The Orange County Sheriff’s Department has identified two persons of interest in a 45-year-old homicide case—one of them, the victim’s ex-husband, a former U.S. Marine.
Maritza Glean Grimmett, a 20-year-old mother from Panama, vanished in 1979 while in the midst of divorce proceedings. Her skeletal remains were discovered in 1983 near what is now Lake Forest, California, but she remained unidentified for over four decades. Now, investigators are looking closely at her ex-husband, Howard Grimmett, and his current wife, Isabel “Terry” Cruz-Grimmett.
Maritza had been living with her sister in Georgia when Howard, stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, allegedly convinced her to travel to California to reconcile. She was never seen again.
In 1983, a group of children found a skull in a culvert, leading to an excavation that uncovered nearly 70% of a woman’s skeleton. Though investigators believed she had been murdered, her identity remained a mystery until 2023, when a distant relative helped connect the remains to a missing persons group on Facebook. A month later, a woman came forward, believing the unidentified woman was her long-lost mother. DNA testing confirmed the match in March 2024.
Howard Grimmett and Terry, both Marines at the time, had married in 1979 after Howard filed for divorce from Maritza. When she failed to appear at the custody hearing that November, Howard was awarded full custody of their daughter.
Investigators say Howard has given multiple conflicting accounts of what happened, from Maritza abandoning their daughter in Tennessee to dropping her off at a hotel in California. Now, detectives find it suspicious that her remains were found just miles from where Howard was stationed.
Authorities urge anyone who may have known the couple or seen Maritza between 1979 and 1983 to come forward. Tips can be sent to [email protected] or submitted anonymously at 855-TIP-OCCS.
