Missing LA County Man Found Dead in Roseville Creek

A 19-year-old man from Los Angeles County was found dead in a Roseville creek and investigators are asking for the public's help. 

Roseville Police believe John Paul Alpert of Palmdale was killed. Human remains, later identified as Alpert, were found May 15 by someone fishing in Dry Creek near Atkinson Street in Roseville, according to Roseville Police. Investigators believe he had been dead for a few months. 


His body had unexplained injuries consistent with blunt force trauma, and detectives have classified his death as a homicide, according to Roseville Police. 

Alpert lived at home with his parents while attending community college until he left to have an "adventure." According to police, he made plans to travel north with a group of illegal freight train riders — something he had never done before. 

Soon after he left, on March 25, his family reported him missing to the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Office. 

Investigators believe that Alpert was in Roseville on a freight train between March 16-17, until he was killed. 

Roseville Police Department detectives are asking for the public's help. 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.