O.C. Parents Have Closure, but Not Peace After Son’s Body Is Identified

For 14 months Kim Large waited for her son to walk through the front door.

He never did.

Hope has given way to the realization that his funeral must be planned. Authorities have identified a body buried beneath two feet of sand on the edge of Humboldt Bay in Northern California as Matthew Anton Large, 23.

How he got there and why he died remain a mystery.

“I didn’t lose hope even though it was turned over to homicide. You think he was knocked on the head or walking the streets, not knowing who he was,” said Kim Large. “Now I would look back and say I was in denial.”

She and her husband drove to Humboldt County this week to view the badly decomposed body.

“We did not want to see him like that,” she said. “Fourteen months did not prepare us....”

The former Newport Harbor High School star wrestler was reported missing Dec. 8, 2001, after he failed to show up at a family gathering. He also missed his debut “ultimate-fighting” match for which he had rigorously trained.

Friends said Large was so excited about the upcoming bout that he spent the day before he vanished passing out tickets to friends. One of the places he visited was an apartment in Irvine where an acquaintance lived.

“We feel something happened in the apartment; we don’t know exactly what,” said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Ron Burgess. “We speculate that there was some type of argument, and we don’t know why.”

Police said the apartment was rented to Tommy McGuire, 59, who lived there with his son. Police said the son has since died. Investigators said they now consider McGuire a suspect in Large’s death and are asking for the public’s help in locating him. Investigators described him as 6 feet 1, 240 pounds, with blue eyes and white hair. When last seen, he had shoulder-length hair and a mustache.

Huntington Beach police believe McGuire was in Northern California with Large’s pickup truck after Large vanished. The truck was found submerged in Humboldt Bay three weeks after Large was reported missing.

McGuire, a retired Orange County Transit Authority bus driver, is known to frequent Humboldt County and the San Francisco Bay Area. He has lived and has friends in both places, police said.

After receiving a tip, Humboldt County deputies found Large’s largely skeletal remains not far from where his truck was discovered and notified Huntington Beach police, said Sgt. Juan Freeman, who declined to identify the source of the tip.

The cause of death remains under investigation, but a Humboldt County coroner’s spokesman said the injuries suggest murder. Large’s dental records were used to identify his body.

Large’s family last saw him when he was distributing tickets for the fighting competition.

Roman Sugden, 39, a friend, said Large was a precocious, family-oriented young man who taught him how to use exercise equipment, to snowboard and to fix his motorcycle.

“He was neat because, being so young, I didn’t expect to learn anything from him,” said Sugden, who said he had known Large five years.

Kim Large said she is waiting for her son’s body so she can plan a memorial service.

“This,” she said, “has taken the core of our family.”