Brian Forrest, a waiter at a local restaurant, was found beaten to death in an alley in Pacific Beach at about 10:30 in the morning on November 6, 1996. Forrest had succumbed to massive blunt force trauma to the back of his head, cracked ribs and a broken spine. There were no known witnesses to the attack on Forrest. Several persons had walked through the alley about an hour before and told detectives that Forrests body had not been there at that time.

Forrest was last seen alive by friends at a late-night poker game the evening before. After the game ended, Forrest took off by himself and was not seen again until the discovery of his body the following morning.