In 2005, I penned a cover story about the Great Flood of 1938, Orange County's worst natural disaster until the Big One finally decides to erupt. An accompanying column listed the names of every flood victim the Weekly was able to identify, an arduous task given records are inexact. One of the victims listed in newspapers of the time was 12-year-old Teddy Casas, of the Placentia barrio of Atwood; her brother survived by hanging on to a telephone pole throughout the night of the flood.
Last month, I received an email from a descendant of Casas who had found my story online. She wrote to me with shocking news: the story had helped her family finally locate the remains of Casas more than 70 years after she perished.
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According to the woman, Teddy Casas–real name Tiburcia DeCasas–was her
aunt and had received a pauper's burial after the Great Flood of 1938.
The county never bothered to tell the DeCasas family where they buried
Teddy, and the family had to live with the painful reminder of her
disappearance for over 70 years.
Earlier this year, the niece of Teddy Googled her aunt's
name as part of trying to fill in her ancestry tree and came across our
article. Inspired by it, she then played detective, amassing a list of cemeteries
that existed in 1938 that might have served as a final resting place
for Teddy, and decided to visit Loma Vista Memorial Park in Fullerton.
The niece asked the workers there if they had any records of someone
with the last name of Casas or any variants in their records. After
digging through their archives, the Loma Vista people found a tattered,
yellowing index card showing DeCasas was buried there in an unmarked
grave.
