CA CA - Linden, UncFem 18-25 & Fetus, UP68613, Speed Freak Killers' victims in well, Feb'12

[bessie]

A third set of remains was found at the Linden site on Saturday. This is the second site where LE is searching. Shermantine claims Herzog told him that he hid some of his victims at this site.

Two sets of remains had been found Thursday and Friday near property once owned by Shermantine’s family about 60 miles south of Sacramento.
The latest remains were found after crews dug slowly through 30 feet of soot and debris at the well near Linden, Calif., said San Joaquin County sheriff’s spokesman Deputy Les Garcia.


It was not clear whether they belonged to one or more people, and Garcia said they had not yet been identified.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/nat...s-authorities-human-remains-article-1.1021295

First identified victim

Cyndi Vanderheiden
http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/v/vanderheiden_cynthia.html


ETA: LE is actually searching three sites, two on the property formerly owned by Shermantine's family at Leonard Rd and Gold Strike Rd in San Andreas; and the Linden site near East Flood Rd.

 

[cocomod]

I am watching this process with interest, discust, and with hope for the families of these missing loved ones. To know for certain where their missing loved one is and to be able to bury their remains must prode some sort of relief for these families even though their is such sadness also mixed in.

I am extremely interested to see if Michaela will be found.

 

[CarlK90245]

Here's Cynthia's Charley Page, placed here so that it will still be available after Charley Project closes the casefile.

Cynthia Ann Vanderheiden

Above Images: Vanderheiden, circa 1998

Vital Statistics at Time of Disappearance

Missing Since: November 14, 1998 from Clements, California
Classification: Endangered Missing
Date Of Birth: November 4, 1973
Age: 25 years old
Height and Weight: 5'6, 135 pounds
Distinguishing Characteristics: Caucasian female. Brown hair, green eyes. Vanderheiden has a scar on her right hip. She has a birthmark on her inner left thigh. Vanderheiden's ears and navel are pierced. Her nicknames are Cyndi, Tigger and Waldo.
Clothing/Jewelry Description: Jeans, a peach-colored t-shirt, white canvas shoes, a dark-colored leather jacket, a silver navel ring, a white gold diamond anniversary band, a Black Hills gold ring, a dolphin pendant necklace and a Tigger watch.

Details of Disappearance

Vanderheiden visited a karaoke bar in Linden, California during the evening of November 13, 1998 with a friend. Another friend drove her to Old Corner Saloon in Vanderheiden's hometown of Clements, California afterwards. Vanderheiden's 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier was parked in the bar's lot and she planned to drive herself back to her family's residence, which was approximately one mile away. Vanderheiden's friend told authorities that he saw her pull into her driveway at approximately 2:30 a.m. on November 14, but he did not wait to see if she entered the home. Vanderheiden's mother also stated that she heard her daughter arrive home at the same time. Vanderheiden has never been heard from again. A photo of her wearing the clothes she wore the night she disappeared below this case summary, as is a photo of her and her Chevrolet Cavalier.

Vanderheiden's father discovered her vehicle abandoned in Glenview Cemetery on Mackeville Road in Clements later in the day. The car was unlocked and Vanderheiden's purse and cellular phone were still inside. There was no other sign of her at the scene.

Loren Herzog and Wesley Howard Shermantine Jr. were charged with Vanderheiden's abduction and murder in 1999. Photos of both men are posted below this case summary. Often referred to in the media as the "Speed Freak Killers," Herzog and Shermantine met Vanderheiden at the Linden, California karaoke bar the day she was last seen. According to Herzog, Vanderheiden met the two men after she drove into her driveway. Herzog and Vanderheiden knew each other previously and Herzog claimed that she met the two men in the early morning hours of November 14 after pulling into into her family's driveway. Herzog stated that the three shared drugs together, then Shermantine sexually assaulted and murdered Vanderheiden as Herzog looked on. Shermantine was found guilty in Vanderheiden's case and was sentenced to death in 2001. He was also found guilty in the 1985 disappearance and presumed murder of Chevelle Wheeler in California. As in Vanderheiden's case, Wheeler's remains have yet to be located.

Herzog was found guilty of three murders in 2001, but he was spared the death penalty and sentenced to 78 years to life in prison instead. An appelate court tossed out his convictions and Herzog pleaded guilty to a single count of involuntary manslaughter, three counts of being an accessory to a felony, and one drug charge. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison.

In 2010, Herzog was paroled. As per the conditions of his release, he had to keep a curfew, wear an electronic tracking bracelet and live in a trailer on the grounds of High Desert State Prison, although he was free to come and go at will during the daylight hours. In January 2012, he committed suicide by hanging himself inside his trailer. He left a note behind for his family; it didn't reference his crimes. The month before Herzog's death, Shermantine lead the police on an unsuccessful search for Wheeler's body on a hill near his father's former home. Cadaver dogs caught a scent and authorities dug with shovels, pickaxes and a backhoe, but turned up nothing. Shermantine denied having harmed Wheeler and said she'd gone horseback riding with Herzog and died when she fell off the horse.

Shermantine is considered a possible suspect in the 1997 California disappearances of Hannah Zaccaglini and Karen Knechtel Mero. He has never been charged in connection with either case.

 

[CarlK90245]

More Remains Found

What are believed to be more human remains have been found as crews continue to search near a well on an abandoned cattle ranch in rural San Joaquin County.

Sacramento television station KCRA reports the bones found Sunday were recovered along with two pairs of shoes, sandals, tennis shoes, engraved jewelry and a woman's purse.

Read More:
http://www.dailycomet.com/article/2...Title=More-remains-found-at-ranch-near-Linden

I wonder if either of the two pairs of shoes were brown high-top shoes (as Gayle Marks was wearing on the day she disappeared). She was carrying a purse when she went missing.

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/marks_gayle.html

 

[bessie]

LE now says they've uncovered 300 bones and bone fragments at the Linden site, and they hope one piece of jewelry will help them ID a victim.

Among the bones and apparel, searchers found a ring with initials on it, which they hope will help identify one of the killers' victims.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/300-human-...dumping-ground/story?id=15574868#.TznH6fmLWAh

Attached is an aerial view of the dig at "Loren's Boneyard" in Linden, CA.

Story at the link.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-serialkiller-20120213,0,2221324.story

 

[JDB]

Here is a link of footage of what actually is going on. Gave me a better idea how detailed this is. And a better idea how long tis is going to take.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/video/gris...-victims-15591675?tab=9482931&section=1206833

 

[cocomod]

http://www.examiner.com/missing-per...ing-for-victims-of-speed-freak-serial-killers

Wesley Shermantine, 45, and his childhood and long-time friend Loren Herzog, also 45, killed for sport in the 1980s and 1990s. It was reported that they spent their childhood killing animals and exploring abandoned mines and wells in the area.

If it was “long-rumored” to hold a mass grave, as the LA Times reports, why was it not searched sooner? Why were families allowed to suffer for years wondering what happened to their loved ones, when the answers for some lie on that cattle ranch?

My question - if this was long suspected as a dumping ground, why did Shermantine get paid to divulge this information?

Padilla said.

Bostonherald.com reports that even when authorities had the maps in hand, Shermantine’s directions weren’t taken seriously and languished for months until Padilla took his own cadaver dogs to the San Andreas site and “got a lot of hits.”

Deputies were finally compelled to search the sites after some remains found in 2003 were identified last year but not connected to the “Speed Freak” killings until last month.

 

[JDB]

http://www.kron4.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=3108
Over 700 bones recover as of late this afternoon along as numerous personal items.
They will start again in the morning.

 

[distracted 1976]

http://www.kron4.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=3108
Over 700 bones recover as of late this afternoon along as numerous personal items.
They will start again in the morning.

According to article this brings the total of bones to around 1000! Answers are coming for many families!

 

[JDB]

And this is only the well. This is not counting where they started the search last week in calaveras county where they found Cyndy. That one to is still going on.

 

[Kimster]

Here are a couple of ladies that might have been hitchhiking along the Highway 49 areas back in the 80s. I just wonder....

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/burmer_jo.html

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/j/jacobus_ruth.html

 

[Kimster]

Linden is between San Andreas and Stockton. San Andreas is along Highway 49, also known as the Gold Country. Stockton is in central California, farming country. Stockton is along the 5 freeway and not far from highway 99. I wanted to help you guys if you're trying to think of some missing persons that might be victims in this case. (I used to live in California and am pretty familiar with this area).

linden california - Google Maps

 

[bessie]

The Charley Project now lists both Cynthia Vanderheiden and Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler as "Resolved".

Cynthia Ann Vanderheiden and Chevelle Yvonne Wheeler

​

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

Wheeler’s mother Paula told CBS over the phone from Tennessee that the sheriff’s office called her and told her the remains were found wrapped in a blanket where Shermantine indicated they would be and that the clothes appeared to match what Chevy was wearing when she went missing.

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/20...-remains-resumes-in-speed-freak-killing-case/

 

[Kimster]

Check out Dena McHan's story:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/mchan_dena.html

Missing person is assemblywoman's cousin; case led her to crusade against Loren Herzog's release
http://www.lodinews.com/news/article_3e561aa7-9215-5fd3-8228-fcedd15ba5ca.html

 

[Kimster]

Also missing from Stockton are

Kimberly Billy: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/billy_kimberly.html

Gayle Marks: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/marks_gayle.html

Karen Sterzl: http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/s/sterzl_karen.html

 

[bessie]

I wonder if Shermantine and/or Herzog were responsible for the disappearance of Gail Marks:

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/m/marks_gayle.html

The timeframe and location are right. The presumed remains of Wheeler and Vanderheiden were found only 20 miles from Stockton.


ETA:

... or Kimberly Billy

http://www.charleyproject.org/cases/b/billy_kimberly.html

Both girls are on this list of possible victims posted at CBS Sacramento

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/phot...ers-victims-and-possible-victims/#photo-88633

Other missing persons on the list:

Ruth Ann Leamon
Susan Robin Bender
Sylvia Lourdes Stanley
Theresa Ann Bier
Sherie Ann Graves
Michaela Joy Garecht
Christine Marie Sexton
Phillip Lloyd Cabot Martin
Karen Knechtel Mero
Hannah Marie Zaccaglini

JoAnn Hobson is listed but I can't find a MP listing for her. Her mother did speak to reporters this week. JoAnn was 16 when she went missing from Manteca in 1988.

 

[Kimster]

I totally glossed over Carl's post. :doh: It must be past my bedtime!

Thanks for that link, Bessie! I'm really hoping all these families have closure very very soon.

 

[bessie]

Looks like we were on the same wavelength though, Kimster. LOL

 

[CarlK90245]

Both girls are on this list of possible victims posted at CBS Sacramento

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/phot...ers-victims-and-possible-victims/#photo-88633

Other missing persons on the list:

Ruth Ann Leamon
Susan Robin Bender
Sylvia Lourdes Stanley
Theresa Ann Bier
Sherie Ann Graves
Michaela Joy Garecht
Christine Marie Sexton
Phillip Lloyd Cabot Martin
Karen Knechtel Mero
Hannah Marie Zaccaglini

JoAnn Hobson is listed but I can't find a MP listing for her. Her mother did speak to reporters this week. JoAnn was 16 when she went missing from Manteca in 1988.

Thanks for pointing that out. I was tempted to call in Gail Marks and Kimberly Billy, but I decided against it, figuring that those two had to have already been on their radars.

There are two high schools in Manteca (East Union HS and Manteca HS), but I couldn't find any photos of JoAnn Hobson in Classmates for either East Union HS 1988 or Manteca HS 1987. The Manteca HS 1988 book was not available.

 

[Irish_Eyes]

This updated article says 1000 bones found, and more purses, jewelry, etc. continuing to turn up.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/02/15/justice/california-human-remains/index.html?hpt=hp_t3