the Navy.

Upon his return to the Navy, Simmons accepted responsibility for his mistake a few months earlier and faced punitive action for his disappearance — the brig. On his way to the brig in June 1982, Simmons was allowed to relocate his motorcycle, and he again went AWOL, this time for good.

A few weeks later, Simmons’ ID was used on the military base to check out camping equipment.

“Stewart was a big camper,” Bill Simmons said. After learning about where their son’s body was recovered, the couple was not surprised. “If he walked out of that school bus and saw those mountains, he was headed in that direction.”

The couple also noted that Simmons had mentioned meeting a woman, a waitress known as Margo, shortly before leaving.

A search for Simmons - “When the days went by and went by … I knew in my heart something had happened,” Joanne Simmons recalled.

The family hired a private detective, then a retired FBI agent in attempts to determine if their son’s social security number or other personal information had been used to report income.

“This was about all you had available to you back then,” Bill Simmons said.

Despite having full-time careers and two other children, the couple also traveled to San Diego and Mexico, searching frantically to see if anyone had seen their son.

“We were just aimlessly driving around as though something were going to appear,” Joanne Simmons recalled. “It was just a nightmare; it truly was.”

Over the years, Simmons’ parents never stopped looking — tracking down dental records from a deceased dentist, poring over unidentified persons across the U.S. and religiously watching cold-case and unsolved case shows on TV, finally filing an unofficial missing persons report in Georgia in 1999, submitting personal items owned by their son for DNA as technology advanced — and always made sure their phone number remained the same and that their home had a place for their son should he turn up.

“We just never stopped looking. Ever,” Joanne Simmons stated.

Returning home

Now, almost 32 years after he initially disappeared, Simmons will return home in the coming months.

“We are anxiously awaiting his arrival home,” Joanne Simmons said, noting that their younger daughter will escort Simmons’ cremated remains home, where the family will hold a memorial service.

“He was loved. He was very loved, and he has been painfully missed for 31 years.” Joanne Simmons said.

Of Barter, she said, “He has given us a gift that nobody else in this world could have given us. … We will be eternally grateful for that.”

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Stewart Simmons / Pagosa Springs John Doe - WS Posts
Found Deceased GA - Stewart Eric Simmons, 20, San Diego, 19 June 1982

CO - Pagosa Springs, WhtMale1282UMCO, 20-28,"Lazy B" TShirt, Oct'82 *Stewart Simmons*


Stewart Simmons / Pagosa Springs John Doe - NamUs Links for anyone that wants to save the info before it goes offline...

NamUs UP #5327 Google Cache DNA Status: Complete - Insufficient DNA for profiling - Dental information / charting is available and entered
Stewart Simmons NamUs MP # 717 Google cache DNA Status: Sample is currently not available - Dental information / charting is currently not available - Simmons was in the United States Navy in 1982 and was stationed in San Diego, California. He got into a minor altercation and was sent to the brig for a short time. Simmons was granted temporary release to locate his vehicle; he disappeared during this time. Three weeks later, his military identification was used on the base to rent camping equipment, but it has not been established that it was Simmons using the ID. He has never been heard from again.
Simmons resided in Georgia at the time of his disappearance; his family also lives there. He has ties to South Carolina, Florida, Tennessee and Mexico as well. His family filed a missing persons report with the Roswell, Georgia police in 1999, seventeen years after Simmons vanished.


Margaret Walden / Rio Arriba Jane Doe - WS Posts
I did a search for Margaret; do not see a post. Does someone have time to set one up?
NM - Rio Arriba Co., WhtFem 55UFNM, 25-35, San Juan River near Pagosa Springs, Sep'82

Margaret Walden / Rio Arriba Jane Doe - NamUs Links
Margaret Walden DNA Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete Biopsy scar Lt. wrist; bullet wound scar chest; mastectomy scars; vertical scar on back.
NamUs UP # 5326 DNA Status: Sample submitted - Tests complete Organ absent uterus
 
OMG...this is wonderful news. Closure for the family. Stewart has always been a pet case of mine but I have been ill and haven't been working cases for a bit. What great news to see this morning.

RIP precious Stewart. You are coming home!
 
Longform article about the murders of Stewart and the still-unidentified woman:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/coldcases/2014/07/12/pagosa-springs/8826/

All indications were that the bus was a critical piece of evidence. But no one knew if the bus still existed...

A Farmington, N.M., man read a story in the local paper about Barter’s investigation and called and told him where to find Madrid’s bus. It was within the Carson National Forest, about a mile from where the bodies were discovered.

It had apparently never been searched before.
 
I just read this interesting tidbit in the news article above about Stewart Simmons ID and LE investigation. Can someone explain what this means? it sounds intentional? So who buried this car to prevent erosion? Am I reading this wrong ? Lol Ive never heard of such (except when a farmer is up to no good and erosion prevention isn't his goal lol) is this some technique, bury it and prevent erosion? Im almost laughing here. Ive nevr associated burying an item with erosion protection..thats insane?
".. About a year later, an old car believed to be related to the case was dug up in the area of Caracas (the car buried to serve as erosion control) and searched, with a few more belongings found..."
 
33-year-old cold case finally leads to two arrests
Late last week, Barter issued arrest warrants for two suspects in the 33-year-old case. Antoinette Palmer, 58, who also goes by the name Tina Madrid, was arrested in Mesa, Ariz., and booked into the Maricopa County Jail on two counts of murder and conspiracy to commit murder.

And Martin Martinez, 70, who still lives in southern Archuleta County near where the bodies were found, was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit murder.

Early in his investigation, Barter got a break. He and a New Mexico State Police officer searched an old abandoned bus that belonged to Palmer at the time of the killings and found blood on the carpet, as well as shell casings that matched Simmons’ gunshot wounds.

Palmer told authorities Simmons had been living in her bus for about a month but said she wasn’t involved in the murder. But other people who spoke with authorities said Palmer implicated herself in the two deaths, according to the arrest warrant.

Barter believes there are two possible motives for the deaths: Either they were drug-related, or Palmer was jealous about Simmons’ possible relationship with the female victim.

A tip from an amateur internet investigator also helped Barter figure out who the victims were. The investigator gave him the names of Stewart Simmons and Margaret Walden – both of which turned out to be correct.
 

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