10 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY august 10-16, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com news The company behind the mythical navigator who sails the seas looking for intriguing food and uncommon goods, Trader Joe’s, is seeking to expand its Monterey territory. Specifically, it is planning to take over the space next door once occupied by the now-defunct pharmacy chain Pharmaca, which sits on top of land owned by the City of Monterey at 570 Munras Ave. All 22 California Pharmaca stores closed in February, after megachain Walgreens acquired Pharmaca’s parent company, Medley Health. On July 20, the City received a request from shopping center owner ROIC Monterey LLC to consent to the expansion of Trader Joe’s, currently just over 11,000 square feet, into the 3,790-square-foot Pharmaca space, according to a report to the Monterey City Council on Aug. 1. ROIC Monterey also asked that the Trader Joe’s sublease be extended by 10 years, from the date the new lease goes into effect. The council voted in closed session agreeing to the expansion as well as the lease extension. The site originally held a Safeway grocery store beginning in 1951. Its lease was due to expire in 2006, prompting the city to issue a request for proposals in 2003. The city continued negotiating with Safeway representatives, but by 2005 couldn’t reach an agreement. Trader Joe’s made a bid and won. The city signed a ground lease in 2006 with the development company that rebuilt the shopping center, with a condition that the city must consent to any sublease. Currently Monterey receives a little over $300,000 a year in lease payments from ROIC, which in turn leases to Trader Joe’s and other stores and restaurants in the center. Trading Up Monterey City Council agrees to the expansion of Trader Joe’s into vacant Pharmaca space. By Pam Marino A coordinated effort by Monterey County law enforcement agencies to resolve long-dormant cold cases has resulted in a pair of breakthroughs—one solving a 1991 Seaside murder, another bringing more clarity to 2014’s eerie “Mom-in-the-Box” case in Monterey. On Thursday, July 31, the Monterey County District Attorney’s Office and the Seaside Police Department announced that they had identified the killer of Vicki Johnson, a 34-year-old woman who was found dead in Seaside’s Sabado Park in January 1991. Testing of DNA beneath Johnson’s fingernails matched with Frank Lewis McClure of Seaside, who died in 2021 at age 77. Johnson was the mother of three children, including Orlando Johnson, now a professional basketball player. The violent nature of her death—she was found strangled and asphyxiated—led investigators to revisit possible evidence collected on her nails during a struggle with the killer, according to Bill Clark, a detective on the county’s Cold Case Task Force. Also on July 31, the Monterey Police Department revealed that DNA testing and forensic genealogy work had revealed the true identities of Francesca Linda Jacobs, who was found dead of starvation in her Monterey apartment in 2014, as well as her mother, whose decomposed remains were discovered in a box underneath Jacobs’ kitchen table. Those efforts identified the starved woman as Linda Rae Jacobs and confirmed the woman in the box as her mother, Ida Florence Jacobs. Linda Jacobs, whose California driver’s license indicated she was 58 years old when she died, was actually 12 years older than that. No foul play is suspected, but cannot be ruled out, in the death of her mother. Clark says he spoke with family members who remembered the two women as having an “extremely close” relationship. The resolutions to both the Johnson and Jacobs cases are the work of the county’s Cold Case Task Force, which launched in 2020 as a partnership between the DA’s office, the Sheriff’s Office and local police departments. Building on previous initiatives like the Monterey Peninsula Cold Case Project and aided by a $535,000 U.S. Justice Department grant, the task force has looked to use DNA testing technology to re-investigate unsolved homicides, missing persons cases and unidentified human remains. Clark—who retired from Monterey PD in 2020 after a 31-year career, but continues to work as a reserve officer on cold cases—has led much of that work, alongside Deputy District Attorney Matt L’Heureux. Their efforts have resolved cases including the 1981 murder of Sonia HerokStone of Carmel, whose killer was sentenced to life in prison in June. “We have over 600 unsolved homicides in this county,” Clark notes. “I think it’s important for people in our communities to understand law enforcement is working on these cold cases. We have not forgotten.” The Johnson case was one that seemed forgotten before being reopened by the task force: The DNA testing technology that incriminated McClure, though not readily available in 1991, is not particularly new. Clark says he picked up the Johnson case in October 2021—the same month that McClure died. It took nearly two years to receive the DNA test results from the state Justice Department’s backlogged lab. DNA evidence helped investigators solve two cases: the 1991 murder of Vicki Johnson, left, and the identity of Linda Rae Jacobs, who starved to death in 2014. Cases Closed Monterey County’s Cold Case Task Force cracks two years-old mysteries thanks to DNA testing. By Rey Mashayekhi More room for Chile & Lime Flavored Rolled Corn Tortilla Chips, Everything But the Bagel Sesame Seasoning and Mandarin Orange Chicken: the Monterey Trader Joe’s is set to expand. “Law enforcement is working on these. We have not forgotton.” Seaside Police Department Daniel Dreifuss Monterey Police Department
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