The Strange Disappearance of Lydia ‘Dia’ Abrams

Information is obtained through the ‘Where are they?’ Podcast and other online sources as cited**

In 2020 Lydia Abrams, known to many as “Dia”, was a wealthy 65-year-old widow living on a 117-acre ranch in Riverside County California. Dia had lost her husband of 34-years, Clem Abrams, in 2018. She inherited the ranch and continued to manage the property.

On the morning of June 6, 2020, Dia woke up and baked cinnamon rolls. Her neighbor was terminally ill, and Dia intended to take these over to them.

Later, she would have lunch with her fiance, Keith Harper. After their lunch, he went off to mow grass. When he returned to the home at 7:30 p.m., he said he couldn’t find Dia anywhere, but noticed her truck was still in the drive and that she had left behind her purse, cell phone, and keys.

He reported her missing the following morning.

To this date, there have been no clues as to Dia’s whereabouts.

Where is Dia Abrams?

Who was Dia?

Dia Abrams and her husband Clem Abrams lived a very comfortable lifestyle. No- that’s an understatement. They were worth millions by all accounts. Clem was a successful real estate developer and had built his family a fortune.

Dia and Clem had two children, a son Clinton and a daughter Crisara.

Dia was a huge animal lover, a beautiful woman who took great lengths to maintain her appearance, and was extremely compassionate and caring to others.

In 2018, Clem passed away and named his adult children as executors of his estate. When Clem and Dia had married in 1984, they had a prenuptial agreement. Because of the particulars of that agreement, there would be some court visits for Dia to try and get access to their finances.

Some would say she was in a court battle with her kids over that, but her kids have come out and said that is not true. Some have said that she was estranged from her two kids, but both kids have stated since her disappearance that that was false. Remember I said this case gets confusing? Just wait.

At some point, Dia would meet Keith Harper. The details of their relationship are up for debate, and we will get to that shortly.

On June 6, 2020, Dia woke up and baked cinnamon rolls for her neighbor. Later, she would have lunch with Keith. When Keith discussed this lunch, he stated that Dia was acting normal and they had a happy lunch, laughing and chatting like they do every day.

Keith left after they ate to do some yard work and mow grass. He stated that was around 2:30 p.m.

At 7:30 p.m., he returned to the house but didn’t see Dia anywhere. He was confused because the truck she usually drove was still in the driveway. Dia also owned a Lexus and a Jeep, which also were on the property. Keith then discovered her keys, cell phone, and wallet left behind.

Dia was a very active and healthy 65-year-old woman who enjoyed walking and hiking. It was thought she had gone off for a walk somewhere.

However, the next day, farmhands noticed that Dia was nowhere to be found, and some neighbors came over to look for Dia. Keith didn’t participate. One of their neighbors, Diana Fedder, was also there. Diana took charge and wouldn’t let anyone in the house. One of the farmhands noticed that Diana was also carrying a gun.

The following day, Keith finally reported Lydia missing. Around 8:30 a.m. one police officer showed up, around the same time as farmhand and employee Isidro Garcia. Isidro had worked for Dia and her husband for 14 years and was a loyal employee.

At 8:30 a.m., all converge at the ranch. Diana Fedder, the neighbor mentioned earlier, was also there. Mr. Garcia stated that Keith was in the process of packing up his RV as he had to make a trip to New Mexico to check on his storage facility business.

Keith Harper would drive off to New Mexico shortly after the police officer arrived, not the least bit worried about his missing ‘fiance’.

One thing that Isidro stated is that he thought it was odd that Keith seemed very disinterested in Dia’s whereabouts. Isidro also discussed in his interview what kind of person Keith was- at least to him, and it wasn’t pretty. He said Keith was a mean-spirited man, referring to Isidro as a ‘slave’. In contrast, Isidro said that Dia was always wonderful to him.

Now word starts to get out about her disappearance and searches begin.

This receives a little bit of news coverage and I think that is partially because of her connection to the Idyllwild area of California, which recently had a string of disappearances, referred to as the ‘missing hikers’.

Dia’s ranch, Bonita Vista, was near Idyllwild, in an area locals called Apple Canyon.

For those not local to the area, Apple Canyon is near Palm Springs, California. If you’re family with the mountain views that are famous in Palm Springs, those mountains are the ones in which the Bonita Vista ranch was located. There are mountains and deserts, and many parts are very isolated.

For the most part, her children stay out of the media, not speaking. Later, Clinton would come out to speak and say that he was doing that on the advice of lawyers, but he would break that silence months later to speak to CBS 8 San Diego, in what he describes as an attempt to bring more attention to the case.

The police wonder- Did Dia walk off? Did she go for a hike and become injured? Helicopters are eventually brought on to search, and drones are also utilized. Nothing is found regarding Dia, but they did find a massive marijuana operation located near one of the properties that Dia owned and rented out the Sky High Ranch.(No pun intended?)

As a result, they got a search warrant, searched the Sky High Ranch, and seized more than 2,300 marijuana plants and 357 pounds of processed marijuana.

Could there be a connection? Police don’t believe so.

Now I want to discuss the children for a minute here. They are adults and have lives of their own. Isidro claimed that Dia’s son Clinton hadn’t been to the ranch in well over a year. Diana Fedder- neighbor and employee- also claimed that Dia had a very strained relationship with the children as they were fighting over money.

Diana would claim that Dia once told her if something happened to her, it was the kids.

The battle between the kids and Dia would be a he-said / she-said battle. Diana, who works closely with Keith Harper at the ranch, definitely says they were not on good terms. Isidro, the ranch’s long-term employee, does mention that the kids never came to the ranch, but also states he doesn’t know the true nature of their relationship.

There was also the battle of the Ford truck. Allegedly, there was a dispute in which the children were trying to take ownership of the pickup truck. And this was before Dia disappeared. Isidro confirmed this in his interview as well.

So again, back to the he-said she-said battle. Very bizarre case.

I think what’s contributing to the strangeness of this case, is the lack of coverage, media, interviews, and reports coming out to the public. We have to take the little bits here and there that we do know and try and piece things together. And the players involved in the case are doing their best not to speak up.

Clinton stated he loved his mom and the facts that the media did report about the apparent lawsuit over the truck and finances were severely misinterpreted. In fact, during his interview, he spoke very highly of her and offered up some explanations for his absence in the media spotlight. He said it was at the advice of his lawyers and detectives on the case.

Let’s look for a minute at the fiance, Keith Harper. For one, his behavior was very odd after her disappearance and investigators immediately raised an eyebrow.

The day Dia was officially reported missing, Keith packed up his RV camper and said he had business to attend to in Aztec, New Mexico. He would stay gone for most of the week.

The police served a search warrant on the Bonita Vista Ranch a few days after Dia’s disappearance, describing it as a “possible homicide.” They confiscated a bed sheet stained with possible blood, two spent bullet casings, and two handwritten letters.

Law enforcement also traveled to New Mexico, impounded Keith Harper’s RV, and removed a section of the front driver’s seat as evidence. They searched Harper’s storage business in Aztec, New Mexico, but the list of evidence taken has not been publicly released.

It would also come to light that Keith Harper had several felony charges against him in the state of Colorado.

In 2000, he was charged with Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and Kidnapping. The charges would end up being reduced.

In 2011, he was found guilty of misdemeanor sexual assault for groping two women on a snowmobile tour and ordered to register as a sex offender, and in 2014 he was sentenced to four months in jail for probation violation.

I think it’s sufficient to say, Keith Harper might not be the most upstanding man.

I did find it interesting that Clinton Abrams doesn’t believe that Keith was ever his mother’s fiance. Clinton said that until her disappearance, he had never even known Keith, or had ever even known he existed for that matter.

Now, was this because they were indeed estranged as many people said, so he just wasn’t aware of his mother’s fiance? Or, is Keith lying about his relationship with Dia?

As police probe into the investigation, it gets pretty murky. I suppose this is often the case when a crime is committed against a very wealthy person. Money seems to bring out the absolute worst in people.

The details of the financial trusts and assets are summed up nicely on the Charley Project. Here is an excerpt from the Charley Project entry on Dia’s case:

When Clem died, Dia inherited some of his properties, as well as a marital trust. At the time of her disappearance, in addition to trying to get the prenuptial agreement invalidated, Dia was seeking $6.7 million from her late husband’s estate to fund the marital trust. Crisara and Clinton had both filed an opposition to their mother’s petition.

Dia had kept some of her assets in trust. When the trust was initially established in 2016, the beneficiaries in the event of her death or incapacitation were Crisara and Clinton. An unsigned, partially handwritten clause was added to the trust in 2018, excluding the children as beneficiaries; it said: “Trustor leaves nothing but her love and affection to her son, Clinton Abrams, and daughter Crisara Abrams.”

Just fifteen days before 2020 her disappearance, Dia restated the trust, transferring ownership of the Bonita Vista Ranch and two other properties into it and naming Keith Harper as a trustee and the beneficiary of her estate. A second trustee was also named; this was Diana Fedder, a neighbor who lived ten miles from the Bonita Vista Ranch and helped Dia manage her properties. Photos of both of them are posted with this case summary.

Harper and Fedder took over the trust and began co-managing the Bonita Vista Ranch after Abrams went missing, and Harper filed a power of attorney document claiming control of the ranch. According to Fedder, Dia had not wanted her children to ever become trustees of her property. Harper stated he and Fedder plan to make the Bonita Vista Ranch into an animal reserve, and that this was also Dia’s wish.

So a couple of observations and inconsistencies we’ve run across so far.

Diana is said in all sources to be a ‘neighbor’, but Diana herself admits in an interview she doesn’t even live in the state of California.

Why would Dia have written that mysterious handwritten note: “Trustor leaves nothing but her love and affection to her son, Clinton Abrams, and daughter Crisara Abrams.” Is this insinuating that Keith Harper was supposed to get the money and the ranch?

There is also an interview with Diana Fedder in which the reporter states that the mortgage on the ranch is several months behind. Diana states that is false because she pays the bills and can prove it. The interviewer produces a petition, complete with copies of the mortgage statements stating that the mortgage is in deed past due. Diana denies it.

So it seems, with Dia out of the picture, Keith and Diana have taken up the operation of the ranch. Isidro says that Keith even commented to him, that at 70 years old, he hoped he could live five years. Five years is the length of time needed in California for someone to be declared legally dead, and the time frame Keith needs to be able to lay claim to Dia’s estate- worth millions.

Keith finally also went to the media, perhaps as an attempt to take pressure off him and why he wasn’t talking much, but his interview grew a lot of criticism.

So I’m curious- what do you think? Do you think Diana and Keith were in cahoots on the whole thing?

Do you think the kids are innocent, or are they possibly involved as well?

How does a wealthy, millionaire woman with lots of friends and employees, just vanish into thin air?

Let’s narrow down the theories.

#1: Dia walked off. Maybe she became one of the famous ‘Idyllwild missing hikers’. She certainly disappeared in the right area and at the right time frame. And Keith would even mention this during an interview. Maybe she just went for a walk, and something happened to her. But why couldn’t they find any signs of her? Did she happen to just hike off into the most obscure area?

Maybe she just had enough of all the bickering and court battles and just left to start fresh. The hard part about this theory is that there was no cash missing, no documents taken, no activity on credit cards or bank statements, and no social security card use.

#2: Dia met with foul play at the hands of her children. There is a group of people who believe this to be the case. It’s hard to nail this one down as a yay or nay, because of the lack of information we do have. Even the information on their relationship has been inconsistent, and the daughter, Crisara, hasn’t even spoken out publicly regarding her mother.

It’s really hard to believe the battle could have been that extreme- but as I said before, money does seem to bring out the worst in people.

#3. Dia met with foul play at the hands of alleged fiance Keith Harper. I think everyone can agree the guy is a bit of an odd duck. But that doesn’t necessarily make someone a killer. I wish we knew more about the evidence they collected, but this investigation has been going on for just over a year, and he has never been named a suspect.

His behavior with Diana Fedder is also bizarre to me, and Diana herself also seems a bit off.

And the guy certainly has a history of violence against women.

So as of the current day, Dia Abrams is still missing. Crisara and Clinton are petitioning the court to have a neutral third party put in charge of the ranch and Dia’s estate, as it is currently being managed by Keith Harper and Diana Fedder.

Keith says he intends to manage the ranch and turn it into an animal reserve, as Dia would have wanted. He continues to live on the ranch, and after 5 years have passed, he can inherit the property.

A lot of people are being dragged through the mud here- and I don’t think all of them are guilty. I hope answers can be found so everyone can have peace- mostly Dia herself.

So what do you think happened to Dia Abrams? Where is she?

Dia was last seen on June 6, 2020. She was 65 at the time of her disappearance. She is described as a Caucasian female with blonde hair and blue eyes, 5’5'’ tall and 130 pounds. She was wearing a black and turquoise windbreaker jacket, a yellow shirt, and blue jeans.

If you have any information about the whereabouts of Lydia ‘Dia’ Abrams, please call the Riverside County Sheriff’s Office 951–955–2450.