The Disappearing Auditor’s Gamble Has Paid Off, So Far

Few clues have turned up in the Case of the Disappearing Night Auditor, according to Buena Park police.

“We’ve found his car, and we think he’s flown out of the state,” Sgt. Lloyd Schwengel said. “But we don’t know where he is.”

The object of the search is Joseph Patrick Cairns, 57, a Placentia husband and father of four grown children. Cairns, who had no prior criminal record, was the night auditor at Medieval Times, the Buena Park restaurant with a chivalric theme. He was last seen there early in the morning on Feb. 6, tallying weekend receipts.

Police initially said Cairns had absconded with $100,000 in cash from the restaurant. But recent court records say the amount was $150,000, and police now confirm that at least that much was taken.

Cairns’ yen to gamble was the apparent motive, according to Detective David Woofter: “He took off to gamble at least once before.”

County court records show that Cairns disappeared suddenly and with no explanation to his wife, Dolores, and children twice before, in November, 1981, and December, 1984. Cairns returned both times, and no criminal charges resulted.

Woofter said that in one of those instances, Cairns stole money from his then-employer in Long Beach.

Woofter said Cairns made arrangements to repay the money, so no charges resulted.

In the prior disappearances, Dolores Cairns filed court papers for legal separation from her husband. This time, she filed on March 20 in Orange County Superior Court for legal dissolution of the couple’s 37-year marriage.

In other recent court papers, Dolores Cairns asked for, and obtained, a court order prohibiting her husband from disposing of any common property, including the couple’s home on Shaver Way in Placentia. The March 22 court documents refer to Cairns’ “penchant for gambling.”

When recently contacted by telephone, Dolores Cairns said she has no comment about her husband’s disappearance.

Woofter said police have no indications that Cairns had gambling debts when he disappeared, but the detective noted that Cairns had a virtual obsession for gambling.

“I’ve notified the cities that allow gambling, including Atlantic City and the bigger cities in Nevada,” he said. “We have arrest warrants for grand theft and for unlawful flight.”

The latter is a federal warrant that allows the FBI and other federal agencies to look for and try to apprehend Cairns.

The only major clue that has turned up was the discovery recently of the car he was last using. Woofter said the car, a 1971 Volkswagen, was found March 29 in the parking lot of the Holiday Inn at 2640 Lakewood Blvd., Long Beach.

“All the indications are that the car was left there on Feb. 6, the same day he disappeared from Buena Park,” Woofter said. “It doesn’t appear that the car was ever used since then.”

The motel and its parking lot are near Long Beach Airport. “It’s within walking distance of the airport, and my belief is that’s where he went,” Woofter said.

But so far, police have found no clues as to where Cairns may have flown. Sgt. Schwengel said it is unlikely that Cairns flew out under his own name.

Woofter said a gambling haunt seemed initially to be the best place to look for Cairns, so “I spent some time in Las Vegas looking for him.”

His search turned up nothing. “My guess right now is that he’s gone back to New Jersey, because that’s where he’s originally from,” Woofter said. “People tend to go back to some place they know, some place they’ve felt comfortable. So I think he might be in New Jersey.

“But nobody really, really knows.”