Overview

Last seen: August 25, 1968
Location: Hillcrest Christian Church, Rinaldi Street, Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California
Age: 20
Status: Endangered missing / unresolved
NamUs: MP24163
LAPD Case: 021731205

Dixie Lee Arensen disappeared under suspicious circumstances on the morning of August 25, 1968. Her automobile remained outside the church where she was expected to prepare a bulletin. Her keys were inside, her eyeglasses were found on the office floor, and an electric typewriter had been left running. Her purse was gone. Dixie, who reportedly could not see well without her glasses, was never seen again. No suspect has publicly been named and no confirmed remains have been identified as hers.

Detailed Case Breakdown

Dixie Lee Arensen Disappearance: The Unsolved 1968 Granada Hills Missing Person Case

Brief Case Summary

Last seen: August 25, 1968
Location: Hillcrest Christian Church, Rinaldi Street, Granada Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California
Age: 20
Status: Endangered missing / unresolved
NamUs: MP24163
LAPD Case: 021731205

Dixie Lee Arensen disappeared under suspicious circumstances on the morning of August 25, 1968. Her automobile remained outside the church where she was expected to prepare a bulletin. Her keys were inside, her eyeglasses were found on the office floor, and an electric typewriter had been left running. Her purse was gone. Dixie, who reportedly could not see well without her glasses, was never seen again. No suspect has publicly been named and no confirmed remains have been identified as hers.

Who Was Dixie Lee Arensen?

Dixie Lee Arensen was born January 1, 1948. At the time of her disappearance she was 20 years old, approximately 5 feet 6 inches tall and 135 pounds, with brown hair and brown eyes. She wore eyeglasses and reportedly had significant difficulty seeing without them.

Dixie had married only about two months before she disappeared. She and her husband lived in the Granada Hills area of Los Angeles. Her husband was associated with Hillcrest Christian Church, where Dixie also helped prepare church bulletins. Historical reporting described her as having been editor of her college newspaper before her marriage.

The Morning Dixie Arensen Disappeared

On Sunday, August 25, 1968, Dixie left home at approximately 7:30 a.m. to work on a bulletin at Hillcrest Christian Church in the 17500 block of Rinaldi Street in Granada Hills.

Going to the church to prepare the bulletin on a Sunday was reportedly unusual. According to later case summaries, she ordinarily performed that work on Thursdays and Fridays.

At approximately 9:15 a.m., Dixie’s blue automobile was still parked outside the church, but Dixie was nowhere to be found.

Inside the church office were several items that would become central to the mystery. Her keys remained there. Her eyeglasses were on the floor. An electric typewriter was still switched on. According to published case summaries, investigators did not find obvious evidence of a physical struggle.

Dixie’s purse, described as an olive-brown envelope-style purse approximately 14 inches long, was missing. Her checking account showed no subsequent activity, while her passport had been left behind.

The abandoned glasses are especially significant because Dixie reportedly could not see well without them. The circumstances have consequently fueled the longstanding possibility that she did not voluntarily leave the church.

What Dixie Was Wearing

Dixie was reportedly wearing a royal-blue empire-style dress with three-quarter-length sleeves and olive-brown medium-heeled shoes.

She also wore a yellow-gold engagement ring containing approximately a one-third-carat diamond and a matching wedding band with a smaller diamond.

Neither Dixie nor the missing personal items associated with her disappearance have been publicly reported as recovered.

The Initial Investigation

The disappearance was immediately unusual enough to draw considerable attention.

Approximately one month later, contemporary reporting stated that police still had no clues despite an extensive investigation. Dixie’s father, who had been working as a missionary in Kenya, returned to the United States to assist with the search.

Her father reportedly believed that someone may have followed Dixie into the church office and attacked or abducted her. That remains a theory rather than an established finding.

Most importantly, publicly available case summaries state that no suspect has ever officially been named in Dixie’s disappearance.

Was Dixie Arensen Murdered?

There is no publicly documented finding establishing that Dixie was murdered, and no body has officially been identified as hers.

The circumstances, however, have long been regarded as suspicious. Dixie disappeared while apparently in the middle of preparing church material, left behind a car, keys, passport and critically important eyeglasses, and apparently never used her checking account again.

Because her remains have not been located and there is no known verified confession or other proof of her death, the most accurate description remains an unresolved missing-person case involving possible foul play.

The Granada Hills Jane Doe Question

One of the most discussed possibilities involves unidentified female skeletal remains found in Granada Hills on May 22, 1971.

Children discovered partial skeletal remains near the base of a ravine or cliff in the 18900 block of Braemore Road. The unidentified person, commonly associated with Doe Network case 1499UFCA and NamUs UP8868, was estimated to have been a young White female roughly 16 to 22 years old and approximately 5 feet 8 inches tall.

Those characteristics, combined with the Granada Hills location, have caused online researchers to repeatedly suggest Dixie as a possible identity.

There is nevertheless no confirmed identification linking those remains to Dixie Arensen.

Community discussions indicate that an identification may be particularly difficult because Dixie’s dental records are reportedly unavailable while usable biological material from the unidentified remains may also be unavailable. These statements have circulated through missing-person research communities but should not be treated as an official identification or exclusion.

DNA and Later Case Work

A significant development appeared in a 2015 Doe Network update archive, which stated that DNA became available in Dixie Lee Arensen’s case and that the point-of-contact information was updated.

Doe Network records were updated again in 2017, when Dixie’s physical description, circumstances, investigating-agency information and source material were revised and photographs were updated or added.

Later discussions among researchers have said that family DNA exists. That is consistent with the earlier Doe Network notation that DNA was available, although the precise laboratory status, CODIS status and scope of any comparisons are not publicly documented in the sources reviewed here.

Questions About the Original Police File

A potentially important issue emerged through Websleuths discussions involving a participant who described herself as a friend of Dixie’s family.

In January 2023 she stated that the original police file could not be located and that investigators had been attempting to locate a newer file. Later that year, the same participant wrote that the original file was missing and that another case file had been created following later information.

These claims are significant but have not been independently confirmed in a public LAPD statement located during this review. They should therefore be treated as family-associated/community information rather than an official law-enforcement announcement.

Theories Surrounding Dixie’s Disappearance

Over the decades, amateur researchers have discussed possible connections to unidentified remains, serial offenders operating in California, and even the Manson Family or Joseph DeAngelo.

None of those theories has been publicly established by law enforcement.

One article proposed a possible Joseph DeAngelo connection based largely on geographical associations, while Websleuths members have debated a Manson connection because Spahn Ranch was relatively nearby during the same historical period. These remain speculative theories without publicly disclosed forensic evidence tying either DeAngelo or the Manson group to Dixie.

The strongest facts remain the physical circumstances at the church, Dixie’s immediate disappearance, the missing purse, the abandoned glasses and keys, and the absence of financial activity afterward.

Latest Publicly Available Investigation Information

As of August 28, 2026, Dixie’s case remains publicly listed by the California Department of Justice as a missing-person case assigned to the Los Angeles Police Department. California’s current case page lists LAPD case number 021731205.

The California DOJ listing provides an older contact number, while LAPD’s current Missing Persons Unit information directs missing-person inquiries to 213-996-1800. LAPD also provides a 24-hour anonymous Crime Stoppers number at 800-222-8477.

The most recent publicly verifiable developments located in the case history are the availability of DNA documented by the Doe Network in 2015, subsequent case-information updates, ongoing database listings, and continuing public discussion regarding unidentified remains.

No credible public announcement was located indicating that Dixie has been found, that the case has been closed, that anyone has been arrested, or that Granada Hills Jane Doe UP8868 has been identified as Dixie.

More than five decades after Dixie Lee Arensen vanished from Granada Hills, the essential question remains unchanged: what happened between the time Dixie left home that Sunday morning and the discovery of her belongings inside Hillcrest Christian Church less than two hours later?