19 Year Old’s Death Labeled Murder in Roseville Investigation

Roseville Police Department detectives are looking for witnesses or anyone with information about the disappearance and death of 19-year-old John Alpert of Palmdale.

On May 15, someone fishing in Dry Creek near Atkinson Street found human remains near the creek bed. Roseville Police detectives and crime scene investigators examined the scene and collected the remains. It appeared that the person had been dead for a few months.

Roseville detectives worked with the Placer County Sheriff’s Coroner’s Division to identify the deceased person.  In late June, the Coroner identified the deceased person as 19-year-old John Paul Alpert of Palmdale, a missing person from Los Angeles County.

By all accounts, John was a responsible and caring young man who had never been in trouble with the law.  He lived at home, helping his parents and attending community college.  He left Palmdale in March to have an adventure–traveling north with a group of illegal freight train riders.  He had never illegally ridden the rails before. He stopped communicating with his family soon after he left.  Concerned for his safety, his family reported him missing to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office on March 25.

Detectives believe that Alpert arrived in Roseville on a freight train between March 16 and 17, where he met his death.  His body had unexplained injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, and detectives have classified his death as a homicide.

Detectives need help and information from the public. Anyone who has any information about Alpert’s death, or who saw Alpert in Roseville in mid-March, or had any contact with freight train riders in Roseville around that time is asked to call the Roseville Police Department’s Investigations Unit at (916)774-5070.