Deceased/Not Found CA - Carol Meyer Lubahn, 26, Torrance, 30 March 1981 *M. Clark guilty*

Kat

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Carol Jeanne Meyer Lubahn has been missing since March 30th, 1981. She was 26 years old at the time of her disappearance. Carol was approximately 5'6" tall, 117lbs, with blonde hair and blue eyes. She had a mole on the left side of her chin. She was last seen in the 17600 block of Cranbrook in the city of Torrance, California. Her car was later recovered (abandoned) in the city of Redondo Beach. She had two small children at the time of her disappearance. Her case is being investigated by the Torrance Police Department.

http://www.caroljeannemeyerlubahn.com/index/Help_the_Investigation

NamUs Profile:
https://www.findthemissing.org/cases/1276/

Charley Project:
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/l/lubahn_carol.html

News article dated 06 AUG 2011 by By Larry Altman Staff Writer:

But Friday, the 84-year-old woman arrived in a Torrance courtroom as the first prosecution witness to testify against Clark, a former Torrance man charged in April with killing her daughter, Carol Lubahn, who was listed as missing in 1981.

"I still had hopes she was alive," Meyer said shortly before Clark was escorted into the courtroom in handcuffs. He acknowledged her with a smile and a wink.
84 yr old=Carol's Mother.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_18630113

Clark was arrested in April of this year. Trial currently ongoing. Her body has not been located.
 
He SMILED and WINKED at this victim's mother?? Dear Lord, I think that in itself should be worthy of some kind of charge, maybe on basis of emotional duress...
 
Michael Lubahn Clark convicted of second degree murder.

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Michael Lubahn Clark, a house painter whose young wife disappeared from their north Torrance home in the middle of the night 31 years ago and has never been heard from since, was found guilty on Wednesday of killing her.

The jury found Clark, 59, guilty of second-degree murder in the slaying of Carol Lubahn, who was 26 when she was last seen March 31, 1981. The couple, who met at North High School in Torrance, were married for about 10 years and lived in a home in the 17600 block of Cranbrook Avenue they shared with their two young children.

Clark, who testified in his own defense during the trial and repeatedly denied killing his wife, displayed no emotion as the verdict was read. He glanced back at relatives sitting in the courtroom before bailiffs led him away.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/news/ci_21845829/jury-finds-michael-clark-guilty-murder-1981-torrance
 
Michael Clark-Lubahn Confesses
He will show authorities where he dumped her body off of the Palos Verdes coastline.


20130107__C_TN08-LUBAHN+PC79FVX_400.JPG


http://www.mercurynews.com/californ...-lubahn-clark-confesses-1981-killing-his-wife

For 31 years, Michael Lubahn Clark denied killing his wife. He said she left him in the middle of the night following an argument. She was gone when he awakened in the morning at their Torrance home.

But Monday, two months after a Torrance jury dismissed Clark's own testimony about how his wife left him March 31, 1981, never to be heard from again, Clark finally confessed, telling a prosecutor and detectives that he killed the 26-year-old woman in a rage at home. He hid her body in their garage, and later tied it to cinder blocks and submerged it off the Rancho Palos Verdes coast.

Deputy District Attorney John Lewin said in court that Clark has agreed to join a Sheriff's Department dive team on board a boat Wednesday to show them the spot some 500 to 800 yards off Point Vicente where he disposed of his wife's body.

The hope is that some 50 divers expected to search for Carol Meyer Lubahn's remains will find something to return to her family for proper burial.

"Even if all we get is a cinder block, they want it," Lewin told Torrance Superior Court Judge Eric Taylor. "They want something."
 
Tonight, Dateline (with Keith Morrison) did an episode on the Carol Lubahn case.

At the end of the hour, Keith Morrison explained that Michael Lubahn's story about Carol's body being dumped offshore of the Palos Verdes lighthouse was also a lie.

Michael Lubahn now says he buried Carol's body, and has led authorities to the general location of the burial site. (This location was not disclosed in the Dateline episode.) He also passed a polygraph to support his new story. Authorities over the "next few months" will be attempting to locate the burial spot. It was not clear when this episode was recorded. But it looks hopeful that her body may finally be found (if it hasn't already been found).


In retrospect, I should have suspected that the Point Vicente story was not a credible story. The shoreline at Point Vicente is entirely lined with vertical cliffs, and there is only one trail that takes you from the parking lot down the cliffs to the water. It would have been quite a task to drag a rowboat and a body down the path that runs down the cliffside at Point Vicente, row the boat offshore, dump her body, and then drag the rowboat back up the cliffside path to his car.
 
Here's the Daily Breeze article regarding his change of story about the disposal site.

http://www.dailybreeze.com/general-...k-changes-story-again-on-torrance-wifes-death

Michael Lubahn Clark said in an interview with the Daily Breeze that investigators won't find his wife's remains off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes because he never put her there.

"That was my original plan," Clark said. "I've been told not to talk about details right now. She may be somewhere else."

Clark's son, Michael Lubahn Jr., said his father has told investigators where his wife's remains are located, but Clark, prosecutors and Torrance police all declined to comment on where they plan to look.

Torrance police Sgt. Robert Watt said detectives are working to verify Clark's latest account now that he has told them the ocean should not be their focus.

"He has now recanted that statement and we are now working on his new statement," Watt said. "Detectives and the D.A.'s Office continue to work these leads so the family can have closure on what happened to Carol Lubahn."
 
I was presuming that his second account of how she died (after failing the polygraph on the first account) was probably true because I presumed that he was polygraphed again on his revised account.

But now it has turned out that he lied about the disposal site (apparently without being tripped up by the polygraph). I am thinking that there must be a reason why he didn't want to reveal the true burial site, even after confessing to being responsible for her death.

I have a feeling that when her bones are found, the bones will reveal much more than just a single punch in the face that supposedly killed her.
 
@Caring1 are there any exclusions? Sorry if I shouldn't ask but I feel like there are as Carol is most likely dead.
 
The only Doe I have found matching her description and being close to where she went missing was this one: The National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs)

I don't even know if the 0-2002 is accurate as I have seen the PMI being about a year even when the time of death is 0-XXXX. This one does say "Years" however but I wish I know how many years. Found no Doe Network or even a thread on this site.
 

Carol Jeanne Lubahn
Carol Jeanne Lubahn
Carol Jeanne Lubahn

Mouse over to enlarge. The image on the right was taken the night before she disappeared (March 30, 1981).

Name: Carol Jeanne Lubahn
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: March 31, 1981
Location Last Seen: Torrance, Los Angeles County, California

Physical Description​

Date of Birth: October 28, 1954
Age: 26 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 117 lbs.
Hair Color: Blond/Strawberry
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Carol Jeanne Meyer
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Mole on left side of chin.

Identifiers​

Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available

Clothing & Personal Items​

Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown

Circumstances of Disappearance​

Lubahn, the mother of two children, was last seen by her husband while at their residence in the 17600 block of Cranbook Avenue, in Torrance, CA.

On the night of March 31, 1981, Lubahn left their home after an argument. Lubahn's husband of 10 years, Michael Lubahn Clark said that they fought that night because he refused to sign paperwork necessary to sell their house.

Clark told police he awakened about 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. to find their bed empty, the garage door open and his wife's car gone. Believing she had left to be alone for a few days, he did not call the police immediately. Her belongings were left at the residence and she did not pick up her last two paychecks. As the days passed, Clark looked for her at El Camino College, where Lubahn was taking architecture classes.

On April 6, 1981, her vehicle, a red 1979 Audi Fox, was found by Clark abandoned at the Red Onion Restaurant parking lot in Redondo Beach, CA. Three days later, Clark reported her missing. Sometime after her disappearance, someone entered the home, removed some clothing and leafed through some mail. Someone phoned on holidays occasionally, hanging up without speaking. Clark divorced Lubahn in absentia three years later.

Over 32 years, Clark told authorities a number of contradictory stories about his wife's disappearance from their home. First, he said the last he heard from her was the slamming of a door. Later, he added that he saw her drive away. In April 2011, Clark was arrested after Torrance police reopened the cold case and he was convicted in October 2012. At his murder trial in 2012, Clark told jurors he was sure his wife returned home after that night because he had spread powder on the ground that tracked her footprints.

A December 14th a letter Clark wrote to Lubahn's mother was read aloud in court. In 2013, Clark claimed he and Lubahn indeed argued about the house that night and Lubahn did take off in her car. However, Lubahn returned home about 1:30 a.m. Lubahn told Clark she had met another man and planned to take him to her sister's wedding days later. Clark told the detectives he was hurt and grabbed a pillow to sleep on the couch. Lubahn tried to talk to him and console him, telling Clark he would find someone else, but he became angry and shoved her and she hit her head on a coffee table. Under intense questioning, Clark changed his story again and said he punched her. Either way, Clark believed she was dead.

Clark panicked and hid her body behind a roll of carpeting in their garage, got into her car, drove to the Red Onion restaurant on Harbor Drive in Redondo Beach and parked it there.

Clark later wrapped his wife's body in cloth and blankets, and attached 50 feet of nylon rope to cinder blocks. He loaded her body into his truck, drove to Point Vicente near a lighthouse and put her body onto a raft. An expert scuba diver, Clark put on a wet suit and flippers and paddled out about 200 to 500 yards beyond the kelp line. There, he let the cinder blocks pull her body down, never to be seen again.

Clark was sentenced in January 2013 to 15 years to life in prison, hours after agreeing to lead a sheriff's dive team to a site off the coast of Palos Verdes where he had dumped Lubahn's body. Clark wound up passing a detailed polygraph test after telling authorities a specific point where he said his wife's body was buried, but authorities were unable to find her body in that area, where construction had been done in the interim. In an interview with The Daily Breeze, Clark said investigators won't find his wife's remains off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes because he never put her there.

Lubahn's body has not been located.

Investigating Agency(s)​

Agency Name: Torrance Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective Jim Wallace
Agency Phone Number: (310)-618-5578
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 81-7319

NamUs Case Number: 1276
NCIC Case Number: M-129895890

Information Source(s)​

NamUs
California Department of Justice
North American Missing Persons Network
Los Angeles Times
Palos Verdes Patch
Redondo Beach Patch
Daily Breeze -
4/13/2011
,
1/7/2013
,
2/5/2013

Admin Notes​

Added: 6/1/2012; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
 

  • carol_jeanne_lubahn_3.jpg
  • carol_jeanne_lubahn_4.jpg
  • carol_jeanne_lubahn_5.jpg
  • carol_jeanne_lubahn_8.jpg
  • carol_jeanne_lubahn_9.jpg
Lubahn, circa 1981; Michael Clark, circa 1981; Clark in 2011
  • Missing Since 03/31/1981
  • Missing From Torrance, California
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 10/28/1954 (68)
  • Age 26 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'6, 117 pounds

  • Associated Vehicle(s) Red 1979 Audi Fox (accounted for)

  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Lubahn has a mole on the left side of her chin. She may use the last name Meyer.

Details of Disappearance​

Lubahn was last seen at her residence in the 17600 block of Cranbrook Avenue in Torrance, California at approximately 12:00 a.m. on March 31, 1981.

Her husband of ten years, Michael Clark (called Michael Clark Lubahn at the time; he later dropped his last name), stated he went to sleep at that time, and she was gone when he woke up at approximately 4:00 or 5:00 a.m. She has never been heard from again.

On April 6, her red 1979 Audi Fox was found abandoned at the now-defunct Red Onion Restaurant in Redondo Beach, California. The restaurant manager stated it had been there all week.

Clark stated that on the night of her disappearance, he and Lubahn argued and she said she wanted to sell the house. He suggested Lubahn had left on her own because she wanted time to herself. He said he didn't report her disappearance for several days because of this theory.

He said after Lubahn's disappearance, someone came to the house while everyone was out, went through the mail and took some clothing. He also claimed he got hang-up calls on the holidays.

Eight months after Lubahn's disappearance, Clark began dating another woman. He divorced Lubahn in absentia in 1984, three years after she was last seen, and married the woman he'd been dating since 1981. They divorced twenty years later.

Both Lubahn and Clark attended North High School and married just after graduation. They had two young children in 1981, and Lubahn was studying architecture at El Camino College while Clark worked as a house painter.

Lubahn was having an affair with a college classmate at the time of her disappearance, and Clark found out about it not long before she went missing. She left all her personal belongings behind at home, she never picked up her last two paychecks from her part-time job, and she hasn't used her credit cards or Social Security number since 1981.

Authorities initially thought she had left of her own accord, although her family stated she would never have abandoned her children.

In April 2011, Clark was arrested and charged with Lubahn's murder. Photos of him are posted with this case summary. He was offered leniency if he pleaded guilty to manslaughter and told where he'd put his wife's body, but he refused.

There was no physical evidence in the case against him and the prosecution's case was largely built around the inconsistent statements Clark made about Lubahn's disappearance. He went to trial in October 2012 and testified in his own defense, saying his wife had simply left him and at the time he assumed she would come back.

He said the marriage was "in good shape" in spite of Lubahn's affair, and his defense attorney argued there was no evidence to prove she was even dead. Witnesses testified that Clark didn't seem interested in locating Lubahn and did little to find her. He was convicted of second-degree murder.

In January 2013, after more than thirty years, Clark finally admitted to having killed his wife. He stated he killed he unintentionally during an argument, which coincides with the prosecution's theory of how the murder happened.

Clark initially claimed he weighted his wife's body and dumped it in the ocean, but he later changed his story and said he'd buried her. He sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. Authorities intend to search for Lubahn's body.

Foul play is suspected in Lubahn's disappearance due to the circumstances involved.

Investigating Agency​

  • Torrance Police Department 310-618-5578

Source Information​

Updated 10 times since October 12, 2004. Last updated December 17, 2013; two pictures added.
 
 

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