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. Both Cutshall and Allen were killed with a .45-caliber Marlin rifle as they slept in their sleeping bags on the beach. Police thought it was suicide, but friends are sure it's murder, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). Her body was discovered in a park in Los Angeles and her death has been publicized repeatedly, mostly because of how particularly gruesome the murder was. Since camping on the beach is illegal, it is unlikely the couple planned to camp for more than one night.[5]. [5], Both Cutshall and Allen were counselors at Rock-N-Water, a Christian summer camp in El Dorado County, California. 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. She was carrying the barrel, which had red Chinese characters on it, when she was last seen hitchhiking near a ramp to northbound Highway 101 in San Rafael. [22], On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine[16] off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards (91m) from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. Reports also stated that the van was noticeably damaged on one side and that the driver was a white male with a Afro-like hairstyle.[5]. On May 17, 2018, Gallon was officially charged with the murders. A pathologist determined her probable date of death was July 20, 1973, five days after her grandmother had last seen her. UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: DNA analysis has helped investigators piece together many of the crimes, but others remain a mystery. [4] Both girls, like other young people in that era, often hitchhiked. (Gallon in fact led them to a soda can with the two bullit casings). Camping is prohibited on the rural stretch of beach where Cutshall and Allen met their deaths, but drifters and hitchhikers on State Route 1 (which runs alongside Fish Head Beach) are known to use the oceanfront site for sleeping. This victim has yet to be identified. In the kidnapping of Lori Kursa, the public was asked to look for a white man with an Afro-hair style driving a white van. It was proven early on that Kursa had deliberately run away from home. 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. Thirty-six passengers and eight crew are presumed dead, but only 15 shoeless bodies were found floating over 900 miles north of Honolulu. [4] Two people later called in tips to the police about possible sightings of Kursa. A nurse at the hospital thought she looked about 21-years-old. In August of 2004, a young couple. A theory proposed by Mashable says that the coins are actually the haul from a 1901 robbery at the San Francisco Mint. Benjamin Welton is a West Virginia native currently living in Boston. All of them were wearing life jackets. Three days after Christmas 1972, their bones were found by two teenage hikers near Franz Valley Road. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. Katie Dowd is the SFGATE managing editor. And the dedication of all the lieutenants, sergeants, detectives, and support personnel of Sheriff's Office Investigations throughout the years has totally amazed us. Gallon had a history of criminal misconduct, including attempted murder with a package bomb in June 2004, a conviction for wounding a man with an arrow and allegedly killing his younger brother in March 2017. One-Year Anniversary of the Unsolved Murder of 12-Year-Old Angel Gaspar. The couple met in 2002 while Cutshall was a student at the Appalachian Bible College in West Virginia, and became engaged six weeks later. Trimble had also told her mother she intended to do some Christmas shopping at Coddingtown Mall in Santa Rosa. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office at 707-565-2650. [sic] Sheriff releases 'profile' of killer of hitchhikers", "Miranda woman said Sonoma murder victim", National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, "Zodiac Theory: Witchcraft in 30-40 Slayings", "She Wanted to Come to the City--Now She's Dead", "Brothers describe childhood horrors - Angela McAnulty's mother was killed, her father was abusive", "serial killer true crime library - California Occult Murders", "Child killer gets death - Angela McAnulty is sentenced to be executed for the torture murder of her 15-year-old daughter, Jeanette", "Angela McAnulty, Eugene woman who killed 15-year-old daughter, lands on new death row", "Zodiac Killer: The Letters - 01-29-1974", "Zodiac Killer: The Letters - 11-09-1969", "DNA seems to clear only Zodiac suspect / new-found evidence may allow genetic profile of '60s killer", "Affidavit For Search Warrant - 2963 Santa Rosa Avenue, space A-7 (14 September 1972)", "Former Calaveras teacher was 'Zodiac' suspect", "Sonoma County Sheriff's Office - Arthur Leigh Allen Arrest Report (30 September 1974)", "Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992", "Documentary series set to explore Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders", "The Secret Life of a Sexual Predator Crime Magazine", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Santa_Rosa_hitchhiker_murders&oldid=1141301949. Initially, it was postulated that a drifter had murdered the young couple and then left the area. While it is not confirmed Jeannette was a victim of the same serial killer, her case has many similarities to the others. New evidence including poems found near the crime scene, writings contained in a journal left for visitors inside a nearby driftwood hut, an empty 40-ounce bottle of Camo beer, and drawings inked onto pieces of driftwood near the site of the killings. Jenner Beach Double Murder Camping near the beach is one of life's great pleasures. It is . 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. Camping near thebeach is one of life's great pleasures. [4] A single earring, orange beads and a 14-carat gold necklace with cross were found at the scene. 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. Known collectively as the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders, this string of unsolved murders continues to haunt the minds of the Golden States cold case investigators. She was last seen with friends in Santa Rosa on the day of her disappearance. PRESS DEMOCRAT STAFF. "It's a horrible, senseless crime," said Margo Rohrbacher of the Central Marin Police. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. It's a pretty accurate portrayal of events and was shot locally. [1] An acquaintance who had spoken with them earlier that evening recalled in 2019 that Sterling and Weber had told her that a tall, slender man in his late-teens or early-twenties with black hair had asked them to smoke marijuana. 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. [14][15], Authorities speculated that Kursa was kidnapped, forced into the van, stripped of her clothing, and that she opened the passenger door of the speeding vehicle in an attempt to escape her captor or captors, fell or jumped or was pushed out and broke her neck in the fall into the ravine. Jamie founded Listverse due to an insatiable desire to share fascinating, obscure, and bizarre facts. Like so many of us, Kristin Modaferirelocated to the Bay Area from across the country. At 10:30 AM on May 5, 2017, Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas read the following statement regarding the 2004 Jenner double murder case: "Good morning ladies and gentlemen. However, Trimble had been prescribed some medication following the removal of her appendix, and she had left this medication in her room on the day of her disappearance. The Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders remain some of the Bay Area's most baffling unsolved crimes. Moses was last seen getting into a car with a 25- to 30-year old man in Santa Rosa on Aug. 13, 1997. The broken neck would have prevented Kursa from moving, but it would have taken some time for her to die from the injury. I loved her. [12] Camo beer originates in Wisconsin, is no longer made, and is an uncommon beer in California. No additional information will be released at this time.. In fact, a suspect was identified, but three key witnesses refused to come forward for fear of outing themselves as gay. [1] The crime remains unsolved, and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office recently asked for the public's help identifying a suspect in the case. Unsolved Murders SD Crime Stoppers. The girl, who fit Kursas description, appeared to be physically impaired in some manner, as the two men were supporting her between them. Boaters discovered her partially submerged underneath a log in Mark West Creek. Skeletal remains were found the following July in Mendocino County where they were dumped off the side of a rural highway, but they were not identified as belonging to Graham and Trimble until 2015 thanks to DNA analysis. The Black Dahlia. The cause of death could not be determined. She was last seen alive on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in the tiny resort town of Malibu, California. [13][2] Her frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet (15m) off Calistoga Road,[4] northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa. Sheriff's Office detectives are continuing to follow-up on leads and are working hard to complete the investigation. 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. [36] These consist of the six found victims as of 1975 and the following: The unapprehended Zodiac Killer is a suspect,[51] due to similarities between an unknown symbol on his January 29, 1974 "Exorcist letter" to the San Francisco Chronicle, in which he claims 37 victims,[52] and the Chinese characters on the missing soy barrel carried by Kim Allen,[53] as well as stating an intention to vary his modus operandi in an earlier November 9, 1969 letter to the San Francisco Chronicle: "I shall no longer announce to anyone. Authorities suspect it is possible that she was a possible homicide victim and that her case could have been related to the other attacks in the area during the same time period, but she disappeared months before the killings began. Modern advancements in DNA analysis have provided important clues in several cold cases throughout the country. [67], Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Jr., the Hillside Stranglers of Los Angeles, were also considered suspects at one time. Johnasen found that Kursa had been dead for one to two weeks, and he further concluded that Kursas killer had thrown her body into the ravine off Calistoga Road. She, like so many other victims, was last seen hitchhiking on Highway 101 near the town of Cotati. Bundy was known to drive hundreds of miles to commit a murder. Her killer was never caught. Finally and most importantly, we want to thank our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ for sustaining us and our families throughout this long journey. Click through our gallery above to learn more about some of the North Coast cold cases and investigations, solved and unsolved, since the 1970s. In a strange turn of events, both girls would go missing on the same day but would be reported missing on different days. The case has received considerable national attention, but the crime remained unsolved, until news given at a press conference on May 5, 2017, suggesting that authorities had solved the crime. She was due to start a photography class at UC Berkeley the next day. Police had believed the girls were runaways and had not thoroughly investigated their disappearance. [23] High water marks contemporaneous with heavy rains in the area suggested the body could have drifted several miles. Cutshall was from Fresno, Ohio and Allen was from Zeeland, Michigan. Homicide detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department launched an investigation into the deaths. This post was contributed by a community member. Shannon McAlvain, Lead Detective Joe Horsemen, Detectives Jeff Toney, Jayson Fowler and Jesse Hanshew. The Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders were a series of at least seven unsolved homicides involving female hitchhikers that took place in Sonoma County and Santa Rosa of the North Bay area of California in 1972 and 1973. [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. Police thought it was suicide, but friends are sure it's murder. Almost four years later, investigators caught a break when Fredric Manalli died in a car accident on Highway 12 in August 1976. The Sonoma County Coroner's Office estimated that the couple was slain on either the night of August 14, 2004 or in the early morning hours of August 15, 2004. The victims were both counselors at a Northern California Christian camp and hoped to rent a room nearby, but couldn't find one. A California deputy stopped a van with 2 corpses inside. Some of the oldest unsolved murders on Uncovered 's cold case website include the 1960 murder of Nancy Eagleson, the 1977 murder of Ann Harmeier, the 1977 murder of Roberta Elam, the 1982 murder of Tina Foglia, the 1980 murder of Eve Wilkowitz, and the 1984 murder of Laura Parker. Her decomposing remains were found on July 31 on Franz Valley Road, just feet from where Maureen and Yvonne were discovered the year prior. (This is a really good theory.) No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. Her cause of death was determined to be spinal cord trauma, possibly from jumping or being pushed out of a moving vehicle. Although Graham and Trimble are only suspected victims of the Santa Rosa murderer, there is plenty of circumstantial evidence, from the use of a ravine to the fact that both girls were known to hitchhike, to suggest that they ran afoul of the unknown serial murderer. The US in the early 1970s was awash in serial murder. Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, of Miranda,[21] was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Passengers and eight crew are presumed dead, but friends are sure it 's a pretty accurate portrayal of,... Clues in several cold cases throughout the country thebeach is one of life & # x27 ; s pleasures. Northwest of Santa Rosa Allen was from Fresno, Ohio and Allen killed... 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