Believing herself to be ravishing and desiring a name signifying her beauty, Esterbell White changed her name to Astarte, after the Phoenician goddess of love and fertility. Her ego was further boosted when wealthy businessman Jim Rice left his wife to wed her. Their sixteen years together were turbulent and marked by several separations. Perhaps Astarte did love Jim for some or part of that time, but her true love was his money, and she resorted to deception, fraud, and possibly murder in her efforts to obtain it.

Jim Rice called his daughter on July 20, 1986, and made arrangements to meet with her the following week. He never arrived as scheduled and was never seen again.

Astarte Davis-Rice has served three stints in prison on various fraud charges, but many believe the shady lady has successfully covered her ultimate crime.

Astarte And Jim Rice

Jim Rice had been a standout football player at the University of Puget Sound, in Tacoma, Washington. Afterwards, he was successful both in battle and in business, becoming a decorated bomber pilot during World War II and then accumulating over $2 million through his construction business.

Young Jim

Shortly after divorcing her third husband in 1970, thirty-seven-year-old Astarte Davis began working as Jim’s bookkeeper. The forty-nine-year-old was smitten with the gregarious and attractive younger woman. They soon married in Reno, Nevada, but it was not legally recognized because Jim had not officially divorced his estranged wife.

Astarte moved into Jim’s plush Danville, California, home, twenty miles east of Oakland. In 1979, they moved to Kona, Hawaii, on the western coast of Oahu island, where they started a fishing business.

Astarte had three grown sons from her first marriage; Jim had a grown daughter from his marriage.

Astarte Snags The Wealthy Jim

Noble Davis was visiting his mother on the island in January 1981 while Jim was away. At approximately 3:00 a.m. on the morning of January 8, neighbors were awakened by an explosion. Upon arriving at the Rice home, they found the couple’s fifty-five-foot charter fishing boat, the Blue Hawaii, ablaze. Three other nearby boats were also damaged.

Noble sustained several serious injuries but recovered. Astarte was uninjured; she said she was near the dock at the time of the explosion.

After recovering from his wounds, Noble told investigators he was cleaning the boat when it inexplicably exploded. Officials were skeptical; cleaning a boat at 3:00 in the morning did not seem a likely mother-son ritual.

Noble Davis

Astarte’s Son

Investigators’ suspicions were further fueled when they learned there was a large debt on the boat; they were inflamed when they found a gasoline can aboard the boat. Evidence indicated the fire was arson, set in an attempt to collect the insurance money.

Wreckage Of The Blue Hawaii

Following the boating incident, Jim learned of Astarte’s checkered past. She had served five weeks in jail and was given probation in 1969 after being convicted of embezzling from a San Rafael, California, company where she had been a bookkeeper. She had also attempted to claim ownership of property that was not hers and to pass checks in her estranged husband’s name.

Jim and Astarte ended their fishing business, sold their Hawaiian home, and separated. Each returned to California.

The Couple Split

For unexplained reasons, Astarte and Noble, who also resided in California, were never extradited to Hawaii to stand trial on the insurance fraud charges.

Mother And Son

Astarte filed for bankruptcy in April 1981. The following year, she was charged with lying about her assets during the bankruptcy proceedings in an effort to avoid payment of her debts, and with writing bad checks in purchasing over $20,000 worth of jewelry at the Shreve & Co. store in Walnut Creek, California. She pled guilty, was fined $1,000, and sentenced to ten months in federal prison.

Astarte’s First Prison Stint

Although separated, Jim frequently visited the incarcerated Astarte. Just as she had wooed him from his wife twelve years earlier, Astarte again seemed to have a spell over the normally astute businessman as she convinced him she had mended her ways. Jim took her back following her release in 1983.

The following year, the reconnected Rices moved across the country and beyond to St. Croix in the Virgin Islands where, with Jim’s money, they built a home on a bluff overlooking the Caribbean Sea. Jim also purchased another boat and built houses on five other lots he owned.

The couple’s time in the Pacific had ended in disappointment, but Jim believed the Atlantic would see their rebirth of happiness. Instead, it brought mystery and likely death.

The Rices Reconcile

And Move To The Atlantic

On July 20, 1986, Jim telephoned his daughter, Kathleen Clements, saying arrangements had been finalized and that he would be flying to San Francisco for shoulder surgery the following week. Kathleen lived in the bay area and planned to have her father stay with her as he recovered from the operation.

Jim expressed anger that Astarte had refused to accompany him on the trip, saying she had too many things to tend. Although she did not like Astarte and dreaded being in her company, Kathleen was also angry that her stepmother would not make the time to be with her father following his major surgery.

Jim planned to arrive at Kathleen’s home on July 29. The date came and went, however, with no word from Jim, as did the date of his scheduled surgery.

Kathleen Clements

Jim’s Daughter

Following two weeks of multiple failed attempts to contact her father, Kathleen finally reached Astarte in St. Croix. She initially told Kathleen that her father had run off with a woman from Australia; when Kathleen phoned again two days later, however, Astarte claimed she had been instead been dumped for a St. Croix woman who was now living with Jim in Miami.

Later, Astarte denied making either of the claims and said she did not know what happened to her common-law husband.

Astarte’s Stories

Kathleen hired Private Investigator Dennis Sheraw to look into her father’s disappearance. He came across a Customs Declaration dated July 28, the day before Jim was to arrive in California. His signature appeared to have been forged on the form.

Sheraw’s investigation found that it was made to appear that Jim had flown from St. Croix to Miami on July 28. The airline tickets had been purchased in his name, but Sheraw determined the individuals who had flown on the flight were Astarte, her son Noble, and his girlfriend.

Sheraw also determined that on July 21, the day after Jim spoke with his daughter and eight days before he was to arrive in San Francisco, Astarte had fraudulently filed papers giving her power-of-attorney over Jim’s estate. Jim’s original power-of-attorney was in Kathleen’s name; Astarte had done a cut-and-paste job and inserted her name in its place.

Astarte had attempted to pass the bulk of Jim’s estate to her through forging checks and property titles, and attempting to embezzle $200,000 in Certificates of Deposits (COD’s) from Houston’s Guardian Savings Bank.

More Of Astarte’s Shenanigans

Several people who lived near the Rices also told investigators that Astarte and Noble had held a garage sale, also on July 21, the day after Jim had phoned Kathleen. Nearly all of Jim’s personal assets, including his vehicles, cement mixer, and construction gear, as well as nearly all of the couple’s furniture, were sold at bargain prices.

One attendee, who did not know Jim or Astarte, told investigators he made an exceptionally low-ball offer to Astarte on Jim’s truck, expecting to begin the dickering process. To his shocked delight, Astarte promptly accepted the offer.

All Of Jim’s Things Must Go

Private Investigator Sheraw concluded Jim Rice likely learned of Astarte’s deceptive efforts to gain his money during the twelve-hour time period between when he called Kathleen on July 20 and the following morning when the documents were presented to the notaries.

What happened to him during this time is unknown.

Jim Disappears

In November, four months after she last spoke to her father, Kathleen received a typewritten letter sent from Australia. It was signed in Jim’s name, but his signature again appeared to be forged.

Another telling discrepancy was the typing mistake “Iam” instead of “I am” found in several passages in the letter. This was a common grammatical error made by Astarte.

The “Iam” Letter

In January 1989, two-and-a-half years after Jim Rice’s disappearance and several months after he was declared legally dead, Astarte was charged with bank and mail fraud and filing a false deed conveying her husband’s St. Croix home and undeveloped lots to her on July 21, 1986, the day after Jim telephoned Kathleen.

In December 1988, a St. Croix court sentenced Astarte to house arrest pending her trial. She did not arrive for a pretrial hearing on September 1, 1989, and disappeared.

Shortly thereafter, Astarte sent a letter to the Contra Costa Times saying she fled and was in hiding because she was being framed for Jim’s disappearance. She denied any involvement or any knowledge of his whereabouts.

Astarte Absconds

In March 1991, while Astarte was a fugitive, Noble Davis was arrested in Hawaii on drug and burglary charges. He pled guilty to aiding his mother in embezzling from Jim Rice’s estate and to corrupting a grand jury witness slated to testify against her.

I could not find what sentence he received or if he was convicted on the drug and burglary charges.

Noble In Name Only

Two months later, Astarte was arrested in Santa Barbara, California, where she was working, under an alias, again as a bookkeeper. However, her old tricks had done her in as her employer, general contractor William Dalziel, had contacted authorities after determining she had embezzled from him. Several area older men subsequently told authorities Astarte attempted to initiate relationships with them; one said she became irate after he refused to marry her.

Under the terms of a plea deal, Astarte Davis-Rice pled guilty to bank and passport fraud in the United States and in St. Croix as well as to eight charges of embezzling from Jim Rice’s estate. In exchange, forty other fraud charges were dropped.

Astarte was sentenced to fifteen years in prison. She also received a concurrent three-year prison sentence for embezzling from her Santa Barbara employer. She served the first portion of her sentence at a medium security facility in California.

Back To The Slammer

In 1997, after six years of good behavior, Astarte was transferred to the minimum security Federal Correctional Institution in Dublin, California, twenty miles southeast of Oakland.

On August 7, 1998, she simply walked away.

Astarte Escapes

Astarte Davis-Rice eluded re-capture for four years. In 2002, investigators received a tip that she was living in Spokane, Washington. She had had plastic surgery to alter her appearance, but fingerprints confirmed her identity. The shady lady was again working as a bookkeeper for another contractor, Steve Spady, under the name June Thorne, but she also had credit cards under the name June White, and the name on her driver’s license was Shira White. It was also learned that she had applied for credit using a deceased man’s social security number.

The fugitive was returned to Dublin Prison to complete the nine remaining years of her sentence plus two additional years for the escape. She served eight years and was released in 2010.

Final Mugshot?

Authorities believe Jim Rice’s remains likely lie in the Caribbean waters. Astarte Davis-Rice, now ninety-one-years-old, remains the prime suspect in his disappearance. Without a body, however, authorities do not have enough evidence to charge her.

I believe Astarte Davis-Rice is still living. In “True People Search” I found a listing for her as residing in Sacramento.

Did Astarte End Jim’s Life?

Before being acquired by Jim and Astarte Rice, the Blue Hawaii fishing boat had been the subject of a noted legal dispute.

A man named Rope Nelson, who had chartered and captained the boat, sued Lee Marvin in October 1974, claiming the noted actor had reneged on an oral agreement to transfer full title of the vessel to Nelson after Marvin used it a tax write-off. A month later, Marvin countersued Nelson for an unpaid loan and for possession of the craft.

In 1976, A Circuit Court awarded Marvin 70% ownership of the Blue Hawaii  and 30% to Nelson, who was also ordered to pay Marivn $3,500. Marvin, however, was also ordered to make good on the back pay he owed Nelson for running the charter.

A Frequently Contested Boat

Rope Nelson also testified against Lee Marvin at his noted “palimony” trial, instigated by his former live-in girlfriend, Michelle Triola.

Nelson later purchased the full ownership of the Blue Hawaii, which, several years later, was at the center of another litigation dispute between Nelson and Jim and Astarte Rice.  The boat was ultimately awarded to the Rices; I could not find the details of how it came into their possession.

Rope Nelson

SOURCES:

• America’s Most Wanted
• Contra Costa Times
• Honolulu-Star Bulletin
• Los Angeles Times
• News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington)
• Oakland Tribune
• Press Democrat (Santa Rosa, California)
• Sacramento Bee
• San Francisco Chronicle
• Spokane Spokesman-Review
• Unsolved Mysteries