CA CA - Connie Marsh, 21, college student, murdered, Santa Clarita, 3 Apr 1974

[centipede]

Learned about this case recently through some local papers writing about the anniversary of her disappearance in 2019. I am currently attending CalArts, the school Connie Marsh disappeared from, she's been on my mind a lot recently, I wanted to share her case here.

On April 3, 1974 Connie Marsh (21) left the CalArts campus to paint off Pico Canyon Road. Her unfinished paining and car, with her purse and wallet in the front seat were discovered there. Police say there was no signs of struggle, or footprints left at the scene.

On Dec. 15, 1974, a man hunting near Texas Canyon, above Vasquez Canyon Road, found a skull, later determined to be the remains of Connie Marsh.

In a 2019 SCVNews article about the case, Detective Richard Lopez speaks about a potential lead. In a group photo with Connie Marsh and her peers, there is a man none of her friends are able to identify. The Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office was not able to find a match in their database to the man in the photo.

These are the recent articles about her case:
https://scvnews.com/connie-marsh-cold-case-warms-then-cools/
CalArts alumni keep memory of Connie alive

This is a playlist of home movie films taken at CalArts 3-4 years after her death, not completely relevant to the case but they capture the landscape of Santa Clarita, and the atmosphere of CalArts at the time:
C.I.A. - YouTube

 

[paigeok]

I work at an artist residency, and recently someone who attended our program in 1972 contacted us about Connie Marsh, who she remembered was a classmate. Our organization had no record of her attending the residency, but when we looked through the class photo that year, we saw Connie Marsh labelled and everything. It's been troubling me that we somehow omitted her and I was hoping to find out more information as well. I'm surprised this isn't more well known.

 

[centipede]

I work at an artist residency, and recently someone who attended our program in 1972 contacted us about Connie Marsh, who she remembered was a classmate. Our organization had no record of her attending the residency, but when we looked through the class photo that year, we saw Connie Marsh labelled and everything. It's been troubling me that we somehow omitted her and I was hoping to find out more information as well. I'm surprised this isn't more well known.

Thanks for contributing to this thread - how strange that she was omitted from the record keeping. Is the residency you work for in California too?

 

[Daphne1972]

Are there better pics of her? And has that group photo been released?

 

[Richard]

Connie Marsh story in The Signal, Dec. 17, 1974.

LINK:

Connie Marsh Cold Case Warms, Then Cools - SCVNews.com

 

[AZ Native Cat]

What, if any, additional information is out there? One of the articles state she was killed with blunt force trauma. Do they know with what? Where is/was the rest of her body? This man from the photo that nobody seems to know, do we have a picture of him? Was there anyone else bothering her? If there were no footprints or signs of a struggle it might suggest she left willingly. Maybe a ruse to help someone? So many questions.

 

[paigeok]

Thanks for contributing to this thread - how strange that she was omitted from the record keeping. Is the residency you work for in California too?

Just FYI, since my last post, I realized we actually were missing a lot of records of people who attended in earlier years but deceased before we implemented our digital record system. Not as ominous as I thought!

But no, the residency is actually in Maine. It looks like she was originally from Philadelphia and attended our school before going to grad school on the west coast. Very sad to learn she was so far from family when she died.

I did find out her father's name and it appears he's still alive, and in his mid-90s! There was also a picture attached to her application. Looks like a class photo.