Charles Loraine Hollingsworth, age 28, was last seen in South Lake Tahoe, California on October 26, 1970.
Charles was a doctor, and he shared a practice with his brother, John in 1970. Their office was located at 1970 Highway 50.
He was last seen leaving the office after an argument with a family member, its unclear whether the family member was John. He never returned, and for the first couple weeks, John requested that the disappearance not be publicized.
His car was found two days later at the abandoned Leviathan Mine in Alpine County, about 24 miles southeast of Lake Tahoe. Locals have described the area as desolate, about six miles from the nearest town. The consensus is that it isn’t an area one would likely stumble onto, they’d have to know it was there.
If that is correct, I find it kind of odd that the car was found so quickly, since the mine had not been active since the early 1960’s. The car was found by a game warden, but because the case had not been publicized, he did not initially realize that the car belonged to a missing physician.
Many have speculated that Charles committed suicide. He had just gone through a nasty divorce from his wife, Ora. Charles reportedly had a nineteen year old girlfriend, Martha, at the time.
Ora married a pharmacist, Ron Renaldi, who owned Tahoe Valley Pharmacy, just a block down the street from the Hollingsworth practice a few months after his disappearance,
Charles had also been sued over a car accident in 1969.
However, the same locals who described the unlikelihood of Charles just happening to end up there have also commented that it would be a difficult place to hide his own body. Extensive searches were conducted in the area, including helicopter searches, but no sign of him was found.
Some have suggested that Charles may have left voluntarily, and that there may be some connection to the disappearance of Donna Lass, which had occurred less than two months earlier.
I won’t delve too much into Donna’s case here, except for the potential ties between her and Charles. There is far more detail on Donna’s case available online.
Charles resided in a lodge at 3840 Pioneer Trail, while Donna lived at 3893 Pioneer Trail. Charles apparently liked to gamble, and would spend much of his time at the Sahara Hotel & Casino, where Donna was employed as a nurse. The Sahara was less than a three minute drive from their homes on Pioneer Trail.
In an interview with Robert Graysmith, author of the book, Zodiac, a former roommate of Donna’s said that she and Donna used to go flying with two men who were from Riverside, but were living in San Francisco at the time. Charles happened to be a licensed pilot, and he owned a plane.
There may be an indication that Charles worked at Letterman Hospital in San Francisco at some point. Donna worked there prior to moving to Lake Tahoe. I wasn’t certain whether the researcher, when stating that “Both worked at Letterman”, meant both Charles and Donna, or both men that Donna and her roommate flew with. It was one of the two, but it would suggest that the pilot was in the medical field, as Charles was.
It is, however, known that Donna had been a nurse at Letterman, and had left there when she moved to Lake Tahoe a few months prior to her disappearance.
Of course, foul play has been considered as well.
Charles’ brother has since moved to Southern California, where he died in 2011. His former wife is also deceased.
Many subscribe to the theory that Donna Lass was a victim of the Zodiac killer, while others believe she was abducted and murdered by someone she knew.
Sources:
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Could Mr. Hollingsworth have murdered Donna Lass and then committed suicide out of remorse?
I suppose anything is possible, but it’s been said that the area where his car was found wouldn’t have been an easy place for him to hide his own body.
Ora Hollingsworth did not marry Ron Rinaldi a few months after Charles disappeared instead waited the required 7 years for a missing person to be declared dead in the state of California. Ora, who was a casual friend of mine insisted that Charles “purposely”
faked his death and was living in Mexico.
I agree. My mom was Oras cousin and had lived with Charles briefly in Tahoe. She also claims he pore than likely went to Mexico.
We moved to Lake Tahoe and met an outstanding local artist, Ora Renaldi at a Lake Tahoe outdoor art fair. She sold us two of her realest style oil paintings on canvas, which she signed Ora Renaldi on the back. “An Old Camp Site” dated 1976, and the other “The Old Newcomb Barn” was dated 1977. Charles Hollingsworth went missing October 1970 and Ora was using Renaldi in1976.
Found an auction listing for an earlier painting that ” was created by California Artist Ora Renaldi in 1971, it was one of the featured, classic cars in Bill Harrah’s Automobile Collection in Reno, Nevada. This work of art signed by the artist in the lower left corner of the canvas” (not seen in photo of painting), “and the reverse is inscribed “1929 Duesenberg Dual Cowl Phaeton – Model J, 8 Cyclinder, 265 H.P. Harrah’s Collection,” along with the artist’s name and date “Ora, 1971.” (She does not sign her last name.)
Hi there,
This is Kathy, Charles Hollingsworth’s daughter. My father never worked at Letterman Hospital.
Hi Kathy, do you recall what church your family attended in South Lake Tahoe? I’m a local resident in the Tahoe Vista area.
Well, now they’ve identified Donna Lass’ skull which was found in Placer County in 1986.
I note that the Zodiac killers Halloween card was post marked 10/27/70 just a day after dr. Hollingsworth vanished. My Zodiac suspect and that’s all he is Bruce Davis is in prison for life he killed two men. Many others are suspected. In a parole report he said he had worked in Lake Tahoe. He worked in the casinos there.He did go to Tahoe in Nov of 1969. He could have been there in October. Then he flew to the UK. Then returned to the LA area December. He traveled to various places around CA.
I suspect he abducted Lass in September of 1970. A lady had been trying to locate info on Davis but recently died. She learned he had been in Tahoe and knew Larry Kane another Zodiac suspect.
She suspected he took Donna Lass. I noted the Z cards date 10/26/70 and thought of dr.Hollingsworth who disappeared then. Davis told the parole board he knew several women in LT. He was capable of anything.
Dr Howard
Now of course, Donna’s skull has been identified as having been a Jane Doe’s that was found in 1986, so maybe these other Tahoe victims might turn up with new DNA technology.