Case Details
- Photo URLs:
-
- Missing Since:
- Missing Since 07/08/1995
- Missing From:
- Missing From Barstow, California
- Classification:
- Classification Endangered Missing
- Gender:
- Male
- Race:
- Race White
- Date of Birth:
- Date of Birth 09/14/1958 (66)
- Age:
- Age 36 years old
- Height and Weight:
- Height and Weight 6’2, 260 pounds
- Clothing/Jewelry Description:
- Clothing/Jewelry Description A t-shirt, a San Francisco Giants hat and blue jeans.
- Distinguishing Characteristics:
- Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian male. Brown hair, hazel eyes.
- Details of Disappearance:
- Two men, Adamson and Riley, vanished after being seen getting into a car outside a Walmart in Barstow, California, on July 8, 1995. Adamson’s roommate said they were going to buy a car, and Adamson had a lot of cash.
Years later, three people were charged with their murders: James Linzy Franklin (already in prison for another crime), his nephew Steven Michael Dondero, and Christian Leonard Bunty Sr. Police believed the suspects lured Adamson and Riley with a deal to sell them a drug ingredient ($9,000 worth of ephedrine), then robbed and killed them.
The charges against Bunty were dropped, and Dondero pleaded guilty to helping hide a criminal and got two years in prison. Franklin was convicted of the murders.
Adamson and Riley’s bodies have never been found, but because of the circumstances, police think they were murdered, possibly buried in the Mojave Desert.
- Agency:
- Barstow Police Department 760-256-3531
- Source Links:
This person was missing Missing Since 07/08/1995