A 12 months after chilly case investigators recognized the skeletal stays of a lady killed in what’s now town of Lake Forest, the Orange County Sheriff’s Division has introduced two new individuals of curiosity. Considered one of them? The sufferer’s ex-husband.
Maritza Glean Grimmett was 20 years previous when she went lacking in 1979. She was in the midst of divorce and custody proceedings when she left Tennessee to stick with her sister in Georgia earlier than she acquired a name from her ex-husband, a U.S. Marine named Howard Grimmett.
Sheriff’s investigators mentioned Maritza informed her sister she was headed to California after Howard, who was stationed in Orange County, satisfied her to return and work on their marriage — solely to by no means be seen once more.
Her stays had been uncovered in 1983 after a bunch of kids discovered a human cranium in a culvert close to Canada and Previous Trabuco roads in Lake Forest. The bones had been discovered just a few miles away from the previous El Toro Marine Corps Air Station the place Howard had been stationed. An excavation uncovered roughly 70% of the scattered skeletal stays, sufficient for a bodily description and forensic rendering of Maritza, who remained unidentified for over 40 years.
Proof discovered on the excavation website led investigators to consider she was killed however a selected reason for loss of life couldn’t be decided.
The path continued to run chilly till investigators turned to Fb in 2023 after collaborating with a distant genetic relative who urged they share the girl’s forensic rendering with a bunch targeted on figuring out ladies who went lacking from the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties. A month later, investigators had been contacted by a lady who believed their Jane Doe was her lacking mom.
It broke the case, investigators mentioned, and Maritza was positively recognized in March 2024.
For Orange County Sheriff’s Murder Investigator Bob Taft, it was the primary time a cold-case sufferer was recognized over social media.
“Although the victim is a part of it, you do it for the family members. Her daughter grew up thinking that her mother abandoned her. Her sisters and her parents, her loved ones, never knew what happened. Those individuals deserve answers and anything I can do to try and rectify that, by providing some semblance to these families of what happened to their loved ones is the reason why we do this,” Taft mentioned.
U.S. Marine Howard Grimmett and his ex-wife Maritza Glean Grimmett married in the summertime of 1978. (Courtesy of the Orange County Sheriff’s Division)
Maritza was initially from Panama and met Howard when he was stationed there as a Marine, investigators realized. The 2 acquired married in the summertime of 1978 and had a child lady earlier than Howard was transferred to Tennessee later that 12 months whereas Maritza and their daughter moved to Columbus, Ohio to stick with his household.
Whereas separated from his new household in Tennessee, Howard met his present spouse, a fellow marine named Isabel “Terry” Cruz-Grimmett.
One factor led to a different and Howard filed for divorce from Maritza in July of 1979. She was already residing in Millington, Tenn. when she realized about his relationship with Terry – the title Isabel used – and went to stick with her sister in Georgia. The 2 had a divorce listening to scheduled in November and had beforehand agreed that Maritza would obtain full custody of her daughter whereas Howard paid little one assist, Taft mentioned.
Maritza Glean Grimmett is seen in an undated picture. (Photograph courtesy Orange County Sheriff’s Division)
When November got here round, Maritza was a no-show and Howard acquired full custody of their daughter, Daybreak. Neither Howard nor Maritza’s aspect of the household mentioned they knew what occurred to her mom. Based on Taft, Daybreak was raised to consider her half-siblings had been her cousins and didn’t study Howard was her organic father till she was at the very least 11 years previous.
The truth that Maritza didn’t present as much as the divorce listening to led Taft to consider she had already been lifeless earlier than the divorce listening to. With most of her household in Panama, he mentioned there was no purpose for her to not present up.
Howard and Terry had been interviewed by regulation enforcement for the primary time in Sep. 2024 and denied any involvement in Maritza’s disappearance.
Based on Taft, Howard had modified the story he informed relations over time, from how she left the newborn in a barracks on the Marine base in Tennessee and disappeared to how she did come to California however the two didn’t get alongside so he dropped her off at an unknown resort in Santa Ana.
When Taft spoke to him, Howard gave him a “completely new account” of what occurred to Maritza; that she voluntarily turned over their daughter to him in individual in Tennessee and he by no means noticed her once more, the sheriff’s investigator mentioned. He mentioned Howard’s assertion conflicts with the account shared by Maritza’s sister, who mentioned Howard referred to as and requested her to return to California.
Howard Grimmett and his ex-wife Maritza Glean Grimmett with their daughter Daybreak. (Courtesy of the Orange County Sheriff’s Division)
Taft added that the truth that Maritza’s stays had been found just a few miles from the place Howard was stationed makes each him and his spouse, who now stay in Ohio, individuals of curiosity within the case.
Neither Howard Grimmett nor Isabel “Terry” Cruz-Grimmett might be reached for remark.
Investigators are in search of any particulars that would assist set up how and when Maritza arrived in California. Former navy service members stationed on the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station between late 1979 and April 1983 who consider they might have seen Maritza or knew Howard and Terry are inspired to achieve out.
