LAS VEGAS (FOX5) — After a pair of cufflinks and an old photo were found in a stolen car in Las Vegas, Bullhead City officials used social media to find the identity of the owner and their family.
The search for the owners crossed multiple states.
A vehicle was stolen out of Bullhead City, Arizona and was recovered in Las Vegas. Once the vehicle was transported back to Arizona, the owners made a discovery: a box of cufflinks with a photo of a couple inside. The cufflinks had an engraved name and the photo a date: November 1954.
The vehicle owners turned over the items to Bullhead City, and according to City Manager Toby Cotter, the items were stored for about a year until they were about to head to public auction.
“With that picture, we can find somebody who will own these and will take pride in these. So we started the search and it surprisingly didn’t take very long,” Cotter said.
The city created a social media post to help solve the mystery.
Someone shared the post with Ralph Duran, Jr., who immediately recognized his father, Ralph L. Duran, Sr. and mother Olga Othon Duran.
“I opened up that video. All the blood just rushed out of my body, just crying for like 10 minutes straight. That’s my mom and dad,” Duran, Jr. said, speaking to us from his home outside Houston, Texas. He relocated from Las Vegas several years ago.
The photo shows the couple during the time they were dating; the vehicle belongs to the grandmother of Duran, Jr. and his sister, Maria Smith.
“They were so happy, and so in love,” Smith said, with tears. Smith said many photos of her mother were destroyed, decades ago, and she does not personally own many photos.
The couple married and had three children. Mother Olga passed in 1963, and their father passed in 2003.
How did the items go missing? Maria and Ralph have been brainstorming possibilities: all the three siblings relocated to Las Vegas, decades ago, and once their father passed away, they divided their father’s belongings among them. Their brother also passed away.
The siblings are grateful for the help of Bullhead City officials for taking steps to find them.
“We would have never in a 100 million years ever known about these articles,” Smith said.
The city will mail the items to Duran, Jr. in Texas.
Copyright 2025 KVVU. All rights reserved.
