She had been sexually assaulted, hogtied with clothesline and strangled. Most importantly I want to thank the Cutshall and Allen families, who have consistently been supportive and patient during this 13 year investigation. Detectives considered Gallon a suspect for 13 years before he was publicly named as the gunman. Some investigators also rule Bundy out as a suspect because they think the killer probably lived in the Santa Rosa area and only a local man, perhaps someone who worked as a mail carrier or a public utility worker, would have been familiar with the remote, rural locations where the victims were recovered. Detective Rick Oliver told the local media that the crime scene reminded him of the Walsh slaying, and he also noted that Jane Does killer had removed all of her clothing. A young woman named "Lisa Smith", which is a common name, was hitchhiking on March 26, 1971 and was picked up by a male driver. The rifle is uncommon, considered too high caliber for most ranchers, and most likely would have required hand loaded ammunition. On Sunday, March 5, two high school students, 17-year-olds John Bly and Scott Bunting, found Allens nude body in a creek bed near Santa Rosa. [2] A possible witness to her abduction later came forward stating that on an evening somewhere between December 3 and 9, 1972, while on Parkhurst Drive, he saw two men walking with a young girl. Maureen, 12, and Yvonne, 13, were friends and students at Herbert Slater Middle School in Santa Rosa. Indeed, by the decades midpoint, FBI profiler Robert Ressler had coined the term serial killer after conducting several interviews with the likes of Herb Mullin, Edmund Kemper, and Monte Rissell. Author Robert Graysmith put forward the idea that the Santa Rosa killer was really San Franciscos Zodiac Killer. The cause of her death was strychnine poisoning 10 to 14 days before discovery. [3] Allen was also carrying a soy barrel with red Chinese characters painted on the outside. On March 4, 1972, at 5:00 PM, Allen left her job at a health food store in Larkspur to attend a night class. 2012 . waldo kansas city homes for sale. All of the hospital and law enforcement records related to the case were missing by 2011 and authorities announced their intention to find both Lisa Michelle Smith and the young woman calling herself "Lisa Smith" or someone who knew them. Each of the women and girls were killed somewhere else and dumped around Santa Rosa. In the 1980s, former county coroner Tom Siebe told the Press Democrat a middle-aged married man who died in a car accident in the mid-1970s was their prime suspect. Her cause of death was determined to be spinal cord trauma, possibly from jumping or being pushed out of a moving vehicle. All told, it had taken 30 minutes for Allen to expire. Following a small snowstorm on Thursday, December 28, 1972, both bodies were found 3.5 kilometers (2.2 mi) from the rural Porter Creek Road, located in the Franz Valley Road area. In the decades since 1979, several high-profile names have been suggested as to the identity of the Santa Rosa murderer. One Year Anniversary of the Unsolved Murder of 15-Year-Old Devin Griffiths. At that time, Allen not only lived in Santa Rosa but was also supposedly studying chipmunks as a hobby. Her family, who still believed Carolyn was hitchhiking around the state, submitted her dental records when they learned an unidentified teenagers body was found in Sonoma County. Lisa Michele Smith, 17, was last seen hitchhiking on Hearn Avenue in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California and her disappearance was never solved. He works as a freelance writer and has been published in The Weekly Standard, The Atlantic, Listverse, and other publications. The . Bundy was known to drive hundreds of miles to commit a murder. Gallon's motive for the killings of the couple and his brother have not yet been ascertained. Rosa Vasquez, 20, last seen May 26; her body was found on May 29, 1973. [27] One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19-years-old. It was not clear whether this occurred on the day the girls went missing.[34][35]. One of the killers oldest victims, Theresa Walsh, died at the age of 23. I'd like to a take moment to thank the other law enforcement agencies who assisted on this investigation over the years: The Santa Rosa Police Department, Federal Bureau of Investigation, Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms, California State Parks and the California Department of Justice. And when they called the police, no one yet knew that the search for a killer now spanning five decades and counting had just begun. The witness saw the men run across the road with the girl and push her into the back of a van that had been parked on the side of the roadway. 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Fiften-year-old Kerry Graham (left above) and 14-year-old Francine Trimble (right above), both of Forestville, California, went missing sometime in December 1978. Classmates of the girls were questioned about their whereabouts at school the following No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. Lori had a history of running away, and it was believed she initially left of her own volition to stay with friends in Santa Rosa. Between 1972 and 1973, one of Resslers monsters traveled the roads of Santa Rosa, California, looking for unsuspecting victims. And the dedication of all the lieutenants, sergeants, detectives, and support personnel of Sheriff's Office Investigations throughout the years has totally amazed us. The victim had not been raped and likely died one to two weeks prior to discovery. If you haven't seen David Fincher's film Zodiac, you should. On that day, two middle school students, Maureen Sterling (left above) and Yvonne Weber (right above), went missing. Almost an entire year would go by before Sterling and Webers bodies were found. Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! As was so often the case in the 1970s, police officers believed that the girls were runaways. She is believed to have been between 16 and 21 when she was killed, had red, auburn or brown hair, was 5-foot-3 and wore hard contact lenses. Michelle . Camo beer originates in Wisconsin, is no longer made, and is an uncommon beer in California. The Black Dahlia. Juan Valencia told SFGATE in a statement. A California deputy stopped a van with 2 corpses inside. She was due to start a photography class at UC Berkeley the next day. Her biological parents then located her shortly afterwards and took her back to their home in Livermore, California, according to the article, which quoted a juvenile officer from the sheriffs office.[31]. A true crime magazine, Front Page Detective, published an article in September 1975 linking the Santa Rosa murders with the Zodiac Killer and witchcraft. Jeannette was a 20-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College student; she was last seen trying to hitch a ride near the Cotati onramp of Highway 101 on April 25, 1972. A few weeks later, between 6 a.m. and noon on March 24, the killer dropped her personal checkbook into a drive-up mailbox across from the Kentfield post office; two fingerprints on the checkbook may have been the killers, the Press Democrat reported at the time. Hard contact lenses were not often sold in the United States and Canada after the mid-1970s, when soft contact lenses became available. Her grandmother drove the 15-year-old girl to the downtown district of Garberville on July 15, 1973, and parked in front of the post office, which was located two city blocks away from Highway 101. Many claim to have spotted a beautiful woman in ghostly blue, and legend has it that she was murdered while walking up to the restaurant. [13] The girl had a single wire loop in each earlobe, but the rest of the earrings were missing and were not found at the scene. But the M.O. We know that we have miles to go before the case is closed with a conviction, but we also know the power and wonder of God's grace. [7] The cause of death could not be determined[4] from the skeletal remains. The press conference was held at the Sheriff's Office building at 2796 Ventura Avenue in Santa Rosa. before heading to Jenner", "SONOMA COUNTY / Weapon IDd, but not found, in Jenner slayings / Officials say couple killed with Marlin hunting rifle", "DNA test for man eyed in Jenner beach slayings", "DNA doesn't implicate man in Jenner killing", "Tantalizing clues in pair's slaying / Sonoma County sheriff releases evidence that he hopes will stir people's memories in killing of 2 vacationing campers on secluded beach", "Sonoma County survivalist charged with mysterious killings on Jenner beach", Sonoma County Sheriff's Department's Jenner Homicide Investigation Update May 2006, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=2004_Jenner,_California,_double_murder&oldid=1111203479, 3 life terms w/o parole (consecutive) + 94 years, This page was last edited on 19 September 2022, at 20:57. Another possible victim of the Santa Rosa killer, 17-year-old Lisa Smith of Petaluma, had been abducted not long after hitchhiking on Hearn Avenue in Santa Rosa. She appeared to be heading north carrying two bags. No off-topic remarks. She is buried in Pacific Grove. Shell casings were not found at the scene of the crime, suggesting the killer retrieved them. Three days after Christmas 1972, their bones were found by two teenage hikers near Franz Valley Road. Witnesses also reported seeing Cutshall's 1992 red Ford Tempo in the towns of Guerneville, Sebastopol, Forestville, and Jenner before the murders. Her left earlobe had not been pierced. She was initially reported missing from Petaluma, California, by her foster parents on March 16, 1971 after she was last seen hitchhiking a short distance away from her foster home, along Hearn Avenue, at around 7 p.m. At the time, she was wearing a white blouse with ruffles, a dark pea coat, green bell-bottom jeans, and cowboy boots. Lori, just 13, was reported missing by her mother in November 1972. No additional information was provided until the press conference. Police thought two fingerprints on the checkbook might belong to the killer. [4], Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen grew up in the Midwestern United States. This is a list of notable male murderers who committed their murders in California, USA. In 1975, the FBI issued an official report entitled Unsolved Female HomicidesAn Analysis of a Series of Related Murders in California and Western America. The report asserted that 14 unsolved homicides between 1972 and 1974 had been committed by one killer. The Winchester Mystery House is a mansion in San Jose, California which was once the personal residence of Sarah Winchester, the widow of gun magnate William Wirt Winchester. Get Started Now He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. It was identified as an occult symbol dating back to medieval England and suggested a possible connection to the Zodiac Killer. [32] Authorities now believe that Lisa Smith was never found and that the woman also known as "Lisa Smith" was a different woman who had been incorrectly identified as the missing adolescent. ", I will now take some questionsand while I want to be as transparent as possible, please understand that I don't want to jeopardize the continued investigation and prosecution of this case, so I will not be answering any questions that might disclose information that should be saved for the courtroom. For more about the Napa County Cold Case Investigation Unit, please see Cold Case Unit Investigates Unsolved Deaths and Nine Cold Cases Could Still Be Solved. For that reason, we are releasing a photo of Shaun Gallon. Trimbles mother reported her missing to police within a few days when she had not returned home. ", "Secret Witness - Officials seek killer of woman", https://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/strychnine_killed_caroline.pdf, "Is he Zodiak? 2012. No known connection to him between Lindsay Cutshall or Jason Allen has been uncovered yet either. Graysmith noted that some of the Zodiacs later letters contained Chinese-like characters similar to the ones found on the barrel carried by Kim Allen on the day of her death. He had information about the killings that no other person could have known and we have located evidence that corroborates his information. [55][57], After his capture for similar crimes in Washington, Colorado, Utah and Idaho,[63] Ted Bundy was suspected in the murders. She, like so many other victims, was last seen hitchhiking on Highway 101 near the town of Cotati. The VCI unit is responsible for the investigation of a wide variety of serious incidents including assaults, robberies, kidnapping, weapons violations, missing persons and hate crimes. In 2019 Shaun Gallon was sentenced to life in prison for the murders. The Sonoma County Sheriff's Office held a press conference on Friday, May 5, 2017, regarding major developments in the 2004 Jenner double murder case. Lori Lee Kursa, Carolyn Davis, Maureen Sterling, Therese Walsh, Kim Wendy Allen and Yvonne Weber, the victims of the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murderer. Davis would not be seen again until her corpse was discovered on July 31. [1] Resslers in-depth penetration into the minds of sexual sociopaths lead him to become the worlds foremost expert on murder. This victim has yet to be identified. Nearly two decades after Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen were shot to death sleeping on a Jenner Beach, Sonoma County prosecutors charged Shaun Michael Gallon. All of the victims were found nude in rural areas near steep embankments or in creek beds near roads. The Winchester Mystery House. [4] Two people later called in tips to the police about possible sightings of Kursa. The pair, both aged 12 and students at Herbert Slater Middle School, spent their last night alive hanging out at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. . and Bundys locations didnt match, and he was ruled out. [23] High water marks contemporaneous with heavy rains in the area suggested the body could have drifted several miles. No definitive links were ever made. Before he died, he confessed to raping and killing at least 27 other women throughout the. February 4, 1972, proved to be a tragic day in Sonoma County, California. Jeannette Kamahele, a 20-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College student,[33] was last seen on April 25, 1972, hitchhiking near the Cotati on-ramp of Highway 101. Camping on a state beach is technically illegal, but the 20-something couple didn't have a lot of other options. Type: Murder Victim Date: 5/18/2002 Name: Carol Guillen Sex: F Eyes: Brown Hair: Black Race: Hispanic Vehicle: Black, 1999 Honda Civic, 4-door, CA License # 4FSG574 Reward: $5,000. [14], Location of shooting (red map pin) within Sonoma County (shown in green), Last edited on 19 September 2022, at 20:57, "Timeline: Who is the lone suspect in Jenner beach murders? the deaths never accounted for or answered for, justice elusive. Initially, Jane Doe was suspected of being the remains of Jeanette Kamahele, but DNA tests in 2009 ruled that out. The Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders remain some of the Bay Area's most baffling unsolved crimes. Some of these unsolved cases include the murder of 20-year-old Rosa Vasquez, who had been strangled and dumped in some shrubs near Golden Gate Park in San Francisco; 15-year-old Yvonne Quilantang, who was strangled to death while she was seven months pregnant; 14-year-old Donna M. Braun, who had been strangled to death and dumped in the Salinas River; and 24-year-old Nancy Patricia Gidley, who had been strangled to death 24 hours before her body was found behind George Washington High School in San Francisco. Benjamin Welton is a West Virginia native currently living in Boston. The sheriff pegged it as an obvious suicide, even though the dead guy didn't seem troubled and was about to take a walk along the railroad tracks with his brother and niece. On May 17, 2018, Gallon was officially charged with the murders. [1][64] A 2011 San Francisco Chronicle article noted that the dates of the credit card receipts show there would have been enough time for Bundy to drive to California, commit the crimes, and then drive back to Washington. Homicide detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department launched an investigation into the deaths. Her body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek in Sonoma County. [26][27] The victim had been hogtied[28] and her arm fractured around the time of her murder,[25][29] and her corpse had been stuffed into a laundry or duffel bag before being dumped in the ravine,[27] but there was no other evidence to establish a cause of death. [20] The symbol was located on the roadway above the site where Davis was found. [2], Santa Rosa Junior College art student[8] Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972,[7] from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods[9] to San Rafael. More recently, the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office announced it was looking into Jack Alexander Bokin; Bokin was linked to a cold case murder in 1996 with new DNA technology. Public assistance is vital to law enforcement, and rewards may encourage the public cooperation needed to . The girls also mentioned to Grahams sister that they planned to go to a party, but she did not recall further details. Assistance is vital to law enforcement, and Yvonne, 13, reported! Several high-profile names have been suggested as to the identity of the,. She did not recall further details age of 23 to police within a few days when she had returned... Was really San Franciscos Zodiac killer killed somewhere else and dumped around Santa Rosa murders... 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