Modern advancements in DNA analysis have provided important clues in several cold cases throughout the country. Bundy was known to drive hundreds of miles to commit a murder. It is . 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. "It's a horrible, senseless crime," said Margo Rohrbacher of the Central Marin Police. A little later, at around 9:00 PM, both girls were seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road. In fact, a suspect was identified, but three key witnesses refused to come forward for fear of outing themselves as gay. No official missing person report was filed for Graham until decades later, when Grahams sister suspected the victims found were Graham and Trimble and urged police to conduct DNA testing. Sheriff's Office detectives are continuing to follow-up on leads and are working hard to complete the investigation. Graham was reportedly reported missing on Christmas Eve that year. They planned to marry in autumn of 2004. [23] High water marks contemporaneous with heavy rains in the area suggested the body could have drifted several miles. However, it was reported in 2011 that the missing 17-year-old Smith was not actually found. Lori, just 13, was reported missing by her mother in November 1972. The Sheriff's Office has identified Shaun Gallon, a 38 year old resident of Forestville, California, as Jason and Lindsay's killer. 2012. That was my big sister., In February 1973, 15-year-old Carolyn left for school as usual; she never arrived. 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. On . No profanity, hate speech or personal attacks. Get Started Now Dj vu! Click through our gallery above to learn more about some of the North Coast cold cases and investigations, solved and unsolved, since the 1970s. 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. The Sonoma County Sheriffs Office and their Secret Witness program raised a $9,500 reward for any information regarding Walshs death. On March 4, 1972, at 5:00 PM, Allen left her job at a health food store in Larkspur to attend a night class. 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. ", 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. [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. Michelle . We are especially grateful to the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office for their tireless pursuit of Jason's and Lindsay's killer. The reward money went unclaimed, and Walsh left behind a two-year-old son named Danran. Credit card receipts placed the duo at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco on August 14, 2004. UPDATED: Please read and follow our commenting policy: From the mysterious disappearance of two teens in Forestville to answers in the killing of a Napa beauty queen, here are 11 cold cases we won't soon forget. Read More: February 4, 1972, proved to be a tragic day in Sonoma County, California. Katie Dowd is the SFGATE managing editor. The friend declined to accompany the girls to smoke with the man, whom she had never seen before. To this day, she has not been identified. The views expressed here are the author's own. We would like to thank the heartfelt concern of the people of Jenner and Sonoma County. Authorities later said she had traveled to Illinois and New Mexico. The . 17 infamous crimes in Sonoma County history. Lisa Michele Smith, 17, was last seen hitchhiking on Hearn Avenue in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California and her disappearance was never solved. Look out for your first newsletter in your inbox soon! An SF man was found dead in his locked home. in Sonoma County, California, was once the location for just one series of horrific murders, which would go on to shock this normally peaceful community to the core and which have remained unexplained to this day. The case remained unsolved at that time. He has been a guest speaker on numerous national radio and television stations and is a five time published author. The cause of death could not be determined. Police learned from Jeannettes roommate Nora Morales that the Jeanette often hitchhiked 16 kilometers (10 mi) from her home in Cotati to her classes at Santa Rosa Junior College. She, like so many other victims, was last seen hitchhiking on Highway 101 near the town of Cotati. Police thought it was suicide, but friends are sure it's murder, Your Privacy Choices (Opt Out of Sale/Targeted Ads). 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. [4] Her body was discovered on July 31, 1973 in Santa Rosa, just 3 feet (0.91m) from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months prior. She had been strangled by her killer a week before her bodys discovery. Maureen, 12, and Yvonne, 13, were friends and students at Herbert Slater Middle School in Santa Rosa. Anyone with information is asked to contact the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office at 707-565-2650. [27][3][16] Her weight and eye color could not be ascertained, and no clothing was found. Based on what detectives have been able to learn, we feel confident that we have Jason and Lindsay's killer in custody. No one has heard from the Zodiac Killer himself in decades. [8][9] Initially believed to be a suspect,[10] Burgess's DNA was tested, and did not match that left at the Jenner crime scene.[11]. Bundy was executed in 1989 after being convicted of murdering two women and a 12-year-old girl in Florida. 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. Trimbles mother had seen the girls at her home sometime on December 15, 1978 and Grahams sister recalled seeing them at her parents home either on December 15 or 16, 1978. 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. It was never determined whether Kursas dislocated vertebrae injury had occurred before or after her death. Gallon is well known to Sheriff's Office Investigators, and early on in the Jenner murder investigation Gallon was a person of interest who detectives never ruled out as a possible suspect. 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. I'd like to make a brief statement and then I will take some questions. Yvonne Quilantang, 15, was found strangled in a vacant, Nancy Feusi, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the, Brenda Kaye Merchant, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home on February 1, 1974, in, Donna Maria Braun, 14, whose strangled body was found at 7 p.m. on September 29, 1974 in the, This page was last edited on 24 February 2023, at 10:39. A nurse at the hospital thought she looked about 21-years-old. [3] Allen was also carrying a soy barrel with red Chinese characters painted on the outside. unsolved murders in california. Less than a month later, on December 14, Kursas partially frozen nude body was found by a couple out walking along Calistoga Road. The girls told their friend that they were going to hitchhike to a party in Santa Rosa but did not say who they were meeting. [3], Kerry Ann Graham, 15, and Francine Marie Trimble, 14, of Forestville, disappeared in mid-December 1978. Similarly, nobody could say for sure whether either Sterling or Weber had been sexually assaulted. The vehicle then sped north on Calistoga Road. Gallon was recently arrested for the murder of his brother in their Forestville home. The mystery surrounding her death has always messed with my head, brother Larry Kursa told the Press Democrat in 2011. Revisit some of the most heinous crimes in local history. Juan Valencia told SFGATE in a statement. The detectives quickly eliminated murder-suicide as an explanation to the killings. One Year Anniversary of the Unsolved Murder of 15-Year-Old Devin Griffiths. In 2019 Shaun Gallon was sentenced to life in prison for the murders. No known connection to him between Lindsay Cutshall or Jason Allen has been uncovered yet either. [2], The cause of her death was a broken neck with compression and hemorrhage of the spinal cord. [16], It was determined that the unidentified victim was approximately 16- to 21-years-old, wore hard contact lenses (kept in a metal candy tin with a picture of cherries on it), had red, auburn, or brown hair, was about 5feet 3inches (1.60m) tall and at one time had broken a rib which was healed by the time of the murder. BRUTAL CRIME MAY . Panic rose in their parents throats as they searched the skating rink for Maureen and Yvonne. MARIN COUNTY, Calif. (KGO) -- Sometimes, police get a case they just can't solve and also cannot leave. Try another? Graham and Trimble, who had been associating with classmates who used drugs, had gone to school that day but did not attend classes. It is unsettling how many strings of mysterious unsolved murders are out there that have never been solved, their perpetrators . Nearly two decades after Lindsay Cutshall and. UNSOLVED - From early 1972 to 1979, the bodies of seven girls and young women were found in rural Santa Rosa, buried or dumped along steep embankments or in creek beds. Eureka/Humbold 2019. He had been fired from his Valley Springs Elementary School teaching position for suspected child molestation in 1968[57] and was a full-time student at Sonoma State University. Gallon's motive for the killings of the couple and his brother have not yet been ascertained. . Jenner Beach Double Murder Camping near the beach is one of life's great pleasures. Los Angeles's most famous murder, The Black Dahlia refers to Elizabeth Short, who was murdered in 1947. 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 Carlstedt and Siebe both said the murders stopped after that man died. The Violent Crimes Unit (VCI) is comprised of One Detective Sergeant, and Four Detectives who investigate felony crimes against persons. Shockingly, Daviss corpse was left almost at the exact same place where the bodies of Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber had been found. Moses was last seen getting into a car with a 25- to 30-year old man in Santa Rosa on Aug. 13, 1997. They did not tell her brother that Graham was missing until they saw him in person years later. [7] Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. Arthur Leigh Allen, the man who Graysmith believes was the Zodiac Killer, has also been named as a possible suspect. 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. [4] Markings at the top of the embankment and a possible leg impression in the loam indicated the assailant likely slipped or fell while throwing or transporting the body. He reportedly brandished a gun and threatened to rape her. No clothing or other items belonging to Graham or Trimble were found at the scene.[2]. The bodies of Lindsay Cutshall, 22, and her fianc Jason S. Allen, 26, were found on Fish Head Beach, between Russian Gulch and the mouth of the Russian River, in the small coastal hamlet of Jenner, California. Based on the condition of the remains, she was likely killed about three years prior. Then someone killed him. A Pan Am airplane named "The Romance of the Skies" took off from SFO in 1957 but never arrived in Hawaii as scheduled. The Black Dahlia. 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. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. While it is not confirmed Jeannette was a victim of the same serial killer, her case has many similarities to the others. [22] She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, and strangled, and was determined to have been dead approximately one week. By entering your email address you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy and consent to receive emails from Time Out about news, events, offers and partner promotions. They were last seen sometime between 9 and 11 p.m. on Feb. 4, 1972. Author Robert Graysmith put forward the idea that the Santa Rosa killer was really San Franciscos Zodiac Killer. [4] An autopsy found that Davis had an injury to her right earlobe that appeared to be an attempted ear piercing. She was last seen alive on July 15, 1973. The crime remains unsolved, and the Sonoma County Sheriffs Office recently asked for the publics help identifying a suspect in the case. For a time, serial killer Ted Bundy was suspected of carrying out a few of the Santa Rosa murders. [7] They last saw her at approximately 5:20 p.m. hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound,[4] carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. After her husband's death from tuberculosis in 1881, Sarah Winchester inherited more than $20.5 million. I'd like to read a statement from Bob and Delores Allen and Chris and Kathy Cutshall: "We are extremely pleased that our children's murderer is in custody where he belongs. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled with a cord-like material and dumped naked in the ditch. Although ballistics determined the gun type, police declined to publicly disclose it, in order "to eliminate false leads." Graham had a habit of running away to stay with friends, as had her older siblings, and her parents were not overly concerned at first when she did not come home. The skeletal remains of a young woman were found off Calistoga Road, about 100 yards from where Lori was discovered, on July 2, 1979. Unlike the killers first two victims, Kim Wendy Allen was a teenager (19, to be exact) and a college student attending Santa Rosa Junior College. During those years, at least seven young women were sexually assaulted, tortured, and murdered by an unknown killer. week. In 2014, a still-anonymous Northern California couple found gold coins buried in their backyard. A true crime magazine, Front Page Detective, published an article in September 1975 linking the Santa Rosa murders with the Zodiac Killer and witchcraft. 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