Man Sought in Disappearance of Dentist From Santa Ana Is Captured in Georgia

A man whose arrest in Georgia ended an international manhunt was being questioned Thursday by Orange County sheriff’s investigators in the disappearance 15 months ago of a retired Santa Ana dentist.

Cedric Perle Horn, 80, was reported missing by his daughter after he failed to return from a car trip to San Francisco in March, 1986, sheriff’s Lt. Richard Olson said.

FBI agents arrested Steven Wayne White, 37, and Janina Koziej Meylheux, 36, Wednesday in Morrow, Ga. The two walked into a self-storage warehouse filled with ivory, guns, gold jewelry and coins believed to have been stolen, according to the FBI’s Atlanta office.

White had been the subject of a manhunt involving Interpol, the State Department, the FBI and state and local police departments.

He was wanted on a federal warrant for illegal flight to escape prosecution on a Florida murder charge and was also being sought for questioning in the Horn disappearance, said Olson, who declined to elaborate on the Horn case.

“As far as we are concerned, Mr. Horn is still just a missing person,” Olson said.

He did confirm, however, that investigators from the Orange County Sheriff’s Department were in Georgia Thursday to question White.

The Sheriff’s Department received a missing-person report on Horn March 13, 1986, Olson said. Horn had told members of his family that he was driving to San Francisco for a March 7 meeting and then planned to visit a daughter in Oregon.

On March 9 he called his daughter in Oregon and canceled the visit, saying he was returning home to Santa Ana that night, Olson said. When her father failed to answer phone calls to his home, family friends checked the house and found that he had not returned.

Horn apparently visited San Francisco to meet with partners on a business investment deal, said Horn’s next-door neighbor, Donald Davidson. He said that one of the partners and a lot of Horn’s money had turned up missing at the same time that Horn disappeared.

He did not know how much money was involved or the name of the business partner. Horn’s daughter could not be reached for comment.

Davidson said he had been a friend and neighbor of Horn’s for more than 10 years.

Horn, who maintained a part-time dentistry practice in a Tustin office, often had people living with him who worked around the house in return, Davidson said.

Horn’s car was found in Houston several weeks after his disappearance, Davidson said.