1982/83 Investigation

• Placer County Sheriff’s Office investigators were also unavailable when Janet disappeared, due to a major homicide case in Todd Valley. After Marvin Singler fatally shot his wife, Gayle, during the holiday weekend, he was booked into the County Jail in Auburn by Detectives Johnnie Smith and Kurt Landry.   

•Those two detectives were also working on the case of PCSO Deputy Jerry Dollinger, who was reported missing on September 8. Jerry Dollinger was found dead two days later, near Lake Tahoe, under suspicious circumstances.

• PCSO Deputy Jerry Dollinger went missing at almost the exact same time as Janet, which eventually created a lot of confusion in both cases. 

• Dollinger’s sailboat (Anastasia) sank, and it has never been located. At the time, there was speculation that Janet had been on the boat with Jerry, and her body was in the submerged boat.

What is CLETS? (California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System)

CLETS is a communications network that provides both messaging and database access within California law enforcement, and to other states/federal databases sponsored by the FBI. Public safety agencies across the state can instantly access important information about criminal histories, driver records, stolen property, and other databases—including MUPS, the Missing & Unidentified Person Section. Any authorized state agency can enter a missing person into the system to alert other agencies to “be on the lookout,” and inform the agency if they have contact with the person or matching unidentified body.  

• This was completed about thirteen hours after Jerry was last seen, and less than four hours after he was first reported missing at 11:00 pm on September 8th.

 • In sharp contrast, the information about missing person Janet Kovacich was never entered into CLETS. The first time that any effort was made to add her to a state database was done in 1997 by Auburn PD Detective Ron Eason, and it wasn’t until 2005 that Assistant Coroner Dennis Watt finally entered Janet’s information into the DOJ MUPS system. 

The following reports describe the Dollinger investigation: