The Riverside Press-Enterprise
Disappearance remains a mystery 3 years later
Ranch owner Dia Abram's body has not been found; estrangement, litigation is the result
What
Abrams?
The answer has eluded Riverside County sheriff's investigators for three years and baffled residents of the San Jacinto Mountains, where Abrams abruptly disappeared on June 6, 2020.
It is a whodunit shrouded in a tale of wealth, family estrangement and heated litigation that continues to intrigue and attract attention from local and national media.
“It's like being in a `Dateline' mystery,” said Peggy Kotner, Abrams' sister.
Asked what she thinks happened to her sister, Kotner said, “Your guess is as good as mine. I really want to know.”
Abrams, who was 65 when she vanished, is presumed dead, though her body has never been found.
Abrams had been estranged for years from her husband, a wealthy La Jolla developer who died in 2018. She loved the outdoors and animals, so in about 2004 or 2005 she decided to trade the affluent seaside community in San Diego County for a tranquil 115-acre ranch in Mountain Center.
Abrams “just wanted to get away from the stress of things and be around animals,” said Julie Stanford, a retired postal worker and Mountain Center resident who met Abrams in 2011 while working part time at the Lake Hemet Market.
Living on the Bonita Vista Ranch with Abrams was Keith Leslie Harper, a retired parole agent for the Utah Department of Corrections with a sketchy past who had served time behind bars. In a 2022 deposition, Harper said he and Abrams met in 2016 on a dating website.
After Harper flew to Ontario International Airport to meet up with Abrams, the two quickly hit it off and Harper said he moved in with her at the ranch six months later. Harper said he worked to upgrade Abrams' property, building dams, bridges, fences and helping care for her animals.
Harper also claimed to be happened to
Dia
Abrams' fiance.
In public statements and the sworn deposition given in a legal dispute with Abrams' children over control of her multimilliondollar estate, Harper, 73, said he was the last person to have seen Abrams before she went missing sometime after 2:30 p.m. on June 6, 2020.
Harper said the two had lunch together at the ranch, then went their separate ways — Harper to mow the meadow and Abrams to tend her horses at another property she owned in the neighboring ranch community of Garner Valley.
Harper said he spent about five hours mowing the meadow before returning to the house about 7:30 p.m. and noticing Abrams' Ford F-350 pickup still