CA CA - Speed Freak Killers (Shermantine talks; Herzog commits suicide)

Amy Noel

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Sept. 18--Convicted killer Loren Herzog is now technically a free man. Even so, he will be living on the grounds of a state prison in Susanville and will face severe restrictions on where he can go and when.
Herzog, 44, was released to a trailer specially built for him on the grounds of High Desert State Prison. Prior to the move, he was being held in the administrative segregation unit of the Californiahttp://www.websleuths.com/forums/# Correctional Center in Lassen County since Thursday, according to the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
Lassen County Sheriff Steve Warren was meeting with officials from the state parole board branch in Red Bluff on Friday to hammer out the details of Herzog's parole.
Herzog will likely be required to wear a GPS locator bracelet, remain within the county and abide by a strict curfew, according to Gordon Hinkle, press secretary for the corrections department. Herzog will also be required to check in with a parole officer several times a month for at least the next 3 years, Hinkle said.
Located in a region dominated by wind-swept sagebrush and rolling foothills, the High Desert Prison is 12 miles east of Susanville.
In addition to being housed on state property, Herzog will likely be employed by the prison for minimum wage.
The decision on where to house Herzog has been charged with controversy, and the location has been changed several times in the past 3 months. Corrections officials had initially planned to parole him to his last county of residence, San Joaquin County. But family members of his victims successfully petitioned the state to have his parole transferred to another area. Plans to move him to Tehama County were met with protests, as were plans to house him in the small community of Doyle on the Nevada border.
Residents of Lassen County have held demonstrations every day since news broke of his parole to the county on Tuesday. Officials in Susanville, the county's seat of government, have collected 5,729 signatures on a petition protesting the parole to be sent to the governor's office, according to Jim Chapman, Lassen County Superintendent. He accused state officials of choosing his county for Herzog's parole because it is under-represented in Sacramento.
"This is a political hot potato that no one wants to deal with," Chapman said.
Hinkle acknowledged that no community in California is likely to welcome Herzog with open arms, but consideration for the families of his victims and public safety were key factors in the decision. He said that although the corrections department is fielding criticism for the move, it is required by law to release inmates who have served their time.
"We did not set the sentence for Mr. Herzog, the courts did," he said.
A San Joaquin County jury had convicted Herzog for his role in three area murders, including the brutal slaying of Clements resident Cyndi Vanderheiden. He was sentenced to 78 years in prison while his accomplice, Wesley Shermantine, now sits on California's death row.
Six years ago an appellate court ruled that investigators had coerced Herzog's confession, making the bulk of the evidence against him inadmissible in retrial. Prosecutors accepted a plea bargain that reduced Herzog's sentence to 14 years with time off for good behavior.
 
The Speed Freak Killers
shermantine.jpg

Wesley Howard Shermantine

Classification:
Serial Killer, Thrill Killer
Arrested: March 17, 1999
No. Victims: 4-24
Active: 1984-1999
Age: 33 at time of arrest
Victim Profile: Young Women, men
MO: Went "hunting" with friend Herzog, traded drugs for sex, killed for sport.
Location: Stockton, Linden, Northern California, Utah, Nevada
herzog.jpg
[FONT=HELVETICA, ARIAL]Loren Joseph Herzog[/FONT]
Classification:
Serial Killer, Thrill Killer
Arrested: March 17, 1999
No. Victims: 5+
Active: 1984-1999
Age: 33 at time of arrest
Victim Profile: Young Women, men
MO: Went "hunting" with friend Wesley Shermantine, killed for sport.
Location: Stockton, Linden, Northern California, Utah
 
Last edited by a moderator:
I have found this link very informative...
http://www.mayhem.net/Crime/shermantine.html


link to a UK crime and investigation network, that did an episode about the case...
http://www.crimeandinvestigation.co.uk/shows/real-interrogation/episode-guide.html
ep9.jpg
Real Interrogations


Unlocked Secrets: Shermantime

In a Northern California town, Cyndi Vanderheiden has vanished, and the only clue at first is the young woman's car, until the police discovered blood stains elsewhere More...
In a Northern California town, Cyndi Vanderheiden has vanished, but the young woman’s car is found parked in a cemetery. Cops track down people who may have seen her last: a man she dated and people who saw her partying at a bar. Witnesses say she chatted with two men there, and cops discover that those same two men were suspected in other missing persons cases. When questioned, the men, Loren Herzog and Wesley Shermantine, say they had no contact with her after the bar. But then Cyndi’s blood is found in the trunk of Shermantine’s car. He refuses to admit guilt, even when Herzog turns and tells a gruesome tale of murder. So who did it and how did it happen?
 
Loren Herzog was found dead early this morning, hanging in a trailer on the prison grounds.

85780700-17111029.jpg


http://www.ktla.com/news/landing/ktxl-speed-freak-killer-found-dead-20120117,0,6220241.story

11:16 a.m. PST, January 17, 2012

SUSANVILLE—
A paroled inmate who was once part of the “Speed Freak Killers”, was found dead Tuesday morning.

Loren Herzog was living in a trailer on the grounds of High Desert State Prison in Lassen County after controversy about where he should be released in 2010.

Late Monday night, the GPS device Herzog wears was running low on battery. His parole agent tried to call Herzog with no answer, so he asked prison officials to check in on him.

The Department of Corrections officers found Herzog hanging in his trailer. Lassen County Sheriff’s pronounced him dead at 12:30 a.m. Lassen County officials say the death appears to be a suicide, but they are conducting an autopsy and will have an official cause of death at a later time.
 
I wonder if he left a note? It would be interesting to find out whether it was thoughts of the harm he caused or the restrictions he had to live with that finally got to him.

It is interesting though to consider that the one who was given a sentence that ended is now dead, but the one who was sent to death row is still living.
 
Bounty hunter called Calif. parolee before suicide

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.centurylink.net/news/read...6_UNEWS&page=1

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The apparent suicide of a parolee suspected of killing as many as 19 people occurred after a bounty hunter called him earlier in the day with an ominous warning.

Bounty hunter Leonard Padilla told paroled killer Loren Herzog that his partner in crime — who is languishing on death row — was prepared to disclose the location of missing bodies and was trying to pin their murders on him.

Padilla said in a phone interview Wednesday that he agreed to pay Herzog's co-conspirator Wesley Shermantine to disclose the bodies' locations. Padilla says he called Herzog on Monday afternoon to warn him to get a lawyer after Shermantine implicated him in the alleged killings.
------

Herzog became a pariah upon his parole to the trailer in California's remote northeast corner in 2010. He was released after an appeals court tossed out his confession as illegally coerced and prosecutors reduced three murder convictions and a 78-year prison sentence to a manslaughter charge and 14-year term.
--------

Investigators believe Herzog and Shermantine killed as many as 19 people during a methamphetamine spree in the 1980s and 1990s. The two were dubbed the "Speed Freak Killers" when arrested in 1999. Each blamed the other for masterminding the murders.

Shermantine is on death row after he was convicted of killing four, including 16-year-old Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler in 1985. In letters to the Stockton Record, Shermantine has promised to lead authorities to the bodies of Wheeler, Cyndi Vanderheiden and a covered well holding at least 10 more bodies.


Much more at link....
 
why was Padilla meddling? why is he offering prisoners money to reveal locations of bodies & then warning a parollee to get a lawyer?

isn't it possible Herzog could've been convicted of other murder charges and actually be sentenced to death this time?

so again, why is Padilla meddling or am I missing something?
 
Can anyone else hear the lawsuit gathering steam?

Padilla=Dog the Bounty Hunter=I personally believe we should leave this all to the true professionals and not cause suspects to kill themselves by tipping them off. In my honest opinion.
 
SAN ANDREAS (CBS13) – A human skull was discovered by deputies searching a rural property in San Andreas, according to John Vanderheiden, whose daughter was murdered by the “Speed Freak Killers.”

During an interview with CBS13 on Thursday morning, Vanderheiden received a call from the San Joaquin Sheriff’s Department saying a skull had been found. Vanderheiden says he’s waited 14 years for that call, and believes the remains could be that of his daughter, Cyndi.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012/02/09/human-skull-found-during-dig-for-speed-freak-victims/
 
More remains found today.

February 10, 2012 12:54 PM
SAN ANDREAS – San Joaquin County Sheriff’s authorities say they found another set of remains Friday...
http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120210/A_NEWS/120219990


The remains consist of a partial skull and "some bones". The property where LE is conducting a search is two miles north of San Andreas, and once belonged to Shermantine's family. LE is also searching an area near Linden where Shermantine claims Herzog buried victims.
 
Old well becomes focus of search for more bodies


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A death row inmate has led authorities to an area of Northern California believed to be the burial sites of two victims of the notorious "Speed Freak Killers," as searchers focused Saturday on an abandoned well for any additional remains.

A partial human skull and bones were found buried Friday on a remote property in Calaveras County. A day earlier, searchers found a skull and bones at another site in the area about 60 miles south of Sacramento.

They were led there by inmate Wesley Shermantine, who was convicted of murdering 16-year-old Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler. Authorities say he and childhood friend Loren Herzog killed the girl as part of a methamphetamine-fueled killing spree in the 1980s. The two were arrested in 1999

http://mycenturylink.com/news/read....ass&action=2&lang=en&_LT=UNLC_USNWU00L2_UNEWS
 
Bounty hunter Rob Dick, who has worked with Padilla, said the police rendering of Garecht's abductor has an uncanny similarity to Herzog in the '80s.

"When I first saw it, I said, 'Holy crap!,'" Dick said. "But no one ever admitted anything to it."

The bounty hunters mailed the rendering to Shermantine, who then forwarded it to the Stockton Record with other documents, saying he did not know if his former friend was responsible, but that Herzog had relatives living in Castro Valley at the time.

For Padilla and Dick, who have been communicating with the Death Row inmate for more than a decade through mail and phone calls, it has been an emotional few days.

"It's been a rollercoaster because I've grown really close to the families," Dick said. "We made a promise to see it to the end. That's the bounty hunter in us. We finish things we start."


http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_19945892
 
I know some here strongly dislike Padilla, but in this case, I'm thankful for what he's done. He stayed in touch with this murderer, found the currency that would work for him (paying him 18k to cover his restitution, and another $15k for his parents' gravestones). Perhaps thinking of his own parents' missing markers touched just a little part of this murderer, and made him think of the victims' families with no answers and no grave to visit. Whatever the reason, I am glad that these families will have answers now. Thank God. Moo
 

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