Cold Case Mendocino: Mother of Missing Woman Says Daughter Was Murdered

Cold Case Mendocino logo

When people go missing in Mendocino, they have a new ally—Ukiah High School journalism teacher Matt LaFever has started a website, Cold Case Mendocino, devoted to posting the details of their disappearances in a coherent story in hopes this might spark some further information and possibly lead to learning their fate. He’s joining us here on Redheaded Blackbelt twice a month to try and spread the missing people’s stories to more people. You can also follow his work by liking Cold Case Mendocino on Facebook.

Tellie Jo Simmons [photo from the HCSO missing persons website]

Tellie Jo Simmons [Photo from the Mendocino County missing persons’ website]

Tellie Jo Simmons came home for Christmas 2013. Soon after leaving, the family noticed her cell phone went dark. No one has heard from her since. A missing person report was filed on January 14th, 2014. Her mother now fears she was murdered by what she said, in a comment on Redheaded Blackbelt, were  “methanphetamine vampires.”

From what could be gathered from her Facebook account, Tellie Jo graduated from Laytonville High School, took classes at Mendocino College and lived in Ukiah sometime after high school.

She claimed to be a manager at a cannabis manufacturer/distributor. Tellie’s death follows a pattern resembling many of Mendocino’s missing: living in a rural/secluded manner, transient work and income based on black market marijuana, and eventual addiction to harder substances.

In the last year before her disappearance, Tellie was stricken with suicidal thoughts. Evidence of these struggles is found throughout 2013. She made several explicit posts describing suicidal thoughts. She wrote on Facebook, “I really struggle on days like thease to just keep going…All i want is death sweet death make it all go away…i sure could use a bullett for my head right now make it all go away.”

Tellie’s last contact with law enforcement could give some insight into what happened to her. On July 18th, 2013, Mendocino Sheriff’s deputies responded to a property north of Laytonville where the SUV Tellie was driving ran out of gas. Upon arrival, deputies met a male companion nicknamed EP (Eugene Peterson) and checked the vehicle. The vehicle was reported stolen out of Fort Bragg. And the couple allegedly had drug paraphernalia. Tellie and EP were booked for those charges and other outstanding warrants. In total, Tellie walked away with four felony charges from that arrest.

When the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was contacted regarding the status of Tellie’s case, Public Information Officer Gregory Van Patten stated: “The investigation into the disappearance of Tellie Jo Simmons is still ongoing at this time although there have been no significant developments worthy of dissemination. Because the investigation is ongoing I am unable to provide any investigative information beyond what we have posted on our website already: http://www.mendocinosheriff.com/missing/index.html

Essential Questions about the Case

  • What is this property on Spy Rock? Why would her mother suspect Tellie’s body could be there?
  • Where is Tellie’s mom, Tellie D. Simmons? Please reach out so we can ask questions.
  • If you know anything about the disappearance of Tellie, you can email us at [email protected], message us via Facebook, or call in a tip at #(707)560-1543
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19 Comments
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J
Guest
J
4 years ago

I feel her, I didn’t hang out with tweakers but both times I moved to the emerald triangle I was supremely suicidal. There is a high percentage of people in the emerald triangle with very lost souls that make them treat others much more horribly than you see in other areas of the country that I’ve lived in. Everywhere you go you’re treated like a second-rate human by egotistical people that you really can’t blame because they grew up and live in such a warped little bubble that it prevents them from being attached to reality and having a bigger grasp on their own actions and how they treat others. So wrapped up in being outlaws that they think they can’t be moral too. Can’t count the number of people I trusted who screwed me over the first second they could. About 10% of Humboldtians have truly good ethics and don’t negatively impact others on a daily basis and screw over the environment for money. Unfortunately most of that 10% are the OG’s, not many ethical youngbloods, but once again who can blame them. I can’t imagine how unethical I would be if I’ve been raised in such a cutthroat delude your own reality county instead of a strick, giving, always take responsibility household. Let’s see if we can get another local telling me to kill myself because I feel this way like the Humboldt Ridgetop Organic’s Co-owner did, before he bashed me from being from a Red State, so ignorant he couldn’t understand how stupid he sounded attacking me for being from a trump state while bashing transplants, a very Trump mentality!

This guy
Guest
This guy
4 years ago
Reply to  J

What do u mean ogs? Ocean grown? Original gangster?

KC
Guest
KC
4 years ago
Reply to  This guy

Old Geezer

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  KC

Original Growers? Old Guard?

WJ
Guest
WJ
4 years ago

“stricken with suicidal thoughts”

“allegedly had drug paraphernalia”

Stick to Occam’s razor unless given good evidence to suspect something other than the obvious occurred.
https://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occam%27s_razor

Central HumCo
Guest
4 years ago

“…was released on or. She was a Known flight risk.”

To facilitate a pretrial release, or O.R. release during booking or even in the field, the sheriff makes a judgment call to grant “O.R.” or “Supervised O.R.” status to a suspect before arraignment. In making this judgment call, the sheriff weighs the same factors as courts do in the bail-setting process, namely severity, record, public safety and community ties. The Sheriff reports to the court on the reasons for release, the location and restraints placed on the suspect, and the contacts and methods available in case of flight.

https://criminal.findlaw.com/criminal-procedure/own-recognizance-release.html

@System@ failure.

Hilltop
Guest
Hilltop
4 years ago

This how I remember Tellie

Elizabeth
Guest
Elizabeth
3 months ago
Reply to  Hilltop

She’s my mom

Liz
Guest
Liz
4 years ago

Good for Matt LaFever! So happy to see someone taking a new look at these cold cases. Glad to know Kym will have his articles twice a month.

Maybe someone in Humboldt will be as brave and will follow his lead.

Wildmtnhoney
Guest
Wildmtnhoney
4 years ago
Reply to  Liz

I couldn’t agree with you more, I think every county should have something like this, I live in Trinity county the other side of the triangle and things like this happen here all the time sadly

The Real Brian
Guest
The Real Brian
4 years ago
Reply to  Wildmtnhoney

This article from 2018 lists all of Trinitys missing.

http://www.trinityjournal.com/news/local/article_e6431126-07c5-11e9-9bfe-eb1676014d33.html

Pass it around every once in a while.

Wrong time, wrong place
Guest
Wrong time, wrong place
4 years ago

J……..This is a article about a missing women. This should not be a spot that you use to call out certain community members and go on a rant about your emotional state. Seems like you need a phycologist or somebody to help you respect yourself and others and learn the time and the place to project your feeling and speak about yourself and your problems. Its pretty out of line to use the cold case of a missing women as a forum for your opinions and mental trips about the area and others. Go get help girl and stop emotionally vomiting all over the comment sections.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago

Unfortunately inappropriate response are not uncommon in mental illnesses. Nor are inappropriate actions, dress, cleanliness, beliefs, etc. Nor does criticism change any of that. There is such a thing as giving a little slack to people under stress. Sometimes there are seasons or reasons invisible to others that increase the internal stress of people. There certainly has been an increase in emotional volatility in the last week or son.

Jonathan Dowe
Guest
Jonathan Dowe
4 years ago

What do they do with the bodies? Do they just drag them off somewhere; 100 feet down a bank and leave them on some remote road? Often they`re really stupid and just leave them where they`re found a few days or hours later. A couple of hours work with a mattock and shovel and tidying up the “site” would be a pretty fool proof way to get rid of a body.

In Mendocino county at the intersection of Hwy 162 and Hwy 101 a missing woman was found reduced to charred bits of bone. This must have taken a bit of work and a few sticks of firewood. Since a body is mostly water; this must have taken quite a fire. Must have stank as well.

Barry
Guest
Barry
4 years ago

Did the mom say in her post this woman was a CI or a Confidential Informant?

Scared Mom
Guest
Scared Mom
4 years ago

I live in Mendocino County for over 13 years. For over 1 1/2 years now I have been followed DAILY by people I dont know to the point that now I have someone with me EVERY WHERE I GO because Im nervous to he out in public alone especially at night. Worse for me if I have my 11 year old daughter with me. I stick mostly to myself havent made alot of friends since I moved here. Just focus on being a mom amd I have trust issues due to what Ive been dealing with last 1 1/2 years. As soon as I leave in morning there is at least 1 car there waiting to follow me and Im passed off to the next “follower” and so on until I make it back home and the next day its the same exact thing all over., Im followed and watched when doing normal everyday things. When Im in the car driving people behind me flash their lights at me, even in the daytime. People in cars swirve in my lane trying to run me off the road. They have thrown things at my vehicle. When Im in stores people, 80% of time men will follow me in every isle the whole time Im there and when I leave their will be 1-2 cars waiting to follow me. Im scared I will end up being one of these cold cases. Ive have gone to make reports about this to UPD and Sheriff but all they do is ask me, if I have mental health issues OR if Im on drugs, WHICH I HAVE NO HISTORY OF AND NO CRIMINAL RECORD OR HEALTH RECORDS OF EITHER. I have over 1 year of pictures and videos I have been taking to document what IS HAPPENING TO ME, the police never seemed interested in viewing them but I figured Id keep recording my daily hell just in case I end up like these missing people, so my 3 children can see what has been happening to me and use the videos and pictures to help find me or solve my murder. So I basically gave up trying to get help from local law. I stopped going to them period seeking some help or getting them to believe me. I just deal with the scarey, intimidating following and watching from strangers that I go threw and endure every single day.

Country bumpkin.
Guest
Country bumpkin.
2 years ago
Reply to  Scared Mom

You’re being gang stalked.
Everything you just said is happening to you has happened to me. There are a lot of people in that group that supposedly had a hand in tellie going missing who participate regularly in this and the truth is that they do things to make you sound crazy .
This has happened to me for over 5 years and then it suddenly stopped . I have thousands of pieces of evidence some of which is undeniable and shows faces. They didn’t kill me though. They tried to make sure that I felt so alone and so helpless that I wanted to kill myself . Be safe out there. The cops won’t help. I lost most my friends and my family too . You can guarantee that someone extremely close to you is part of it or the reason for it.
Find out who it is and extract them immediately from your life very slowly and don’t let them know it. In my situation it was my husband. But I will say that either poor tellies mom was a good actress and played excellent at pretending not to know what role her son j played in it or she was not aware. Which I highly doubtful of

Sellie
Guest
Sellie
3 years ago

I knew Tellie very well in her teens and early adulthood. She definitely didn’t kill herself. She was definitely deep in a dark world but she doesn’t deserve whatever happened to her. Everyone that I know that knew her for all the time I have also think she was murdered. Someone does know for sure and I hope we can all have some closure to what had happened to her.

Elizabeth
Guest
Elizabeth
3 months ago
Reply to  Sellie

She’s my mom I’m 17 now