CA CA - Five Walker children, Clayton, 8 September 1968

What a terrible tradgedy. Just awful.

Why ever?

Bumping for the Walkers...it's now been 52 years.

CLAYTON — Just after midnight on Sept. 8, 1968, six siblings were tucked into bed at the family’s Panadero Court home when someone threw an explosive device through the home’s front window.

Flammable liquid that had been poured onto the room carpet moments earlier immediately ignited and the large ranch-style home went up in flames.

Five of the six children died inside the four-bedroom home and nearly 46 years later loved ones wonder if they’ll ever have closure, certainty or solace.

The killer has never been identfied.

Carol and Richard Walker, were attending a fundraiser at John Muir Hospital that night. They returned home in time to witness the final minutes of the holocaust and learn that five of their children were dead: Linda, 20, Cynthia, 13, Carlton, 9, Theodore, 3 and Mary Ann, 6 months.

Their sixth child, Caroline, had been rescued by a neighbors Dale Kenneth Cross and James Donald Hansen, both 20 at the time. Cross managed to get to a window and pull 6-year-old Carolyn out to safety.

“By then there was nothing else to do. It was roaring,” recalled 87-year-old Mildred West, who lived next door to the family and witnessed the fire. “They had a housekeeper, but for some reason she didn’t stay that night. The Walkers came home to all the fire engines in street.”

Firemen arrived just after 1:24 a.m. to find flames shooting from the roof. It took 30 minutes to get the blaze under control as the children’s’ parents stood outside in shock.

Meanwhile inside, a heroic effort by Carlton to save his 6-month-old sister failed, a fire report revealed. Both children were found dead — the little girl in her brother’s arms.

All five children died from smoke inhalation and some suffered burns, according to an Contra Costa County Coroner’s autopsy report.

The fire destroyed the home and arson investigators later determined it was deliberately set after someone poured an accelerant in the family room of the home and then threw an explosive device through the window. It landed on the couch and caused an explosion.

Nearly five decades later, the case remains unsolved and only one man was ever named a possible suspect — John Sapp, a Concord native, a convicted arsonist and convicted murderer.

Sapp, a drifter and convicted drug dealer, has spent the past 23 years on death row at San Quentin State Prison for fatally shooting his ex-girlfriend, Elizabeth Duarte, 24, and two friends, Robert Weber, 35, and John Abono, 22. Two of the victims were found buried in Lime Ridge Open Space.

Concord Police Detective Sergeant Steve Chiabotti, whose department oversees that cold case, said Sapp has never denied being a murderer — he’s actually boasted about his kills. But he said Sapp won’t take the blamefor the Walker slayings.

“He’ll admit he’s killed, but he won’t confess to killing those kids,” Chiabotti said. “The theory is, if he is responsible for the arson murders, he hit the wrong house.”

Sapp was 15 at the time of the fire and had just been released from juvenile hall. But the Contra Costa Superior Court judge who sent him to juvenile hall lived a few doors down from the Walkers, Chiabotti said.

Sapp also lived within walking distance of the crime scene.

“We think he was trying to burn down the judge’s home but got the wrong house,” Chiabotti said. “But the circumstantial evidence and lack of eyewitnesses isn’t enough to bring him down.”

Richard Walker, who was a Clayton councilman and private contractor, died in 2001. His wife and daughter, Carolyn Walker Shaw, are still alive.

“We had to rebuild our lives and its taken a lot to do that — especially for mom and the rest of our family,” said Shaw, now 52, who asked this newspaper not to reveal her hometown. “We don’t forget and we don’t hide but we definitely don’t lead with it in our lives. It’s just hard because it was never solved and we never knew why it happened.”

On a recent afternoon in late September, West stood on the street where she lives outside a new 4,700-square-foot house that rests on the site where the family’s home once stood.

“I just hope the killer will step forward and take responsibility for the death of five children,” West said. “Then, maybe then, someone in that poor family can find peace.”

Anyone with information about this case is asked to call Concord Police at 925-671-3030 or the anonymous tip line: 925-603-5836.

LINK:
Cold case, Clayton: Survivors of 1968 arson fire that killed five children never found answers – The Mercury News