Dad opens up about daughter found dead on July 16
By KCAL Staff
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LOS ANGELES (KCAL) — Skeletal remains found last week in a wetlands area near Venice have been identified as those of a missing 32-year-old woman, Kolby Story, according to a report from the LA County Coroner’s Office.
In an exclusive interview with CBSLA’s Laurie Perez, Brian Story, the victim’s father, spoke about the ordeal and his daughter.
“She got older, very funny, very sarcastic, you know always had something to say,” Brian Story said. “She has a whole family that, you know, misses her very much.”
The 32-year-old mother of two sons had last been seen on Dec. 7, 2020, in the 12300 block of Pacific Avenue in Mar Vista.
Police have not said whether there are any suspects in Story’s death and her father said he didn’t want to speculate, but he did say he was shocked by what he saw when he went looking for his daughter that night. She had called him earlier to let him know that she was heading there.
“I had no idea it was anything like that when she told me she was going down there, none,” Brian Story said. “I felt unsafe in that Venice Beach area. That homeless situation is a massive problem down there. So, who knows? She could have run into a bad person.”
On July 16, during the homeless encampment cleanups taking place along the Venice Boardwalk, police found Story’s checkbook and driver’s license in a beach tunnel.
A search was conducted, and later that day, authorities found her remains in the nearby Ballona Wetlands Ecological Reserve, located south of Marina Del Rey.
Her father said they knew it was her that day because of a necklace found with the remains, and added that he knew it long before.
“My daughter and I were really close and, you know, their first thing was with missing persons was well, ‘Oh, she could have ran off into the woods.’ I said, ‘She may not call anyone on the planet, but she would call me.’ So, I knew something was wrong,” Brian Story said.
A GoFundMe campaign has been setup to help support Story’s sons, aged 15 and 7.
“It’s been just torture,” her father said, “eight months not knowing, just hoping for the best, praying for the best, but preparing for the worst just because I know my daughter. She wouldn’t just disappear and not call me.”
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