Friends Savor Memories of Missing Couple

Nearly two decades after their plane went down in a remote Northern California forest, Norman and Beverly Jean Wascher are being paid their last respects by people they knew.

Friends of the Thousand Oaks couple remember fishing trips with Norman and PTA meetings presided over by Beverly. They remember their kids playing with the Waschers’ three children, Robyn, Cherie and Heidi. They recall how the families on Rugby Circle came together when the couple disappeared, heading back from Eureka after visiting Cherie, then a student at Humboldt State University.

The date was June 19, 1977, and neither has been heard from since.

When authorities discovered the wreckage of the Waschers’ single-engine Commander aircraft last month on a hill in Scotia, 25 miles south of Eureka, they found personal belongings and money, but no sign of the couple.

“The way they came down, perpendicular to the ground, it was very possible they were thrown out of the cockpit,” said Humboldt County Coroner Glenn Sipma.

“We’ve found planes that have been in the hills for some time and the bodies were usually still in the plane,” Sipma said. “This is the first time we have not found anything. There’s just absolutely no trace of them whatsoever.”

If the elements didn’t destroy the couple’s remains, bears or other animals might have, Sipma said.

For Richard Rogers, 68, a former neighbor and fishing buddy of Norman Wascher, locating the wreckage answers a question he and his wife, Mary, who now live in La Jolla, have asked over and over since 1977: Did the Waschers go out to sea or did they go down in a forest?

“When I heard the news that they had found the plane, it was a real closure for me. I knew where they were now,” said Richard Rogers.

In 1963, Rogers and his wife moved from Los Angeles to the Shadow Oaks section of Thousand Oaks. For Rogers, who was working for Pacific Bell at the time, 1591 Rugby Circle seemed like a great place for a young family.

Norman and Beverly Wascher lived three houses away. One day as he walked along Rugby Circle, Rogers introduced himself to Norman, a purchasing agent for Shadow Oaks developer Harlan Lee.

“I saw him cleaning some fishing equipment, and I said I was a fisherman too, and we were instant friends,” Rogers said. Both Wascher and Rogers were in their 40s at the time and each had young children--three and four, respectively.

The two began taking fishing trips together and looked forward to the annual start of fresh-fishing season at June Lake in Mono County. Thanks to Lee, who also built houses near the lake, the anglers always had a nice place to stay, Rogers said.

“Norm was a real wonderful, quiet, dry sense of humor type of person,” said Rogers. “It was a tragedy what happened to them.”

What happened is still somewhat of a mystery. Authorities in Humboldt County have closed the case and do not plan any more investigation into the circumstances of the crash.

Richard Rogers thinks the cause of the crash took Norman by surprise.

“Maybe something fell off the plane. I know [Norman] would not fly unless everything was perfect,” Rogers said. “He was a cautious pilot, a very meticulous person. He kept his garage as clean as he kept his plane.”

Beverly Wascher was the socialite half of the couple, said Mary Rogers. “At election time, she allowed the house to be used as a polling place. We did all sorts of things together, PTA, luncheons, arts and crafts. Things ladies did,” she said.

“We were all devastated when they disappeared because Norman and Beverly were so full of life and enjoyed having a good time.”

Richard Rogers thinks about his old fishing partner every day and believes his image will stick with him forever, just as the image of another friend who died in a plane crash has never left his mind.

“I had a buddy in the Air Force, and he had to bail out of his jet. It wasn’t during a war, [he was] just out flying one day. He broke his leg on landing and died of exposure in the snow,” he said.

“I will sometimes see people walking down the street from behind and think it’s him.”