Remains ID’d as O.C. Boy Who Vanished in 1979

Skeletal remains found in the Cleveland National Forest have been tentatively identified as those of an eighth-grader who disappeared while walking to a school bus stop in Costa Mesa 17 years ago, and relatives and investigators said Tuesday he could be another victim of serial killer William Bonin.

The charred and fragmented skeleton of James Wilfred Trotter was found in 1990 by a hiker in a remote area previously ravaged by fire off the Ortega Highway, where at least three of Bonin’s victims were discovered, authorities said. Also, three Bonin victims had been kidnapped near bus stops, and another disappeared in Huntington Beach, where Trotter went to school.

Authorities do not know how the boy died, and said they may never know who killed him. But James’ mother, Barbara Brogli, 57, said investigators have told her that her son could have been another victim of Bonin’s killing spree. Bonin, known as “the Freeway Killer,” was convicted of murdering 14 boys ages 12 to 19 and executed on Feb. 23, the first inmate to be killed by lethal injection in California.

“They said that was a possibility, and they’re also questioning another serial killer who is on death row right now,” Brogli said. Authorities also told Brogli that they are sifting through the area to locate “a weapon, a clue, anything,” she said.

Riverside’s Chief Deputy Coroner Dan Cupido said investigators are “well aware of the circumstances” surrounding Trotter’s death and its similarities to that of other Bonin victims.

“But right now, we’re just not in any position to discuss that,” Cupido said.

The remains were in “such a terrible shape” that investigators worked for years to identify them, Cupido said. Although coroner’s officials are “reasonably” sure that the skeleton is that of James, they are doing a DNA analysis.

“It’s not a guarantee,” Cupido said. “But the indicators would take us beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The case of the missing 13-year-old had struck a chord with investigators at the coroner’s office and Costa Mesa police as well.

“This is a young person who had everything going for him,” Cupido said. “We’ve watched this case, told each other that we would sure like to solve it.”

A break in the case came several years ago when an anthropologist took “a special interest,” deputy coroners said. Investigators originally believed that the skeleton belonged to a girl because James had been “small for his age,” Brogli said.

But the anthropologist reexamined the structure of the bones and other evidence to determine that the skeleton belonged to a teenage boy, who had worn braces and had a chipped tooth. Detectives worked with the California Department of Justice’s missing persons unit and Costa Mesa police to come up with a possible victim.

Investigators then traced the braces to a Fountain Valley orthodontist, who provided dental records that eventually linked the skeleton to James.

“You go through every possibility--was he kidnapped, abducted or just mixed up in a bad crowd,” said John Trotter Jr., James’ older brother who now manages Woody’s Wharf in Newport Beach. “Everything goes through your head until you just sort of put in the back of my mind . . . that you would never see him again.”

James, or “Jamie” to his family, was a gifted boy who wanted to be a pilot like his father and loved baseball and his skateboard, which he left at home on that brisk April morning in 1979.

Brogli had overslept and didn’t have time to drive her son to school in Huntington Beach before heading to work as a bookkeeper at a car dealership. James told his mother that he would catch the bus to Gisler Junior High and left about 7:30 a.m.

He was wearing blue corduroy pants with a T-shirt that read, “I’d rather be sailing in St. Thomas,” where the family had gone on vacation, Brogli said.

“He said, ‘I love you, Mom,’ and rushed out to catch the bus,” Brogli said. “Well, he never got on that bus.”

His skateboard and his money were still at home, indicating that the boy had not run away. The family was packed to leave for a camping trip in San Diego that day, family members said.

“I was at work that day and I remember having this awful feeling that something was wrong, but I didn’t know what it was,” Brogli said. “I tried to call home after school and got no answer. I got home that day about 4:30 and Jamie’s best friend had called to ask why he wasn’t at school.”

“I felt like the bottom had dropped out of everything,” she recalled.

James, the youngest of Brogli’s three sons, was living with his mother at a hotel in the 2200 block of Harbor Boulevard. The family had put a down payment on a Huntington Beach condominium and was between moves. His father, John Trotter Sr., who was divorced from Brogli, was a pilot at United Airlines at the time.

Brogli has since moved to Colorado and remarried. She and her husband, Art Brogli, 60, joined several support groups for families with missing children. One of those groups, Missing Children Help Center, had shown a picture of James on television just three weeks ago, Brogli said.

“We travel to schools and other places to talk to kids, tell them what to do if someone tries to grab them,” Brogli said. “Quite often, he does the talking because I would get very emotional.”

Since her son’s disappearance, Barbara Brogli has thought about what she would do if the moment ever came when his body was found.

But when investigators told her last Wednesday that skeletal remains had been identified as those of her son, all she could do was cry.

“Nothing I did to prepare myself helped,” she said.

Brogli said she planned to scatter her son’s ashes over the ocean and “finally find a closure.”