NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. – A 70-year-old man, Michael Larry Manatt, was arrested Friday in connection with a 1983 murder in Southern California, marking a significant breakthrough in a decades-old cold case.
Manatt, a resident of Huntington Beach, was taken into custody for the killing of Ronald Gaskey, whose body was found in his Newport Beach home on December 13, 1983. Gaskey, 36 at the time of his death, had been bludgeoned in the head and face with a blunt object. His death went unsolved for years despite early investigations and interviews at the scene.
While the case had gone cold after initial interviews and evidence collection, the Newport Beach Police Department reopened the investigation in recent years. Through new leads and evidence, investigators identified Michael Larry Manatt as a suspect, although the police have not disclosed how they linked him to the crime or the motive for the murder.
Police confirmed that Manatt is being held in jail on $1 million bail. His court records were not immediately available, and it remains unclear whether he has legal representation. As of Sunday night, the Orange County Public Defender’s Office had not responded to inquiries regarding the case.
At the time of Gaskey’s murder, police had ruled out robbery as a motive, as his home had not been ransacked. The victim was described as a security-conscious person who had fortified his home, but the door was found unlocked—a detail that raised questions about the circumstances surrounding his death. Gaskey’s former girlfriend discovered the body after he failed to show up for work as a construction worker.
