Mouse over to enlarge. The image on the right was taken the night before she disappeared (March 30, 1981).
Mouse over to enlarge. The image on the right was taken the night before she disappeared (March 30, 1981).
Name: Carol Jeanne Lubahn
Case Classification: Endangered Missing
Missing Since: March 31, 1981
Location Last Seen: Torrance, Los Angeles County, California
Date of Birth: October 28, 1954
Age: 26 years old
Race: White
Gender: Female
Height: 5'6"
Weight: 117 lbs.
Hair Color: Blond/Strawberry
Eye Color: Blue
Nickname/Alias: Carol Jeanne Meyer
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Mole on left side of chin.
Dentals: Available
Fingerprints: Not Available
DNA: Available
Clothing: Unknown
Jewelry: Unknown
Additional Personal Items: Unknown
Lubahn, the mother of two children, was last seen by her husband while at their residence in the 17600 block of Cranbook Avenue, in Torrance, CA.
On the night of March 31, 1981, Lubahn left their home after an argument. Lubahn's husband of 10 years, Michael Lubahn Clark said that they fought that night because he refused to sign paperwork necessary to sell their house.
Clark told police he awakened about 4:00 a.m. or 5:00 a.m. to find their bed empty, the garage door open and his wife's car gone. Believing she had left to be alone for a few days, he did not call the police immediately. Her belongings were left at the residence and she did not pick up her last two paychecks. As the days passed, Clark looked for her at El Camino College, where Lubahn was taking architecture classes.
On April 6, 1981, her vehicle, a red 1979 Audi Fox, was found by Clark abandoned at the Red Onion Restaurant parking lot in Redondo Beach, CA. Three days later, Clark reported her missing. Sometime after her disappearance, someone entered the home, removed some clothing and leafed through some mail. Someone phoned on holidays occasionally, hanging up without speaking. Clark divorced Lubahn in absentia three years later.
Over 32 years, Clark told authorities a number of contradictory stories about his wife's disappearance from their home. First, he said the last he heard from her was the slamming of a door. Later, he added that he saw her drive away. In April 2011, Clark was arrested after Torrance police reopened the cold case and he was convicted in October 2012. At his murder trial in 2012, Clark told jurors he was sure his wife returned home after that night because he had spread powder on the ground that tracked her footprints.
A December 14th a letter Clark wrote to Lubahn's mother was read aloud in court. In 2013, Clark claimed he and Lubahn indeed argued about the house that night and Lubahn did take off in her car. However, Lubahn returned home about 1:30 a.m. Lubahn told Clark she had met another man and planned to take him to her sister's wedding days later. Clark told the detectives he was hurt and grabbed a pillow to sleep on the couch. Lubahn tried to talk to him and console him, telling Clark he would find someone else, but he became angry and shoved her and she hit her head on a coffee table. Under intense questioning, Clark changed his story again and said he punched her. Either way, Clark believed she was dead.
Clark panicked and hid her body behind a roll of carpeting in their garage, got into her car, drove to the Red Onion restaurant on Harbor Drive in Redondo Beach and parked it there.
Clark later wrapped his wife's body in cloth and blankets, and attached 50 feet of nylon rope to cinder blocks. He loaded her body into his truck, drove to Point Vicente near a lighthouse and put her body onto a raft. An expert scuba diver, Clark put on a wet suit and flippers and paddled out about 200 to 500 yards beyond the kelp line. There, he let the cinder blocks pull her body down, never to be seen again.
Clark was sentenced in January 2013 to 15 years to life in prison, hours after agreeing to lead a sheriff's dive team to a site off the coast of Palos Verdes where he had dumped Lubahn's body. Clark wound up passing a detailed polygraph test after telling authorities a specific point where he said his wife's body was buried, but authorities were unable to find her body in that area, where construction had been done in the interim. In an interview with The Daily Breeze, Clark said investigators won't find his wife's remains off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes because he never put her there.
Lubahn's body has not been located.
Agency Name: Torrance Police Department
Agency Contact Person: Detective Jim Wallace
Agency Phone Number: (310)-618-5578
Agency E-Mail: N/A
Agency Case Number: 81-7319
NamUs Case Number: 1276
NCIC Case Number: M-129895890
NamUs
California Department of Justice
North American Missing Persons Network
Los Angeles Times
Palos Verdes Patch
Redondo Beach Patch
Daily Breeze -
4/13/2011
,
1/7/2013
,
2/5/2013
Added: 6/1/2012; Last Updated: 05-18-2022 - By: Htmlcnvtr
Questions or comments? Please contact appropriate member of the Area Team
** Listed information is from the time of disappearance.
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