Body Not Identified for 3 Years Is State Official’s Son

After three years of anonymity in the Orange County coroner’s morgue, the body of a young man has been identified as the missing son of William H. Ivers, former assemblyman from La Canada and now director of the state Department of Boating and Waterways.

The disclosure was a “relief” for the family, Ivers said Friday, but also painful.

Stephen Jack Ivers had been missing since 1984, when he was 19. He died in a stolen car that police believe he intentionally crashed into oncoming traffic as he was fleeing officers in Newport Beach. Six other persons were injured in the Aug. 3, 1984, pileup on MacArthur Boulevard near Newport Center.

New Computer Setup Used

Investigators had checked fingerprints and missing persons reports nationwide without results until last month when they sent the prints from nine unidentified bodies to the new computerized fingerprint identification system operated by the state Department of Justice. This time, the prints were matched with Stephen Ivers’.

Ivers was reported missing three years ago by his sister, Lorraine, after she ordered him out of the family’s La Canada house on June 21, 1984, according to a Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department spokeswoman.

According to the missing person report, Lorraine Ivers had told her brother that he could return home after a week or when he found employment. She filed the report when he did not return after that week.

When he returned home July 7, 1984, the Sheriff’s Department closed his file, the spokeswoman said. But William Ivers said the family assumed it was still active when his son disappeared a second time. The family did not file another report.

The car was stolen from a mini-mart parking lot near Interstate 5 in Encinitas in San Diego County after a customer left it idling and unattended, according to San Diego County Sheriff’s Department deputies. A clerk at the store told investigators that the man who stole it had been thrown out of the store the previous morning for shoplifting.

35-Minute Chase

Nearly five hours later, the car ran through the Border Patrol checkpoint near San Clemente, and officers began a 35-minute chase. By the time the car turned onto MacArthur Boulevard in Newport Beach, federal, Orange County, San Clemente and Newport Beach officers were following it.

They said later that they had kept their distance and had tried to block the car or run it off the road. Officers said the driver was speeding but was not driving erratically and was slowing at intersections.

They reported that the driver seemed to intentionally turn into oncoming traffic and rammed a car head-on. Ivers was killed instantly.

William Ivers said his family is unburdened of three years of uncertainty about Stephen Ivers’ fate. “The family is relieved. We’ve given him a good Christian burial,” William Ivers said.