Missing 22-year-old believed dead

“I’m grateful that we at least have an answer. But there’s a lot of grief that’s now turned to anger, because it was completely unnecessary,” Dan Moss said.

The site just south of the tunnel where Richard Moss was caught on surveillance camera driving south on his way to work that Thursday morning is the same location where another woman died just last year, the father said.

A flurry of community activism has blossomed behind the search for the young man, and now supporters are funneling their passion toward strongly encouraging Caltrans to install a guardrail at the alleged crash site, according to Dan Moss and a Facebook page dedicated to finding Richard.

“We already had this momentum for the search, and now people are taking this momentum in this other direction and making sure no one else has to go through this,” Dan Moss said.

Volunteers had dispersed in droves to scour beaches, nearby ravines and other spots in search of clues as to what may have led to Richard Moss’ sudden disappearance around 7:12 a.m. Last week, a group uncovered a tire and hub cap, as well as a fuel tank lodged in the sandy rocks at the bottom of a cliff just south of the tunnel. On Monday, Dan Moss said he was able to call the shop from where his son had purchased tires and confirmed that a unique code on the found tire matched one from his son’s vehicle.

The Sheriff’s Office did not immediately respond to a request for information, however, a spokesman said Friday it would take time for investigators to confirm whether the parts found were indeed from Richard Moss’ vehicle.

Dan Moss said he plans on returning to California from his home in Hawaii this week as volunteers aim to continue searching the wreckage site. Not sure if they’ll recover his son’s body, Dan Moss said he hopes to find further evidence underwater.

“Our goal is to get him or the car,” Dan Moss said. “The fact of the matter is if he’s not in the car, more than likely we won’t have him, ever maybe.”

But he credited the volunteer “amateur” search crews for getting them to this point. Drones, divers, boats, helicopters and people on foot have all been dispatched to search for his son, Dan Moss said. One person has even offered to pull his son’s body out of the vehicle if they do find him, he said.

“I don’t know where these people come from. But they’re incredible,” Dan Moss said. “It’s better to have an answer than not.”

Attention to the area just south of Gray Whale Cove heated up after his son’s AAA card was found on a nearby beach.

But even if they do uncover further confirmation, Dan Moss said he doesn’t expect the community to be satisfied until changes are made to the state-owned coastal highway.

His son, he said, drove off the road at a hazardous location where there isn’t a guardrail protecting vehicles from veering off the road and crashing down below. Nearly $439 million went toward Caltrans’ twin tunnel project aimed at bypassing an area that would sometimes collapse or prove dangerous during bad weather. Dan Moss said it’s hard to fathom so much attention would be spent on improving the road but that the state would leave gaps in the nearby guardrails.

A Caltrans spokesman was not immediately able to offer comments Monday.

Starting this Saturday, protesters plan to head toward the site and urge action be taken. A bevy of supporters on the Finding Richard Moss Facebook page have indicated they are contacting Caltrans to request the improvement. Dan Moss said he’s reached out to Gov. Jerry Brown and the coastside’s congressional representative for help.

“This isn’t a statistic. This was a wonderful human being that is gone,” Dan Moss said. “If they had just done their job, we wouldn’t be talking today. Richard would be continuing as an electrician’s apprentice, one day he’d get married and have kids.”

Moving forward, he wants the protective barriers installed, and the stretch of highway to be renamed in his son’s name. Since word spread that the mystery of his son’s death appears to have been solved, Dan Moss said numerous people have told them of their own close encounters or crashes. He noted a woman died at the same spot just last September.

Protesters plan to put up signs and spend several hours every Saturday at the site in an effort to raise awareness, he said.

“The entire community is just up in arms, not because it was Richard, but because we lost another one. And they’re not doing anything. It could easily be anybody else,” Dan Moss said, adding he hopes Caltrans becomes a partner in making the area safer. “We want it done now. The sooner the better. … We want Richard to be the last person to die at that spot.”

samantha@smdailyjournal.com

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Twitter: @samantha_weigel