Santa Clarita / Antelope Valley : Year Later, Man’s Fate Is Mystery : Investigation: James Young, 73, disappeared after leaving his Quartz Hill home for a trip to Vegas. Some fear foul play.

The one thing sheriff’s homicide detectives know for sure is that James Young is still missing, 15 months after he left his spacious Quartz Hill home for what was to be a short trek to Las Vegas.

After working full time on the case for more than three months, Detective Michael Scott of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Homicide Bureau said the 73-year-old man’s disappearance remains a mystery.

“We’re really not sure what has happened at this point,” said Scott, who is investigating the case with another detective. “There’s a strong possibility he’s met with foul play.”

Homicide detectives received the case from the department’s missing persons unit in February of this year after Young’s neighbors convinced authorities that he may not have disappeared voluntarily.

Young did make it to Las Vegas, according to Scott. He was there in late February, 1993, with another man and the pair visited a friend. The two left Las Vegas, but where they went from there remains unknown.

One story was that Young met a Latino woman, married her and the newlyweds ran off to Mexico to start a new life together.

“We’ve found a lot of people that know Mr. Young,” Scott said. “Their feelings are a lot like ours--if he was going to pick up and go to Mexico, he would have told them.

“This is totally out of character for Jim Young.”

Nonetheless, Scott said he is following up on leads in Mexico in hopes of tracking Young down.

Friends and neighbors describe Young as a cantankerous man who was rude and self-centered, but still relatively likable. He was also cheap, they said, adding that Young was not someone who would run off and leave his fortune behind.

Scott said Young’s assets, which include four houses, numerous vehicles and cash, are worth about $1.5 million.

Scott hopes he will be contacted by people who know Young or may have seen him since he disappeared in February, 1993.

“We need the public’s help,” he said. “If Mr. Young died or was murdered, we’re still going to have to try and find out where he is. There’s got to be somebody out there who knows where Mr. Young is.”

Detectives located Young’s closest relatives in Chicago, but they have been of little help. Scott said Young’s sister died several years ago and her children hadn’t seen their uncle in two decades.

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A Chicago attorney representing Young’s nieces and nephews was appointed conservator of the missing man’s estate, pending a resolution to the case. Young’s properties were in foreclosure when homicide was assigned the missing person’s case earlier this year.

Some of Young’s other possessions--ranging from machinery equipment to several vehicles to a pair of Rottweilers--also were missing.

Scott said the homes are no longer in foreclosure and most of Young’s possessions have been located. Like Young, however, the dogs, Fritz and Trixie, are nowhere to be found.

A group of Young’s neighbors in Quartz Hill persuaded the Sheriff’s Department to consider the case more than just a missing’s persons matter.

They submitted a petition with 30 signatures in hopes of “resolving the whereabouts or demise of James Young.”

That’s exactly what Scott said he and his partner, Sgt. Tom Harris, hope to do.