Christine Marie Eastin

Case background and investigation

Christine Marie Eastin, known as Chris or Christy, was born on January 4, 1952, in Hayward, California, according to the FBI's missing-person listing. She had turned 19 two weeks before she disappeared. A January 2026 Patch article describes her as a recent high school graduate and former homecoming queen who worked at a bank and was taking college classes.

On the evening of January 18, 1971, Eastin was using a blue 1969 Ford Maverick that belonged to her former boyfriend. KTVU reported in 2019 that she had been shopping at a Mervyn's store, where she bought a pair of boots, and that she left at about 9:30 p.m. saying she was going to wash the car. The FBI's listing gives a slightly different sequence, stating that she left home at 10 p.m. to go to the car wash and was then to pick up a friend at a Jack in the Box restaurant. She did not arrive.

The Maverick was found at a self-service car wash at 25400 Mission Boulevard in Hayward, identified by KTVU as Charlie's Car Wash. According to the California Attorney General's missing-person record, the doors were locked and articles from inside the car were lying on the pavement outside it. Her purse was locked inside the vehicle. The Attorney General's record states that foul play is suspected.

She was described as white, 5 feet 7 inches tall and about 130 pounds, with blonde hair and blue eyes, a small scar in the middle of her forehead and a surgical scar on her abdomen. She was wearing a black or brown leather coat, black boots, blue slacks, a red, white and blue pinstriped tunic and a bluish-gold scarf. Dental records are on file.

The case is held by the Hayward Police Department, and Patch reported that it is the oldest missing-person file at the department. In March 2019 Hayward police Captain Jason Martinez told KTVU that there were several theories but nothing substantial that investigators could pinpoint, and the station reported that police had largely eliminated the former boyfriend as a suspect.

In September 2019 KTVU reported that a woman had come forward to say she had witnessed what she later understood to be an abduction at the car wash, involving two men and a white Ford van with large rectangular side mirrors, and a sketch was released. Dave Legro, the retired Hayward officer who took the original report, called the lead a long shot. The station also reported a $50,000 reward. No arrest has been announced, and the FBI listing remained active when last updated in March 2026.