14 h, may 16, 1979 y - Adam Ashley HOMICIDE & POSSIBLE ROBBERY

Description:

Adam and his twin brother Marc were born in Palm Springs, CA on May 18, 1964. They have a sister named Terri who is one year older than them. Their father Arthur was killed in a plane crash in March 1968, and afterward their mother Martha struggled to care for her three young children alone.

The brothers, "grew up surfing and skateboarding in the beachside community of Cardiff-by-the-Sea, near San Diego." By the time they were teenagers, however, both twins drank alcohol and smoke marijuana. Adam is said to have had anger issues, and would become violent during fights with his siblings. In fall 1978 the twins began their freshman year at San Dieguito High School, and the family attended counseling. However, Adam still needed additional support, and his mother believed that he needed a "strong male influence." Adam was eventually placed in the Del Mar home of a foster parent, Eugene Requa, who went by Gene and was known in the area for taking "troubled teens" into his home, as well as "allowing them to hang out and camp in the yard." Adam still kept in contact with his family when staying with Gene, who was 64 years old at the time. At the time of his death, Adam was 5'8 and had shoulder-length brown curly hair.

Adam's sister Terri last saw him at school one week before he was last seen alive. They spoke about their mom; Adam thought that their mother must be relieved to no longer have him in the house, which Terri refuted. According to Terri, Adam also said that he was no longer using drugs, and had even quit smoking cigarettes. He seemed calm and composed "for a change."

According to the later police report, Adam was last seen alive at 2:00pm on Wednesday, May 16, 1979 by his foster father Gene at his home at 140 7th St in Del Mar. Adam said that he was going to the beach for a swim.

At about 7:40am the next day, a man riding his bike discovered the body of a young white male lying in the sand just above the surf line on Torrey Pines State Beach. The bicyclist promptly went to a phone booth and called the police, who arrived on the scene at 7:50am.

The body was found 0.5miles south of Carmel Valley Rd and 50ft west of North Torrey Pines Rd, near Lifeguard Tower 4. This is about 1.4mi from Gene Requa's home. The teenager was wearing a white long-sleeved thermal sweatshirt and brown corduroy swim trunks. He had died from trauma: the autopsy states, "Homicide: Struck in head by another person," and the cause of death was "contusions, lacerations, and blunt injuries to the head."

On Monday, May 21, Gene Requa contacted the police to report Adam missing. His description of Adam matched that of the then-unidentified male found four days previously, and police quickly made the connection. According to the autopsy report, Gene was the one who identified Adam's body for the coroner. On Friday, May 25, the body was officially announced as being Adam's. He had died the day before his 15th birthday.

In a newspaper clipping from the time, detectives stated that the motive appeared to be robbery; however, I could not find anything else on this from a reputable source, or if Adam had any money on him when he left home. One user has posted to Reddit a few times about Adam's death, saying that he is Adam's brother-in-law. According to that user, "[Adam] was beaten with rocks by unknown assailants, and left on the shore, apparently in hopes that his body would be pulled into the ocean by the tide. His wallet was empty." According to the website his family set up, there is little physical or DNA evidence in Adam's case.

The health of Adam's mother, Martha, suffered because of her loss, and she died of a heart attack less than five years later at the age of 53. Adam's foster father, Gene Requa, died in Del Mar in 2009 at the age of 94. Adam's siblings are still alive and seeking answers, having set up the website Justice For Adam. Adam's case is still unsolved, and he is listed on the city of San Diego's cold case page.

It should be noted that two other teenagers were also found murdered next to lifeguard towers on Torrey Pines State Beach in the same time span. The murder of Claire Hough in 1984 has more-or-less been solved through DNA, though the 1978 murder of Barbara Nantais and attack on her boyfriend Jim Alt — who were both found bludgeoned with rocks, just like Adam — is still unsolved. All three murder victims — Barbara Nantais, Adam Ashley, and Claire Hough — were found within 0.4 mi of each other. For a long time Barbara and Claire's cases were thought to be linked, though this was disproven using DNA.

On Reddit, a user claiming to be Adam's niece stated that, prior to the write-up I posted about the three, no one had thought Adam's case was related to those of Barbara and Claire, including LE, especially because it seems the murders of the two girls seemed sexually motivated, while Adam's did not. However, users on Reddit — including Adam's niece — have brought up the possibility that his killer may have mistaken him for a teenaged girl when seeing him in the dark from behind, as Adam was short and thin with long hair that went past his shoulders.

Anyone with information regarding Adam's case is encouraged to call the SDPD Homicide Unit at 619-531-2293. For anonymous tips, call Crimestoppers at 888-580-8477 or submit your tip online at https://www.sdcrimestoppers.org/

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CONFIRMATION OF COMPLETION DATE: May 31, 2025
LAST UPDATED: June 12, 2025

Cases mentioned above that are also/will be present on this timeline:
Barbara Nantais and Jim Alt, Claire Hough
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LUNAR PHASE: waning gibbous
ZODIAC SIGN: taurus
DAY OF WEEK: Wednesday

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