A year after cold case investigators identified the skeletal remains of a woman killed in what is now the city of Lake Forest, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department has announced two new persons of interest. One of them? The victim’s ex-husband.
Maritza Glean Grimmett was 20 years old when she went missing in 1979. She was in the middle of divorce and custody proceedings when she left Tennessee to stay with her sister in Georgia before she received a call from her ex-husband, a U.S. Marine named Howard Grimmett.
Sheriff’s investigators said Maritza told her sister she was headed to California after Howard, who was stationed in Orange County, convinced her to come and work on their marriage — only to never be seen again.
Her remains were uncovered in 1983 after a group of children found a human skull in a culvert near Canada and Old Trabuco roads in Lake Forest. The bones were found a few miles away from the former El Toro Marine Corps Air Station where Howard had been stationed. An excavation uncovered roughly 70% of the scattered skeletal remains, enough for a physical description and forensic rendering of Maritza, who remained unidentified for over 40 years.
Evidence found at the excavation site led investigators to believe she was killed but a specific cause of death could not be determined.
The trail continued to run cold until investigators turned to Facebook in 2023 after collaborating with a distant genetic relative who suggested they share the woman’s forensic rendering with a group focused on identifying women who went missing from the 1970s and 1980s. A month later, investigators were contacted by a woman who believed their Jane Doe was her missing mother.
It broke the case, investigators said, and Maritza was positively identified in March 2024.
For Orange County Sheriff’s Homicide Investigator Bob Taft, it was the first time a cold-case victim was identified over social media.
“Although the victim is a part of it, you do it for the family members. Her daughter grew up thinking that her mother abandoned her. Her sisters and her parents, her loved ones, never knew what happened. Those individuals deserve answers and anything I can do to try and rectify that, by providing some semblance to these families of what happened to their loved ones is the reason why we do this,” Taft said.
Maritza was originally from Panama and met Howard when he was stationed there as a Marine, investigators learned. The two got married in the summer of 1978 and had a baby girl before Howard was transferred to Tennessee later that year while Maritza and their daughter moved to Columbus, Ohio to stay with his family.
While separated from his new family in Tennessee, Howard met his current wife, a fellow marine named Isabel “Terry” Cruz-Grimmett.
One thing led to another and Howard filed for divorce from Maritza in July of 1979. She was already living in Millington, Tenn. when she learned about his relationship with Terry – the name Isabel used – and went to stay with her sister in Georgia. The two had a divorce hearing scheduled in November and had previously agreed that Maritza would receive full custody of her daughter while Howard paid child support, Taft said.
When November came around, Maritza was a no-show and Howard received full custody of their daughter, Dawn. Neither Howard nor Maritza’s side of the family said they knew what happened to her mother. According to Taft, Dawn was raised to believe her half-siblings were her cousins and didn’t learn Howard was her biological father until she was at least 11 years old.
The fact that Maritza didn’t show up to the divorce hearing led Taft to believe she had already been dead before the divorce hearing. With most of her family in Panama, he said there was no reason for her to not show up.
Howard and Terry were interviewed by law enforcement for the first time in Sep. 2024 and denied any involvement in Maritza’s disappearance.
According to Taft, Howard had changed the story he told family members over the years, from how she left the baby in a barracks at the Marine base in Tennessee and disappeared to how she did come to California but the two didn’t get along so he dropped her off at an unknown hotel in Santa Ana.
When Taft spoke to him, Howard gave him a “completely new account” of what happened to Maritza; that she voluntarily turned over their daughter to him in person in Tennessee and he never saw her again, the sheriff’s investigator said. He said Howard’s statement conflicts with the account shared by Maritza’s sister, who said Howard called and asked her to come to California.
Taft added that the fact that Maritza’s remains were discovered a few miles from where Howard was stationed makes both him and his wife, who now live in Ohio, persons of interest in the case.
Neither Howard Grimmett nor Isabel “Terry” Cruz-Grimmett could be reached for comment.
Investigators are seeking any details that could help establish how and when Maritza arrived in California. Former military service members stationed at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station between late 1979 and April 1983 who believe they may have seen Maritza or knew Howard and Terry are encouraged to reach out.
Anyone with information is asked to email the cold case homicide team at coldcase@ocsheriff.gov. Anonymous tips may be submitted to OC Crime Stoppers at 855-TIP-OCCS (855-847-6227) or at occrimestoppers.org.