Public assistance is vital to law enforcement, and rewards may encourage the public cooperation needed to . [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. [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? On that day, two middle school students, Maureen Sterling (left above) and Yvonne Weber (right above), went missing. Bundy was executed in 1989 after being convicted of murdering two women and a 12-year-old girl in Florida. [2] Her home life was troubled and she was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. [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. [2] It could not be determined if she had been raped. )Source: Napa County Cold Case Investigation Unit. In Mendocino County, DNA evidence allowed sheriff's detectives to close the books on the quarter-century old murder investigation of Georgina Pacheco, 20, who was raped and bludgeoned to death by her brother-in-law, Robert James Parks in 1988. 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. Although DNA analysis has helped investigators piece together many of the crimes, others still remain a mystery. We will remove any comments or commenters that do not follow this commenting policy. Nearly two decades after Lindsay Cutshall and. According to Robert Graysmith in his book Zodiac Unmasked, Manallis belongings had included pictures of himself as Freda, a lock of hair in his wallet, and letters outlining his interests in sex slavery and large-breasted women.[4]. This location connected Walsh with Michelle Way, a road that intersected with Lorraine Way in Santa Rosa. February 4, 1972, proved to be a tragic day in Sonoma County, California. Gallon was recently arrested for the murder of his brother in their Forestville home. unsolved murders in california. An aerial view of the hills around Santa Rosa. [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. Her captor or captors left her by the side of the road. One of the killers oldest victims, Theresa Walsh, died at the age of 23. Modaferi was never heard from again, although her name pops up in local news every year or so as potential evidence still trickles in. There was one other odd clue left behind by the murderer: Kims body had traces of a greasy residue. All of them were wearing life jackets. I'm Steve Freitas, the Sheriff here in Sonoma County. [27] One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19-years-old. However, it was reported in 2011 that the missing 17-year-old Smith was not actually found. Anyone with information about Georgia's case is asked to call the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office at 707-565-2185 or 707-565-2650. Read More: . Moses was last seen getting into a car with a 25- to 30-year old man in Santa Rosa on Aug. 13, 1997. And when we at times wondered if this day would ever come, the detectives in particular wouldn't allow us to lose hope. Additionally, I want to thank the members of our community who have come forward with information on this case. Anonymous tips can be submitted through Silent Witness . Gallon's motive for the killings of the couple and his brother have not yet been ascertained. [65], Fredric Manalli, a 41-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College creative writing instructor,[66] was suspected[67] when, after his August 24, 1976 death in a head-on collision on Highway 12,[68] sadomasochistic drawings he had created depicting a former student, Kim Wendy Allen, who was one of the victims, were discovered among his belongings. Click through our gallery above to learn more about some of the North Coast cold cases and investigations, solved and unsolved, since the 1970s. The cause of death could not be determined. Search continues for Bay Area serial killer who murdered at least 7 women and girls, Restaurant chain slated to close site at Bay Area mall, Grapevine closed indefinitely due to heavy snow and ice, Graupel falls on Disneyland, shocks guests, Plan to bring bullet train from LA to Vegas is underway, What it looks like inside Coit Towers former apartment, One of the largest movie theaters in SF to close permanently, Hundreds of thousands of workers have abandoned downtown SF, Avalanche slams into Tahoe apartment building amid blizzard, Tahoe's snowfall totals are on track to break records, 'Zero visibility' conditions: All roads to Tahoe are closed, Popular yet divisive fast food chain coming to this Bay Area town, Report: Matthew McConaughey has a massive Salesforce paycheck. You are true heroes to us and we thank God for you. 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. 2011. 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]. [10] The two men who gave her a ride, one of whom was given and passed a polygraph test, were ruled out as suspects. [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. The . Sheriff's Office detectives are continuing to follow-up on leads and are working hard to complete the investigation. Davis would not be seen again until her corpse was discovered on July 31. These skeletons would not be identified as Graham and Trimble until 2015. 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. Most importantly I want to thank the Cutshall and Allen families, who have consistently been supportive and patient during this 13 year investigation. Nine days later, her body was found near a Highway 101 offramp in south Petaluma. 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 told her grandmother that she planned to hitch hike to Modesto, California and stay there with friends. [7] Semen was recovered from the body and a single gold loop earring was found at the site. 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. [3] Detailed credit card records and known whereabouts of Bundy reveal he was in Washington on the dates of some of the disappearances. Homicide detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department launched an investigation into the deaths. Los Angeles's most famous murder, The Black Dahlia refers to Elizabeth Short, who was murdered in 1947. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. Based on the condition of the remains, she was likely killed about three years prior. ", "Secret Witness - Officials seek killer of woman", https://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/strychnine_killed_caroline.pdf, "Is he Zodiak? 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. Shell casings were not found at the scene of the crime, suggesting the killer retrieved them. This post was contributed by a community member. 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. Sheriff Steve Freitas of Sonoma County said that Gallon made statements about the crime that only the killer would know (Gallon described where exactly in their bodies he shot the victims), and that his office had also found corroborating evidence tying Gallon to the murders. Register for a user account. For a time, serial killer Ted Bundy was suspected of carrying out a few of the Santa Rosa murders. 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. We praise the Lord for his capture and we trust in the due process of the law. In early January, about 30 people attended a memorial walk in Petaluma for Georgia Lee Moses, who was murdered in 1997 when she was 12 years old. They also found a distinctive hat on a turnout above the beach on Hwy 1. [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. 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. Boaters discovered her partially submerged underneath a log in Mark West Creek. 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. [3], Jack Alexander Bokin, a violent, serial rapist who died in prison in December 2021 at age 78, has been suggested as another possible suspect by law enforcement. This unidentified victim had been hog-tied, with the killers rope looped around the womans throat. The unsolved San Francisco killing of one of the world's greatest chefs. Last week Shaun Michael Gallon, the Forestville felon named more than a year ago as the lone suspect in the 2004 Jenner Beach shooting deaths of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen, was formally charged by Sonoma County prosecutors marking a milestone in a shocking case of violence that vexed sheriff's detectives for years. The Jenner, California, double murder of 2004 occurred on the night of August 1415, 2004, in which a young couple was shot to death as they slept on a state beach. Robert Levinson The Daytona Beach Killer The Burrowing Burglars Quadriga The Evansdale Murders Dwayne Jones Philip Fraser The Delphi Murders Danniella Vian The Abduction of Violet Ripken The Monster With 21 Faces Cyle Van Komen & Kevin Nelson Brittany Phillips The Assassination of Philip Barton Key Judy Weichert Larry Chism West Mesa Bone Collector It is . The vehicle then sped north on Calistoga Road. No additional information will be released at this time.. But the M.O. 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. SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- Last week, the Sonoma County Sheriff's office announced that they've finally identified who killed a 32-year-old Union City woman and mother of three girls in 1996. For that reason, we are releasing a photo of Shaun Gallon. The views expressed in this post are the author's own. I'm grateful to the dozens of detectives, from all of the Sheriff's Office investigative units, who persistently and faithfully worked on this case for nearly 13 years. Like all of the others, she had been unceremoniously dumped into a ravine. [62] Allen was the main suspect in the Zodiac case from 1971 until his death in 1992. Specifically, Trimbles mother filed a missing child report with the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office in mid-December, while the Graham family did not report their daughter missing until Christmas Eve. Katie Dowd is the SFGATE managing editor. According to Yvonnes stepfather, Santa Rosa police insisted the young pair were willing runaways. Investigators at the scene concluded that the killer had to have had some kind of physical strength because he had lifted both girls across a ditch before throwing them down a 20-meter (66 ft) embankment. To this day, she has not been identified. 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. Fifty years ago, Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber walked into Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa. A map showing the locations of the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders. The friend said someone else they knew had seen the girls hitchhiking at a Chevron gas station in Forestville. A nurse at the hospital thought she looked about 21-years-old. A witness to Jeannette Kamaheles possible kidnapping said they saw her get into a 1950s pickup truck pulling a faded wooden camper that looked homemade. [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. 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. A second caller reported seeing a girl with a Caucasian man who had bushy hair in a pickup truck that had been parked near the site where Kursa was later found deceased. [2], Carolyn Nadine Davis, 15, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County[3] on February 6, 1973[16] and spent the next five months traveling. Authorities later said she had traveled to Illinois and New Mexico. Individuals wishing to remain anonymous may submit their tip via the anonymous tip form. In 1975, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a report stating that fourteen unsolved homicides between 1972 and 1974 were committed by the same perpetrator. The police did, however, conclude that the girls had been murdered elsewhere and that their killer had kept their clothes, possibly as trophies.[2]. Jason, from Michigan, and Lindsay, from Ohio, were in California working at a Christian youth white water rafting camp in El Dorado County and were on a three day sight-seeing trip of the Northern California coast. On a summer day in July 1979, the skeletal remains of an unidentified woman were discovered by hikers in a ravine off Calistoga Road. [5] Their bodies were found on December 28, 1972, [6] 2.2 miles (3.5km) north of Porter Creek Road on Franz Valley Road, down a steep embankment approximately 66 feet (20m) off the east side of the roadway. 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