A body found last week near a crashed red pick-up truck in
Malibu Canyon was identified Monday morning as belonging to UCLA
student Michael Niemeyer, who had been missing since Oct. 13,
2003.
Fred Corral, a lieutenant with the L.A. Coroner’s Office,
said X-rays of the crash victim’s skull and jaw matched
dental records provided by Niemeyer’s family.
An autopsy was performed Monday, but the cause of death was not
determined. Samples of the remains will be analyzed to detect
traces of substances that may have been in the body, but results
won’t be available for about two months, Corral said.
Though the body wasn’t identified until Monday,
Coroner’s Office Spokesman Capt. David Campbell said Friday
the body was probably Niemeyer’s because the truck found
nearby belonged to him.
After months of uncertainty regarding the whereabouts of their
son, Niemeyer’s parents began funeral preparations shortly
after the body was located.
“We hoped all along that he was going to be found alive,
and obviously he wasn’t. Our hope is in God … that’s
where we find our hope now,” Duane Niemeyer, Niemeyer’s
father, said on Sunday.
Niemeyer, 22, entered UCLA as an engineering student, but
changed his major to history and was aspiring to become a high
school history teacher and football coach.
He lived in Redlands. While growing up, he took road trips with
his family, many of which landed them in Nebraska at extended
family members’ homes, Duane said.
Niemeyer volunteered at Special Olympics events where he would
communicate with some participants using the sign language he
learned to speak with his deaf aunt, Duane said.
In high school, Niemeyer played football, a sport he enjoyed
because of the mental exercise it gave him ““ he focused
heavily on strategy, Duane said.
Niemeyer had a knack for remembering facts, said Kandra Chan, a
2003 UCLA graduate who dated Niemeyer for two-and-a-half years.
“Every single animal I wanted to know about, he would know
everything about that animal. He was like an encyclopedia,”
Chan said.
With a laid-back attitude and sense of humor, Niemeyer quickly
became part of a tight-knit group of friends whom he met living in
Rieber Hall his freshman year.
He was a die-hard sports fan, and camped out in front of Pauley
Pavilion to get basketball tickets before games and was loud in the
stands.
His enthusiasm was contagious.
Oren Mayer, a fifth-year microbiology, immunology and molecular
genetics student and Niemeyer’s roommate, said Niemeyer was
able to control the atmosphere in a room in a way that nobody else
could.
“When he would get pumped up, when he would start
laughing, everyone else would just start laughing too,” he
said.
Niemeyer loved playing midnight baseball with friends on the
beaches off the Pacific Coast Highway, Chan said.
The players would put third base in the water, and as third
baseman, Niemeyer stood his ground with the waves flowing over his
ankles. The water would be “rushing up to him every two
seconds,” but he never complained and always laughed, Chan
said.
Mayer said Niemeyer liked barbecue sauce and his specialty was
barbecuing on the balcony, making hotdogs, hamburgers and steaks
““Â the works.
“He was the grillmaster of the apartment,” Mayer
said.
Michael Welch, a first-year graduate student in computer science
who met Niemeyer five years ago, said nothing seemed to bother
Niemeyer, who had a permanent smile on his face. Group activities
aren’t the same with Niemeyer gone, Welch said:
“Something’s missing.”
Niemeyer is survived by his father, his mother Linda and two
siblings ““ a sister, 11, and a brother, 18.
Niemeyer’s funeral will be held March 13 at 11 a.m. at
the First Lutheran Church in Redlands. Donations can be mailed to
the Mike Niemeyer Memorial Football Scholarship Fund at Redlands
Community Scholarship Foundation, P.O. Box 1683, Redlands, CA
92373.