On January 10, 1959, the mutilated body of 57-year-old Clara Eloise Mohr was found in the home she shared with her aged bed-ridden mother in Carmel, California. According to the investigating sheriff, the woman was struck over the head outside the house then carried into the bedroom where she was sexually assaulted and butchered with a steak knife. Scrapbooks and photographs on the wall identified Mohr as one-time silent screen actress Claire Del Mar who had appeared uncredited in the films
I quattro cavalieri dell'Apocalisse (1921) (dancing with star
Rudolph Valentino),
Il cantante di jazz (1927),
The Grain of Dust (1928), and
Sinfonia nuziale (1928). A marriage to Hollywood cameraman
Hal Mohr in 1926 (with
Erich von Stroheim as best man) ended in divorce in 1929. As of 2015, the case remains open.
