Why was a half-alien hybrid secret agent—found dead and rotting in his parked SUV—hoarding $230,000, 1,200 guns, 6 tons of ammo and explosive-making material in a wealthy Los Angeles County oceanside community?

And who will play him in the movie? So many questions and too few answers, but police do know the name of the mystery man they found in Pacific Palisades days ago: Jeffrey Alan Lash. The media has filled in the details.

Lash, 60, was a man of means, but no one, so far, has explained what he actually did in life. He was not from a wealthy family and been out of contact with them for five years. He had 14 cars registered in his name, including one that could drive underwater, according to the New York Daily News.

Lash told people he was some sort of secret agent, under surveillance by U.S. agencies. He shared an over-stuffed 2,000-square-foot condo with his fiancée, whose name is on the lease. Every room was crammed with guns, ammo, chemicals and stuff that had to be removed by a Hazardous Materials Unit (Hazmat). It was valued at between $500,000 and $1 million.

Catherine Nebron, Lash’s fiancée, was with him when the late-stage cancer sufferer, keeled over in a Bristol Farms parking lot and knew just what to do. She called a friend in the medical profession who arrived and tried to revive him, but failed.

So Nebron executed Lash’s wishes—he should be abandoned if he dies, no one should be notified and she should flee the scene. His minders would come and get him.  

Nebron went to Oregon. When she returned he was still in the car. She called a defense lawyer, Harland Braun, and he called police. Braun has some experience in high-profile cases. He has represented comedians Roseanne Barr and Chris Farley, basketball player Dennis Rodman, actor Robert Blake (briefly in his murder case), and director John Landis in the “Twilight Zone” manslaughter case.

So who were these mysterious minders that would clean up after Lash? That’s unclear.

KTLA interviewed the mother of a missing woman whom she said worked for Nebron. The mother, Laura VadBunker, said her daughter, Dawn VadBunker, was with Nebron and Lash when he died. She said the two women believed, “He was part alien and part human and he was out to save the world. And he was higher than the CIA.”

So it could have been aliens, not government agents, who were coming to gather Lash’s remains. The Palisadian Post spoke to a neighbor of Lash, who had spoken to him once or twice. The neighbor said, “He mentioned at one point that he was either currently or used to be with the CIA or was some kind of secret agent. I thought he was full of it.”

That just leaves aliens.

–Ken Broder

To Learn More:

Guns, Ammo & Cash (by Frances Sharpe, Palisadian Post)

Man Found Dead in Car with 1,200 Weapons at Home Thought He Was a Spy (by Andrew Gumbel, London Guardian)

Dead LA Man Who Had 1,200 Guns, Underwater Car Identified; Believed to Be "Part Alien" Secret Government Worker (by Melissa Chan, New York Daily News)

California Mystery: Man Found Dead in Car Had 1,200 Guns, 6.5 Tons of Ammo, Amphibious SUV (by Tami Abdollah, Associated Press)

Dead Man with Cache of 1,200 Guns Identified—“He Was Just a Loner” (by Veronica Rocha and Richard Winton, Los Angeles Times)