GUILTY CA - Chevelle 'Chevy' Wheeler, 16, Stockton, 16 Oct 1985

Wheeler was last seen entering a red pickup truck outside of Franklin High School in Stockton, California on October 16, 1985. She told friends that she planned to skip classes that day and drive to Valley Springs, California with a male friend. Wheeler has never been heard from again. One of her friends says Wheeler seemed apprehensive about the trip. She asked her friend to tell her father if she didn't return by the time school let out for the day.

Authorities soon learned the identity of her friend: Wesley Howard Shermantine Jr. was an acquaintance of Wheeler's family. He was nineteen years old at the time of Wheeler's disappearance. Family members told investigators that Shermantine called their home the morning Wheeler disappeared to confirm their plans for a drive to the mountains. When Shermantine was questioned by authorities shortly after Wheeler vanished, he denied having any involvement in her case. Shermantine also told her family he was innocent. Investigators continued to suspect him, particularly after searching Shermantine's family's cabin in San Andreas, California. Police collected blood and hair evidence at the cabin in 1985, but DNA testing technology prevented the samples from being analyzed until 1999, 14 years after Wheeler disappeared. Investigators privately believed that the blood and hair were hers, but they did not have evidence to support theory at the time.

Shermantine's friend, Loren Joseph Herzog, claimed on videotape that Shermantine bragged about abusing, raping and murdering Wheeler in 1985. Photos of Shermantine and Herzog are posted at the end of this case summary. Herzog and Shermantine were arrested in 1999 for numerous murders in the western United States, including the presumed killings of Wheeler and another missing woman, Cynthia Vanderheiden. Vanderheiden disappeared from California in 1998 after being spotted with both Shermantine and Herzog. Authorities believe that the men lured their victims to their deaths by promising drugs. Both Shermantine and Herzog used methamphetamine in the 1980s and 1990s.

DNA testing proved that the blood and hair samples taken from the San Andreas cabin in 1985 belonged to Wheeler. Shermantine and Herzog have blamed one another for the murders. Shermantine told investigators that Herzog had a key to his cabin in San Andreas and that Herzog was also friends with Wheeler.

Shermantine announced he would reveal the locations of two of the missing victims if authorities gave $20,000 in reward money to his sons. Prosecutors offered to drop the death penalty from Shermantine's sentence if he is convicted of the crimes, but he demanded the reward money instead. The offer was not accepted and Shermantine was convicted of the murders of Wheeler, Vanderheiden and two other individuals in May 2001. Shermantine was sentenced to death for the crimes. He protested the verdict and announced to the courtroom that he was innocent. Herzog was found guilty of three murders in 2001, but he was spared the death penalty. Investigators are also exploring the possibility that Shermantine may have been involved in the 1997 California disappearances of Hannah Zaccaglini and Karen Knechtel Mero. No charges have been filed against Shermantine in these cases.

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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/01/17/BAK51MQI8C.DTL#ixzz1k3XsD8Ge
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Wheeler, 16, disappeared from Stockton, California on October 16, 1985. Vanderheiden, 25, disappeared from Clements, California on November 14, 1998. In 1999, Loren Joseph Herzog and Wesley Howard Shermantine Jr. were charged together with both women's murders as well as other deaths. They were convicted in 2001; Shermantine was sentenced to death and Herzog to 78 years in prison. However, Herzog's convictions were later overturned and he pleaded guilty to one count of manslaughter and being an accessory to a felony and was sentenced to 14 years, with credit for time served.

Herzog was paroled in 2010. In early 2012, he committed suicide. In the wake of his death, Shermantine offered to lead authorities to the bodies of Wheeler and Vanderheiden, and other victims, in exchange for a cash payment. He claims he killed no one and only helped dispose of the victims after Herzog murdered them. In February 2012, authorities found Wheeler's skeletal remains on Shermantine's former property in San Andreas, California. Vanderheiden's skull was found in a nearby ravine. Investigators also located 300 bones and some personal items in an abandoned well in Linden, California; there may be ten or more victims there.

http://www.charleyproject.org/resolved.html
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