[UPDATE 6:09 p.m.] Man Searching for Missing Schoolmate Who Was Featured on This Website Stumbled on Human Remains Yesterday
Law enforcement is on-site today conducting a thorough search of the area.
Lewis Compton went missing November 13, 2018. He drove his Jeep Cherokee into a fence along Highway 1 and fled the scene when law enforcement attempted to arrest him. He sped north, a California Highway Patrolman pursued, and when Lewis lost sight of his pursuer, he abandoned his Jeep, escaped into the woods, and has not been seen or heard from since.
David Fernandez, a 43-year-old resident of Fort Bragg, regularly drives Highway 1 for work. After reading that Lewis’s Jeep Grand Cherokee was recovered near mile marker 85.74, Fernandez, chose to search the area on foot. Yesterday, he said he “walked along the road thinking about what Lewis would have done that day.”
Taking notice of a shoe downhill from where Lewis had parked the Jeep, Fernandez, proceeded down the slope and found a black sweatshirt with bones underneath it. Near the sweatshirt, Fernandez said he saw a “fallen redwood tree [with] what looked like a human shoulder bone on top.” Becoming aware of the significance of the discovery, Fernandez, returned to the sweater and saw an ankle bone. At this point, Fernandez said he noticed an “old, rusty car” that seemed to have crashed down the slope “a long time ago” and then said he “saw a human skull.” The jawbone was “separated from the skull with only one noticeable tooth,” he told us.“Creeped out” and unsure of how to proceed, Fernandez attempted to contact the ranger station at Westport-Union Landing State Beach to no avail. Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office was then contacted and informed of the discovery.
By the time the sun was setting, Lewis’s former wife Helen Compton and the Westport Volunteer Fire Chief had arrived at the site of the discovery. Using flashlights, Fernandez directed the fire chief towards the skull who then descended the hill to verify. Upon returning, he confirmed the skull was human to Fernandez and, Lewis Compton’s wife, Helen.
As of 10 a.m. this morning, a multi-agency search and recovery operation was being organized and conducted. Representatives from Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, Mendocino County Search and Rescue, California Highway Patrol, California Fish and Game, and Westport Volunteer Fire were all on-site. A large swath of the hillside below the road had been sectioned off with crime-scene tape and what appeared to be a human skull could be seen from the roadside.Cold Case Mendocino attempted to seek comments from law enforcement on the scene but was directed to contact the Mendocino County Sheriff Office’s public information officer. An email sent to Captain Greg Van Patten earlier today has not yet been answered as of the time of publication.
David Fernandez said he had wondered about Lewis Compton’s fate for the last six months. “I saw a social media post about him being missing and always wanted to know where exactly he was last seen so I could search the area,” he told us.
Upon reading Cold Case Mendocino’s article about Lewis Compton’s disappearance, Fernandez explained, “I finally had the exact location so I chose to take a look.” Fernandez remembered Lewis from high school and always admired him for his independence and kindness. Fernandez may have returned Compton’s kindness by helping return his body to his family.
UPDATE 6:09 p.m.: The Mendocino County Sheriff’s Facebook page reports,
On March 7, 2020, the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office received a report of found human remains.
Deputies responded as did the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office Detective Unit. The scene included dense vegetation and scattered remains. The search was halted until daylight hours on March 8, 2020.
MCSO was assisted in the search by the CSU, Chico Department of Anthropology Lab as well as the Mendocino County Search and Rescue Team.
The remains were found near mile marker 86 on Highway 1 north of Westport. At this time the remains are unidentified.The Mendocino County Coroner’s office will be working as swiftly as possible to identify the remains.
UPDATE MONDAY: Identifying the Bones: Mendocino Sheriff’s Office Reports on the Next Step for the Human Remains Located Saturday off Hwy 1
Earlier Chapter: Cold Case Mendocino: Lewis Compton Fled Police, Abandoned His Vehicle, and Disappeared into the Lost Coast
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Really, a 5-minute walk from the freeway?
What the *F* is wrong with these so-called investigators ?!! What the hell is wrong with these people ?!! What are we paying them for ?!! No wonder everyone is f-ing “missing.”
Mr. Fernandez, bless you and thank you. You should be getting paid for the work these (edit) can’t or won’t do.
Amen
Hey. It sucks getting your uniform boots dirty……
I would question more how in a couple hours this internet detective found all these scattered body parts down a ravine in dense underbrush. But hey, keep on with the cop hate.
What you’re implying is as ridiculous as the initial non search that Law Enforcement didn’t do. And I’m not really understanding why family and friends didn’t do much of a search either. Strange case.
🇺🇸I don’t really care for the commenter your talking about but it is rather odd and the cops will think so to. 🇺🇸
Dude… Really? What’s the matter with you?
A ” 5 minute walk from the freeway” on that part of Highway 1 is a death march.
So does it seem to be the missing man or maybe another missing person? The old rusty car makes it sound as if maybe it is someone else?
I have the same question. The mention of the rusty car begs the question of whether or not this body is associated with the car.
Ya mud on your face LEOs, c’mon.
Do you all just like having lotsa missing persons cases or do you just not look???? Its so disheartening! No wonder a lot of folks still dont call the cops, you get no help.
Its pretty weird!
I’ll agree with Crstgrl and say that the remains are from the old car. Someone probably drove off the road, was injured and tried to crawl to the roadway for help but succumbed to their injuries.
And yeah, I doubt if LEO even searched the woods for Lewis Compton or else they would have noticed an old rusty car. He only went missing a little over a year ago so I bet the car was there before.
or maybe the person in the rusty car got ejected when rolling down the hill ?
It is so sad to realize that law enforcement was so close to this man when he was in such distress, and wasn’t able to find him. Tragic
Reminds me of the search for Shane Miller, which involved literally hundreds of people and weeks of searching. His remains were located months later a stones throw from where he had abandoned his vehicle.
My thoughts exactly!
Shane was different breed. He knew how to hide until he was ready to commit suicide and make everyone look like fools. LEOs did their job just fine. So did Shane at hide n seek and now his wretched ass is dead and gone.
I was thinking the exact same thing.
Wasn’t there a case where a dad found his sons’ body? It was in an area already searched by cops. I wish I could remember a name.
I think it was near the airport in Garberville.
Nah that was some dude visiting from some other country who got too high on the local offerings and wandered away from his friends out at the Arcata marsh after an evening of lively socializing at the place bars. After extensive search by LEOs who turned up nada the dad came out and found him face down in the water within a couple hours.
Any thoughts about a wild animal dragging the body to another area? And what was weather like when the initial search was made?
LEAs do a horrible job in Mendocino County with drive-bys , murders, and foot pursuits. They miss evidence, don’t interview proper bystanders and ultimately don’t give a sh#t if the case is solved. So many unsolved murders. Sad.
LEOs do a fine job in this county. Would you want to do what they do!? Aren’t you glad they are there to help out as they do? All the local agencies are short-staffed, under-funded, and over-worked. Do any of you even know what it’s like to work a 72 hour shift, on-call at a moment’s notice!? It’s easy to sit behind a computer and point fingers and lay blame when you’re allowed to go home to your family every night, but these people put their life on the line and do the work none of us want to. Sure things get overlooked, under-investigated, and unsolved, because there is no end to the crazy shit they have to deal with in this county. Show them some damn respect, they deserve it.
Who gets to go home to their family?
When your son or daughter is overlooked, under-investigated, and “unsolved” while they’re dead on a roadside getting eaten by animals, while you wait every day for a year, cuz the cops are “too f-ing busy” to do BASIC police-work, maybe then you’ll understand.
People don’t usually give a shit until it happens to them.
I get it. That’s not easy. But it’s too easy to blame the men and women on the ground, doing the “BASIC police-work” and beyond for this county. None of their work is easy, but it is easy to look at a case like this in hindsight and think “well why didn’t they look there!?” when in reality there are countless places they should have looked but lacked the resources. Every case isn’t TV show material, and the Sheriff’s Office does not have unlimited resources to look anywhere and everywhere for every case.
They didn’t spend 5 minutes checking the last place he was seen, cuz “who whudda thunk” ?!!
It took Mr. Fernandez 5 minutes.
5 MINUTES !!!
F-ing ridiculous.
Wow. The police department there should be EMBARASSED and ashamed of themselves. Not very good at detecting. Not very observant. Fucking ridiculous. No wonder there are so many cold cases.
Clearly, you’ve never been to that part of the state.
I feel bad, I drove past that jeep multiple times on the way to Fort Bragg. I just thought it was another stolen vehicle that was slowly being parted out on the side of the road. Even stopped in the pull out to take a leak a few times. My dog liked going down the embankment there. Wonder if she had ever found him? The vegetation in that area is incredibly dense, and a 30 second walk in most directions will drop you straight off a cliff, much less 5 minutes. Probably what ended up happening to that poor soul, especially if it was dark.
I don’t think it’s the same jeep, the one I think your talking about is the same one I drove by all last year a couple miles north of the Usual turnoff just after you cross the new bridge starting up the grade going north. I think it was still there mid Nov last year stripped down.
I think law enforcement usually tows a vehicle right away if it was involved in a crime.