Disappearance of Kristen Modafferi

In 2015, an independent search of the house Modafferi had been living in when she disappeared was completed; during the search, a cadaver dog with a "world-class" reputation alerted to the presence of human remains in the basement. Paul Dostie, a former Mammoth Lakes police sergeant and owner of the dog, suggested that Oakland police excavate a concrete slab in the basement, and proposed that Modafferi's roommates at the time be re-interviewed by law enforcement. Dr. Arpad Vass, a forensic anthropologist from the University of Tennessee, visited the house in February 2017 and scanned the area with a proprietary device he developed which detects human decomposition chemicals. The device pinpointed between 274 Jayne Avenue and the house next door, 278 Jayne Avenue. Dostie stated that the results of these searches likely indicated a crime scene rather than a burial; aside from the concrete slab, the home's basement floor consists of hard-packed clay which would be difficult to dig with a standard shovel. Additionally, a chemical signature denoting the presence of human blood was discovered near a concrete slab at the base of porch steps at the 278 Jayne Avenue residence; according to Dostie and Vass, DNA testing revealed that the decomposing material matched that of Bob and Debbie Modafferi, who had provided samples for testing.

In 1999, Kristen's Law was signed by President Bill Clinton to provide assistance to police departments and families of missing persons over the age of 17. The law authorized the annual sequestering of 1 million dollars for the support of missing persons organizations, including the National Center for Missing Adults. Federal funding for Kristen's Law ran out in 2005 after the law's expiration. As of 2019, Kristen Modafferi's case remains unsolved.

Kristen's Act was introduced by Representative Sue Myrick in 1999 and signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 2000. Since April 2001, Kristen's Law "provided assistance to law enforcement and families in missing persons cases of those over the age of 17" and authorized $1 million per year to support organizations including the National Center for Missing Adults. The center's federal funding ran out in 2005 when Kristen's Law expired. It has continued with volunteer efforts. Modafferi's case has been profiled on Unsolved Mysteries, Primetime Live and America's Most Wanted. It remains unsolved.

On the afternoon of June 23, 1997, three weeks after her eighteenth birthday, Modafferi concluded her shift at Spinelli's around 3:00 p.m. She had indicated to coworkers that she considered visiting Baker Beach that afternoon to potentially attend a party. At around 45 minutes after her shift had ended, coworkers from Spinelli's saw Modafferi with an unidentified blonde woman on the second floor of the Galleria. This blonde woman has never been identified, and she has yet to step forward. Video surveillance last caught Modafferi withdrawing money from her bank.

On July 10, 1997, a man phoned KGO-TV claiming that Modafferi was murdered by two women and her body disposed of under a wooden bridge near Point Reyes. The caller was identified as 36-year-old Jon Onuma, who lived near the Galleria. Onuma told police he had falsely implicated the women, as he felt they were conspiring to get his girlfriend, Jill Lampo, fired from her job at the local YMCA where they also worked. Onuma denied having ever met Modaferri. Searches of Onuma's apartment revealed "sizable" amounts of blood, though it was later determined by DNA testing to be that of a cat. It was discovered that Onuma had previously placed personal advertisements for women in the Bay Area and coerced them into sex. Onuma relocated to his native Hawaii in 1999.

Kristen Deborah Modafferi (June 1, 1979—disappeared June 23, 1997) is an American woman who, in the early summer of 1997, disappeared under mysterious circumstances after leaving her work at the Crocker Galleria Mall in San Francisco, California. The soon-to-be college sophomore at North Carolina State University was spending the summer in the Bay Area; Modafferi had relocated from her native North Carolina to Oakland only recently and was expected to start summer photography classes at UC Berkeley on the day after she vanished.

Kristen Deborah Modafferi was born June 1, 1979, in Danbury, Connecticut, to Debbie, a teacher, and Bob Modafferi, an electrical engineer. She was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. In 1997, having just completed her freshman year at North Carolina State University on a Park Scholarship, she traveled alone to the San Francisco Bay Area for the summer to study photography at the University of California, Berkeley. She used Craigslist to find a room in a house on Jayne Avenue in Oakland, where she had four male roommates. She found part-time employment at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and at Spinelli's Coffee shop in the Crocker Galleria Mall in San Francisco's Financial District.