After 41 years an arrest is made in a Southern California cold case killing
HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. (AP) — A 70-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of bludgeoning a man to death in a Southern California home more than four decades ago, authorities said.
Ronald Gaskey’s body was found inside his Newport Beach residence in December 1983, but investigators were unable to solve the murder and the case went cold.
The Newport Beach Police Department said in a statement that the case had been reopened in recent years and that investigators identified a Huntington Beach man as the suspect. He was arrested Friday and held on $1 million bail.
Information regarding a motive or what led detectives to the suspect were not immediately available.
Gaskey, a 36-year-old construction worker, was found dead by a former girlfriend after he didn’t show up for work. He had been clubbed in the head and face with a blunt object, the Orange County Register reported Friday, citing a 1983 article by the Daily Pilot.
The 1983 article noted that Gaskey was described as “a highly security-conscience person” who had made efforts to fortify his home. Neighbors said it would have been out of character for him to leave his door unlocked, which is how it was found.
Police at the time ruled out robbery as a motive and said the house had not been ransacked.
