Neal Forrest King

Title

The Vanishing of Neal Forrest King: A McAllen Man's Fatal Journey into California's Marijuana Trade

Author

Benjamin Hayes

Publication Date

September 9, 2025

A Texas Dreamer's California Venture

Neal Forrest King was a 21-year-old man from McAllen, Texas who moved to Butte County, California to venture into the new, fast-growing business of legal marijuana. Like many young Americans drawn to California's marijuana boom in the early 2010s, Neal saw an opportunity for quick money and a chance to reinvent himself far from his hometown in the Rio Grande Valley.

According to his mother, Gayle Cunningham King, he struggled in school with attention-deficit disorder and wanted to try a new business venture. The $30,000 legal settlement he received before his move provided the seed money for what would become a profitable but ultimately dangerous enterprise.

Neal traveled to California with his girlfriend Jeanette Tully and another friend named Richard Cho. Upon arrival in the Golden State, the trio purchased a house on 12 acres of land. What his family back in Texas didn't know was that their son was about to become deeply involved in California's illegal marijuana trade.

Building an Empire in the Emerald Triangle

Chico, Oroville and the surrounding areas were to be the hub for his marijuana enterprise. According to police, enterprise was no exaggeration. The region where Neal chose to operate was part of California's famous Emerald Triangle, an area that had become synonymous with marijuana cultivation long before legalization became a reality.

Butte County Sheriff's Detective Jay Freeman said Richard Cho was Neal King's equal partner in business. The two men were among scores of traffickers who flourished in an exploding marijuana trade. Their operation quickly grew beyond simple cultivation.

Within three years, Neal King and Cho amassed nearly a dozen properties. Some allegedly were for growing pot. Others were bought and sold for real estate profit. The scope of their operation was impressive for two young men who had arrived in California with limited resources.

In California's illegal drug trade, he quickly went from college dropout to a leader in what police said was a sophisticated and highly profitable drug-smuggling operation. The operation "kept getting bigger and bigger every year," Freeman said. "They were buying more property and would grow a large amount of marijuana on various pieces of property and would transport that marijuana to Texas and double their profits."

The Fateful Meeting

By March 2013, Neal's world was becoming increasingly complex. After three years in California, King told his mother that he was beginning to wrap things up. "So, I started feeling like OK, things are going to change and he's going to be home," she said. His mother had no idea that her son was deeply involved in illegal activities that would soon cost him his life.

One of the connections Neal King made was Donald Cheatham Jr., owner of Amazon Garden Supply in Oroville. "Neal would go into Don's shop quite often to purchase supplies," Tully said. "He was the go-to person in the area for setting up farms."

In the spring of 2013, the two men struck a deal where Cheatham would buy some property on Old Olive Highway from King in exchange for 160 pounds of marijuana. This arrangement would prove to be Neal's undoing.

King had given him half the amount by the time of his disappearance, but complained to his girlfriend that Cheatham was not holding up his end of the deal. The business relationship had become strained, and tensions were mounting between the two men.

The Day Everything Changed

King was last seen in the 4000 block of Hilldale Avenue in Oroville, California sometime between 11:30 a.m. and 7:00 p.m. on March 26, 2013. It was a Tuesday morning when Neal left his home to meet with Donald Cheatham for what should have been a routine business transaction.

On the day he went missing, King went to have a meeting with Cheatham. His girlfriend became concerned when he didn't return home by evening, and drove to Cheatham's house. When she saw King's pickup truck parked out front, she assumed he must be there and went home again.

The next day brought more alarming developments. The next day, when King still hadn't arrived home, his girlfriend returned to Cheatham's house. King's vehicle was still parked in the same spot, when she knocked on the door, Cheatham refused to come to the door. He spoke to her through the wall and said King wasn't there and he hadn't seem him all day, and that he was looking for him too.

King's girlfriend didn't report him missing until March 29, because she thought he might have been arrested. This delay would prove crucial, as precious time was lost in the critical early hours of the investigation.

The Investigation Unfolds

Tully reported Neal King's disappearance to Chico police. The case was ultimately transferred to the Butte County Sheriff's Office, which did not start actively investigating until after the Easter holiday. "Because she reported him [missing] to another agency, that further delayed time," Jason Hail, a spokesman for Butte County Sheriff's Office, told HuffPost.

When authorities finally began their investigation, they quickly identified Donald Cheatham as a person of interest. When questioned by police, Cheatham said he and King had conducted a business transaction in Berry Creek, and after that he dropped King off in a remote area at Oro-Quincy Highway and never saw him again.

Cellphone records indicated that King's phone was within an eight-mile radius of Berry Creek on the night of March 26. However, The location where Neal was supposedly dropped off is "basically in the middle of nowhere," Tully said.

Authorities were suspicious of his story and searched Cheatham's residence, finding a stolen gun, 120 pounds of marijuana and $59,000 in cash. The discovery painted a picture of a man deeply involved in illegal activities, but none of the evidence directly connected him to Neal's disappearance.

Evidence and Charges

Cheatham and his wife were charged with receiving stolen property, cultivating marijuana and possessing it for sale. None of the charges were related to King's actual disappearance. The legal system struggled to find concrete evidence linking Cheatham to whatever had happened to Neal.

In March 2014, the charges against Cheatham's wife were dismissed and he himself was acquitted of everything except one misdemeanor count of marijuana possession; Cheatham had an authorization to use marijuana for medical purposes, but wasn't allowed to have more than an ounce at a time.

The investigation revealed the complex web of relationships in Neal's marijuana operation. The partnership between Cho and King reportedly became strained in the months prior to King's disappearance, according to accounts by King's brother and girlfriend. Under a grant of immunity, King's girlfriend told police King began entering marijuana agreements with Cheatham without Cho's knowledge.

A Person of Interest Meets His End

Cheatham has been named as a person of interest in King's case. However, in November 2019, he and another man were shot to death in Klamath Falls, Oregon, and a third man was injured. Gillian Bradley has been charged with second-degree murder, attempted murder and other offenses in connection with the shooting.

With Cheatham's death, any hope of learning the truth about what happened to Neal King seemed to die with him. The man who investigators believed held the key to solving Neal's disappearance would never be able to provide answers to the grieving family.

The Family's Heartbreak

King's mother, Gayle King, described her son's disappearance as inexplicable. "Neal was a kind person and an amazing son," she said. "That's just how he was. He had strong family values. Family for him was everything."

March 26 was the last time Jeanette Tully, King's girlfriend of six years, saw him. "It's so painful, and I don't think the pain will ever go away," Tully told The Huffington Post. "I'm 25, and I was ready to spend rest of my life with him. Our love was true, honest and pure."

Gayle King and Tully speak of Neal in the past tense. For them, there is little hope he is still alive. The circumstances of his disappearance do not suggest otherwise, and both are unwilling to invest their emotions in false hope.

The Ongoing Mystery

King's family made contact with the Butte County Sheriff's Office, who believe the case may be more sinister. "Based on evidence located, detectives opined Neal's disappearance was likely the result of foul play," the Butte County Sheriff's Office said in a statement.

Since his disappearance there hasn't been any activity on his cellular phone or bank accounts. An examination of his truck turned up no clues. Neal King had simply vanished without a trace.

The case highlighted the dangerous underbelly of California's marijuana boom. People "move out here [because they] see the opportunity to make a lot of money in a short period of time," Freeman said. "It's pretty enticing for a young kid to grow marijuana and make a hundred thousand in a couple months. In Neal King's case, that's how he started."

A Life Cut Short

On a cold March morning in 2013, the 24-year-old vanished in an area featured in the Netflix documentary series "Murder Mountain." The region's reputation for violence and missing persons cases would later gain national attention, but for Neal's family, the statistics meant nothing compared to their personal loss.

Neal has been missing since March 26th, 2013 at 11 am in Oroville, California. There are over 33 people missing from Butte County, pop 250,000. Neal King became another statistic in a county where disappearances were tragically common.

The case of Neal Forrest King serves as a sobering reminder of how quickly dreams of easy money can turn into nightmares. A young man from McAllen who sought a better life in California's marijuana trade instead found himself entangled in a dangerous world where violence was often the price of doing business. Today, more than a decade later, his family continues to search for answers while his body has never been found.

His story reflects the broader dangers faced by many who sought fortunes in California's illegal marijuana trade before legalization. For every success story, there were others like Neal King who paid the ultimate price for their ambitions. His disappearance remains an open case with the Butte County Sheriff's Office, though with the primary person of interest now deceased, the likelihood of ever learning the truth grows dimmer with each passing year.

Sources

Benjamin Hayes

Benjamin Hayes is a blogger with a passion for true crime and unresolved mysteries. In his free time, Benjamin is an avid hiker and photographer. He finds solace and inspiration in nature, often trekking through the scenic trails of the Appalachian Mountains.