COSTA MESA
The amateur sleuthing of Scotty and Barbara Ross has paid off. The Fountain Valley couple has found the owner of Orange Coast College and high schools diplomas they found in a tree in September.
The Rosses spotted the documents while camping in Live Oak Canyon near Santa Barbara. The diplomas turned out to be the 1978 Orange Coast College associate of arts degree and Newport-Mesa Unified School District diploma of Amber Toinette Knight.
“My fear was that something terrible might have happened, and I wanted to be assured that Amber was OK,” Barbara Ross said. The Rosses work for the Coast Community College District, of which Orange Coast College is part.
A friend of Knight’s read about the couple’s search and brought the two parties together.
Knight is now a horse trainer in Central California.
She says her diplomas were lost after a falling out with a boyfriend, who, after a final confrontation with Knight at a music festival in the canyon, placed the diplomas in the tree.
“It’s helped me to appreciate the kindness of others,” she said. “I really hadn’t missed the diplomas that much, but following Scotty and Barbara’s hard work, it now means a lot more to me.”
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