GUILTY CA - Sandra McGee Steppuhn, 32, Seaside, 9 Dec 1982

About 3:20 p.m. Wednesday, police responded to the report of remains found in the yard of a home on the 1100 block of Third Street. The contractor found them while doing landscaping renovations.

The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office Coroners Division identified the remains as Sandra McGee, who was reported missing in 1982.

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“I was mad at her, I had to take care of my sisters and she was gone,” said Gidgette Bridgers, one of three daughters of McGee Steppuhn.

Bridgers was 13 at the time and attending Monterey High.

“She (her mother) was there all the time,” said Bridgers, referring to the fact her mother was buried in a backyard about a mile and half from the school.

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McGee Steppuhn was known for “her smile and her laugh,” said Steppuhn. “She was a dedicated mother, she was adventurous, too adventurous actually … she loved her children, she loved life.”

Bridgers echoed her father’s description. “My mom was hilarious,” she said. “She had one of those laughs and if you heard her chuckling you would want to see who it was.”

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Steppuhn said he had minimal contact with police when his wife went missing and that media reports that he was out of state at the time were incorrect because he was in Mountain View. He believes that because it was a “missing persons” case, it did not get the scrutiny it might have otherwise received.

“A mother with three children just doesn’t disappear. It doesn’t happen that way,” he said. “She was a good mother.”

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JusticeWillBeServed said:

"Monterey cold case: Discovery of remains brings closure to family"

http://www.montereyherald.com/gener...discovery-of-remains-brings-closure-to-family

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<<snipped>> Powell, who was seen with McGee Steppuhn, the night before she was reported missing, is serving a 15-years-to-life sentence with the possibility of parole in a state prison.

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<<snipped>> A landscaper found the remains Sept. 2 buried in the backyard of a home on the 1100 block of Third Avenue in Monterey. This is the same property where unemployed hairdresser Alfred Powell lived in the garage in 1982. He was convicted in 1983 of murdering Suzanne Nixon, 30, of Pebble Beach, whose badly beaten body was found in a shed in the garage.

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<<snipped>> At the time of her disappearance, there was speculation that McGee was killed and buried under the foundation of the Hyatt Regency Monterey. The hotel was under construction and the car McGee was driving was found in the parking lot. Stories that McGee was buried under the hotel were later dismissed as rumors.

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In September of 1982, 18-year-old Sheila Chavez was found murdered in a ravine next to the Monterey Public Library. She had gone missing a month beforehand. In December of 1982, 32-year-old Sandra McGee went missing. Her remains were found this past September.

"Sandra was located at his residence where he used to live,&#8221; Monterey Police Detective Bryan Kruse said. &#8220;The same place Ms. Nixon was also discovered. And the connection would be that Sheila Chavez, when they did their investigation back in 1982, Mr. Powell's name came up in that case as well."

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In the meantime, McGee&#8217;s daughter has a message to Powell.

"I don't want him to ever step foot outside of prison again because just like my mom was buried in the ground and was never able to see her children grow up, her grandchildren, the successes, the failures that any of us have experienced,&#8221; Gigi Bridgers said. &#8220;He is not entitled to ever be in the arms of another woman or to ever know what it's like to be truly loved and that no matter what, he did not defeat my mom's legacy."

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Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo announced Tuesday that Powell, who is currently serving a life sentence at Solano State Prison for the 1983 murder of a Pebble Beach woman, has been charged with the murder of McGee.

Powell is set to be arraigned at the Salinas courthouse on Wednesday, June 1, on one count of first-degree murder for McGee&#8217;s death.

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Monterey County Deputy District Attorney Matthew L'Heureux said Judge Julie Culver believes there is enough evidence to move forward with a murder trial in the 1982 death of Sandra McGee.

Powell faces a murder charge with a special allegation because of a previous conviction.

Powell will be back in court July 7 to enter a plea. A trial date may be set at that time.

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During a preliminary hearing on Thursday, McGee&#8217;s old roommates talked about the night the 32-year-old mother of three went missing. They explained how she picked up a hitchhiker and brought him to their Seaside home before leaving with him. They went into detail about how the man made them feel uneasy and described him as &#8220;standoffish.&#8221; They identified him as Alfred Powell, saying they remembered his eyes, saying &#8220;there was nothing in them, they were dead.&#8221;

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Alfred Powell pled guilty to second-degree murder in the Dec. 9, 1982 killing of Seaside resident Sandra Yvonne McGee Steppuhn, Monterey County District Attorney Dean Flippo said Friday.According to a press release from the DA’s Office, Judge Julie Culver will sentence Powell to a term of 15 years to life in prison on Jan. 26.

Powell, 62, is currently serving a sentence of 15 years to life in state prison for the March 3, 1983, murder of Suzanne Kay Nixon, a 30-year-old hairstylist from Pebble Beach.


A landscaper found Steppuhn’s remains in September 2015, buried in a makeshift grave in the backyard of a home on the 1100 block of Third Avenue in Monterey. This was the same property where Powell lived in the garage in 1982, working as a gardener for the elderly female homeowner according to the press release.

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The Monterey County District Attorney's Office announced today that a current inmate has been sentenced for fifteen more years to life in prison for the 1982 murder of a Seaside woman.

According to prosecutors, Alfred Powell, 62, pleaded guilty to second-degree murder days before his jury trial was scheduled to begin for the death of 32-year-old mother of three Sandra Steppuhn, also known by her maiden name of McGee.

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During sentencing, Steppuhn’s former husband and three daughters, all pre-teens at the time of their mother’s death, told Powell he had permanently changed their lives but had not broken them, according to a District Attorney’s release.

In issuing her sentence, Culver called Powell “intensely egocentric” and said he had “psychopathic and sociopathic traits,” and that she had never seen anyone as “depraved” as him, according to the release. Culver told Powell she intended for him to spend the rest of his life in prison, the release said.

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