9h 30min, dec 17, 1975 y - Thomas Pemberton Body found

Description:

"Found dead Wednesday [12/17/75]. [...] On Dec. 9 [1975] the Santa Ana Police Department received an anonymous call saying that Pemberton's body was in Carbon Canyon. Sheriff's deputies made a cursory search of the canyon and did not find the body" (LAT 12/18/79).

"Partially decomposed body [...] was discovered Wednesday morning [12/17/75] in a ravine along Carbon Canyon road. [...] Sheriff's department homicide investigators said that the body had been lying there for several days. [...] The body was found at about 9:30am. [...] The crew had been spraying along Carbon Canyon road since Monday and had just reached the area where the body was found Wednesday" (CC 12/19/75).
"Sheriff's detectives said that they had received a report from the Anaheim Police department Tuesday night [12/16/75] that the body of a man who had died of a drug overdose had been dumped somewhere in Carbon Canyon 12 days before" (CC 12/19/75).
** Note: Dec. 9, 1975 was also a Tuesday night, and is the date that other sources give for the anonymous phone call (assuming there was only one). Other sources also state that the call was made to the Santa Ana PD, not Anaheim.

"A San Bernardino County weed abatement control crew found the decomposed body [...] Wednesday morning. [...] On Dec. 9, [1975,] Santa Ana police received an anonymous phone tip that the body of an Orange County man who had died from a drug overdose had been dumped in the San Bernardino area. Santa Ana police informed the San Bernardino sheriff's office and the California Highway Patrol of the phone tip, but a week-long search by those two agencies failed to locate the body. San Bernardino county coroner officials said Pemberton had been dead for approximately two weeks. Cause of death was tentatively attributed to a drug overdose" (OCR 12/19/75).

"San Bernardino County sheriff's detectives estimated that he had been dead for approximately two weeks" (LAT 12/25/75).


COD drug overdose.
Proposed by: me
Reasons proposed: Demographics, time period, SoCal; found on side of road, body dumped, highway, near OC, COD drug overdose, proximity to confirmed dump site, IDed through fingerprints (i.e., didn't have ID on him when found)

Reasons against: Type of drugs he ODed on not reported by NPs; other possible manners of death (i.e., accidental) are also very likely; anonymous tip about how the body of a man who died of an OD had been dumped somewhere in Carbon Canyon was submitted to LE prior to discovery

Facts that could go either way: Fully clothed, "The autopsy showed there were no traumatic injuries that could have killed Thomas Pemberton" (LAT 12/25/75).


NOTE TO SELF: I have submitted a PRA request to the SBCSO, as well as a request for a coroner report, through the online portal and over email, respectively, on the morning of July 2, 2026.
Other involved agencies I should possibly submit requests to: Santa Ana PD, CHP, CalTrans


HS 12/18/75: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-hanford-sentinel-thomas-pemberton/198920308/
LAT 12/18/75: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-thomas-pemberton/198920294/
CC 12/19/75: https://www.newspapers.com/article/chino-champion-thomas-pemberton/198920248/
OCR 12/19/75: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-register-thomas-pemberton/198920325/
HS 12/23/75: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-hanford-sentinel-thomas-pemberton/198920348/
LAT 12/25/75: https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-los-angeles-times-thomas-pemberton/198920362/

FindAGrave: https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/138763816/thomas-wayne-pemberton

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