CA CA - Candace Starr, 16, Granada Hills, 21 Sept 1975

How terrible. I hope you are able to find some comfort in knowing what happened. So sorry....

I'm glad Candace finally has her name back. Prayers to her family and friends.

Julessleuther said:

Condolences to the family. Was M Singh ever found and proscecuted?

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No He died Missiouri State Hospital,,After killing to other women.He was never brought up on any charges of my sisters murder at all.

You have my sincere condolences.

My deepest condolences on your loss.

God bless


fran

I am so sorry.

{{{HUGS}}} to you and your family. I am so sorry this happened to you!

Here's a recent article regarding Candace. May she and her family finally find peace.

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/on_ass...tence_solves_1975_murder_mystery_200911102324

story at link:

http://www.krqe.com/dpp/news/on_ass...tence_solves_1975_murder_mystery_200911102324

Persistence solves 1975 murder mystery

Updated: Wednesday, 11 Nov 2009, 4:19 PM MST
Published : Tuesday, 10 Nov 2009, 11:29 PM MST

• Reporter: Kim Holland
• Web Producer: Bill Diven

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - It's a type of cold case the Office of the Medical Investigator had never seen before, and it's a case that took 34 years to solve.
In Gallup in 1975 a man shot a 16-year-old girl in a convenience store and left her for dead.
Police had good leads. Witnesses said the suspect left in a green van, and someone sketched the man's face on the gas station paper towel.
Gallup police scoured the area, but the killer was still able to slip away.

The focus then turned to the young woman he murdered. She had no identification, no fingerprints on file, and police didn't know who she was.
"(We) sent out flyers to police departments across the country" Gallup Police Department Deputy Chief John Allen said. "'Is anybody missing anybody matching this description?'"
The teenager nicknamed "Jane Doe" was buried in an unmarked grave in Gallup. The case file over the years grew, but detectives did not forget about it and occasionally cracked open the file.
But recently Terry Coker, a former Gallup officer who now works for the OMI, took another look at the case.
Terry Coker found that DNA had been collected in 1975. So Coker ran it through the CODIS, the Combined DNA Index System , a national database managed by the FBI that only became fully operational in 1998.
"DNA for this case was the saving grace," Coker said. He got an initial DNA hit and also found a match on the Doe Network , a volunteer group that posts reports of missing persons and helps identify victims.
Investigators exhumed the body to collect additional DNA and finally learned their Jane Doe was Pamela Mulligan's sister, Candace Lynn Starr, 16.
"My cell phone rang," Mulligan told KRQE News 13 during an interview in her Idaho home. "When I looked at it, it was the 505 area code.
"I shook my head took a deep breath, and it was Terry Coker."
Starr's ex-boyfriend, Michael Singh, 30, snatched Starr from her Los Angeles home on Sept. 21, 1975, as two younger sisters watched helplessly.
"He grabbed her around the neck and forcibly drug her out of the house at gunpoint, with the gun at her head," Mulligan said.
Over the past four decades Mulligan said she knew her sister was dead. She just didn't know where and she didn't know if she would ever find out.
"It bothered me that she was in the desert for 34 years by herself," Mulligan said.
Singh, a military veteran, was a violent man. In 1977 he was convicted of shooting and killing his new wife and was sent to prison.
With good time he was on work release and escaped.
His killing spree continued when Singh beat his second wife to death with a shovel in 1982. Singh then was committed to the Fulton State Mental Hospital in Missouri.
But he will never face charges for Starr's murder. In 2005 another Fulton State patient killed Singh.
"Justice was served," Mulligan said.
Starr finally got the dignity she deserved when her body was returned home to California.
Her family is grateful to the Los Angeles Police Department and everyone who has helped with the investigation in New Mexico.
Donations are being taken at Wells Fargo Banks in Sandpoint, Idaho. All the money will go to the New Mexico Crime Victims Reparation Commission that helps victims of New Mexico crimes.
Donations can be mailed to:

Wells Fargo Sandpoint
The Candace Lynn Starr Memorial Fund
P.O. Box 1528
Sandpoint ID 83864

It would be good to know more about this dirtbag, Michael Singh - such as what his history of known offenses and violence was and where his travels took him - in order to possibly solve other missing person cases and murders.

I was able to find this reference to him:

"69. Rahaman M. Muhammad murdered Michael Singh, 60, in the Biggs Forensic Unit of Fulton State Hospital which is run by the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Court papers indicated that Muhammad acknowledged killing Singh "to commit an offense that would get him out of the state hospital and into police custody."

Source:

CCHR STL Missouri psychiatric Violence

LINK:

http://www.cchrstl.org/moviolence.shtml

Micheal Herbert Singh was born Rupert Sookram.

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Singh&GSfn=M&GSob=n&GRid=13192264&

He was Vietnam vet so there probably won't be any further info available - that's my experience.

Richard said:

It would be good to know more about this dirtbag, Michael Singh - such as what his history of known offenses and violence was and where his travels took him - in order to possibly solve other missing person cases and murders.

I was able to find this reference to him:

"69. Rahaman M. Muhammad murdered Michael Singh, 60, in the Biggs Forensic Unit of Fulton State Hospital which is run by the Missouri Department of Mental Health. Court papers indicated that Muhammad acknowledged killing Singh "to commit an offense that would get him out of the state hospital and into police custody."

Source:

CCHR STL Missouri psychiatric Violence

LINK:

http://www.cchrstl.org/moviolence.shtml

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Bolded by me. Wow.

Was this a stae mental hospital? And the guy who killed Singh would rather be in jail? How bad must have this state hospital been?

Rest in peace, Candace.

Funny that this thread should be bumped today, I was thinking of Candy today.

Granada Hills is a pretty decent area- even more so back then- I can't believe there wasn't more press and LE involvement!
I spent the 80s and 90s there and never heard of the case until today.
Rest in Peace, Candace.

Thinking of this case today. Rest in Peace Candace.

deca said:

Granada Hills is a pretty decent area- even more so back then- I can't believe there wasn't more press and LE involvement!
I spent the 80s and 90s there and never heard of the case until today.
Rest in Peace, Candace.

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I went to Jr. High with her and never knew what happened, only that she had dropped out of school and we lost touch. RIP Candy...:rose:

A lot of info on Singh from the murder of his wife

http://law.justia.com/cases/missouri/court-of-appeals/1979/10788-0.html

State v. Singh

Annotate this Case
586 S.W.2d 410 (1979)

STATE of Missouri, Plaintiff-Respondent, v. Michael Herbert SINGH, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 10788.

Missouri Court of Appeals, Southern District, Division Two.

August 2, 1979.

Motion for Rehearing or for Transfer Denied August 23, 1979.

Application to Transfer Denied October 10, 1979.

*412 John D. Ashcroft, Atty. Gen., Steven Scott Clark, Asst. Atty. Gen., Jefferson City, for plaintiff-respondent.

Scott B. Tinsley, Springfield, for defendant-appellant.

*413 MAUS, Judge.

The defendant was charged with the second degree murder of his wife Mary Ann Singh. After a four-day trial the jury returned a verdict of manslaughter, fixing his punishment at ten years' imprisonment. Defendant's motions for a new trial were overruled and he was sentenced accordingly. On appeal by his court-appointed attorney defendant asserts six points of error and by his pro se brief one additional point.

The decedent was first married at an early age and by this marriage had a son and a daughter. This marriage ended in divorce and was followed by a brief second marriage and several live-in male companions.

The defendant, 33 at the time of trial, was born in Trinidad, West Indies. He was of East Indian extraction. He had roughly the equivalent of a junior college education. In his native land he taught school. In 1970 he went to New York and for a time worked as a warehouseman. He then served in the army for three years and four months. After a brief period, he re-enlisted, but after one month went A.W.O.L. He came to Springfield. In the summer of 1976 he met the decedent and moved in with her and her two children. August 8 they were married. August 14 he was apprehended for being A.W.O.L. After being in custody a short period of time he was discharged and returned to the decedent's home.

Interesting statement-

The defendant denied bringing the gun from Colorado. He said somewhat cryptically "that's only the second time I used that pistol."

His grave has " Born Rupert Sookram" http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Singh&GSfn=M&GSob=n&GRid=13192264&

However his naturalisation and name change documents on ancestry (Dec 27 1971) are
Herbert Michael Sookramsingh

This year marks the 45 year anniversary of Candace's abduction and Murder.

Thinking of her. Does anyone still have a picture of her, and the reconstruction. I don't see her on Doe Network resolved cases anymore. She looked so happy.