CA CA - Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, 7 girls/young women, 1972-1973

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Did kemo and I accidentally solve an old missing person case?
 
Singleton sailed out of New Orleans until 1968. Investigators there found no criminal background on him locally, once they checked. It is noted that no foreign investigations took place.

In 1968, Singleton moved to Oakland and began sailing with American President Lines on their cruise ships. In 1970, while serving as navigator of the S.S. President Wilson, he became involved with the ship's nurse. She became his second wife. Shortly after their marriage, he returned to New Orleans to ship out with Central Gulf Lines. He took the post of Chief Mate on the S.S. Green Wave, hauling munitions to the Vietnam War. To quote "The Mad Chopper" on the matter:

"While Henry Kissinger had brokered a peace agreement to end the Vietnam War in December 1972, that didn't stop the stockpiling of arms."

The Green Wave sailed to Saigon, Danang, Guam, Midway Island, Korea, Okinawa, Taiwan, and Yokohama. By 1975, Singleton and the Green Wave were transiting the Panama Canal. In New Orleans, he switched ships to the S.S. Green Valley, which made runs to Europe, the Red Sea, and the Persian Gulf.

I got this from the only true crime book I could find on Singleton. It's called "The Mad Chopper".

So, fellow Sleuths, was Singleton even in-country when the Hitchhike Murders were committed?
 
Thank you DebbS. Hopefully the crimes can be solved regardless of the condition of the crime scenes.

The following is in my humble opinion: I get the feeling the killer(s) are local to Santa Rosa and or Calistoga, CA. They were comfortable in that neck of the woods. They knew who was coming and going and when there would be nobody around and they could dump the women there.

People who, during the 1970s resided either the Franz Valley/Calistoga Road or Mark West Springs Road areas must have had their suspicions at the time, or perhaps later upon contemplation. He would be that unruly person or persons who seemed weird and lived in the vicinity of where the bodies were found. I am going to guess someone has an idea of who is responsible.
 
Re Post #63 above:

Mountain Mama approaches an issue I don't recall being mentioned in this case. As noted earlier in this thread, the victims seem not to have been murdered at their drop sites. So where were they murdered?

Location of murder site(s) could still be informative, even after all these years. I intend to invoke Occam's Razor in this speculation. Simply put, the simplest answer is usually the correct one.

First step, is a killer likely to use more than one site? My reply would be, Only if he must. People are creatures of habit.

Next step, would the murder site be near the drop sites, or would it be further away? Well, the further a body must be transported, the more likely the killer might be stopped or seen. So the Razor cuts toward a local murder site.

Next step. Outdoor or indoor? If you recall, some of these women took at least half a horrid hour to die. What motive, then, for an outdoor murder site subject to discovery, or even interruption of the torment?

Perhaps this reasoning seems longwinded, but it leads us to suspect an indoor murder site somewhere in or along the Calistoga Road or Franz Valley Road or vicinity.
 
I just took another look at Deborah Carrick. I found this article on her in the Arizona Daily Sun of 17 October 2013: http://azdailysun.com/blogs/crimina...cle_cac46b12-3777-11e3-8c74-0019bb2963f4.html

It seems she was hitchhiking from Maryland to California. Her body was found by the Grand Canyon. Her ID showed up at Hwy 101 and Mark West Road. There is a photo of her in the article. Take a look. Instead of youthful features, long straight center-parted hair, and jeans, Deborah appears to be a cute 35 year old housewife despite being 21. The Santa Rosa victims all appeared to be in their mid teens.
 
That article is an excellent find!

A quick search shows that Deborah was placed in a canyon in Arizona, according to this document: http://www.coconino.az.gov/DocumentCenter/View/451

"1975
Deborah Carrick
was found on Septemer 6 in a side canyon of the Little Colorado River 13 miles
west of Cameron. She had received a severe blow to the head."

The article alludes to a pair of alleged murderers who were operating in the area that Deborah was known to be in at that time, but does not give their names. I think that they could be tied to the SR Hitchhiker murders. It is worth looking at. The fact that Deborah's personal effects were located at Mark Springs Road is chilling.

I am going to see if I can learn the names of the duo who were charged with the other murder near the Grand Canyon National Park when Deborah Carrick was last known to be in that area the same day.

BTW, I totally agree with Burblestein's assessment of a probable murder scene indoors along one of the streets near the dump sites. I think investigators should focus on those neighborhoods and talk to residents before people grow old and pass on. I would be curious to know if anyone who lived there in the 1970s took a trip to the Grand Canyon in 1975...
 
Here are the specifics from the Arizona Daily Sun article cited three posts prior, regarding the connection between Deborah Carrick, whose death likely occurred near the Grand Canyon in AZ, and Santa Rosa, CA.

“Before her body was even discovered, her ID and other belongings were found at an intersection in Santa Rosa, California,” Sumner said. The location, well known to California investigators, was the site of body dumps of four other women who were murdered."

She was thought to have been killed in August, and her body was found in September in the canyon in AZ. Interesting that her ID etc were brought to California, but in all likelihood (imo) she never made it across country to CA.
 
Anyone else heard about James Karis? He was completely out of his mind and operated in Sac County and got caught in 1981 and had a bad meth problem since the late 1960s. He raped and killed.

He definitely traveled to Sonoma County: "Police, tipped off by Karis’ parole officer, apprehend the suspect in Sonoma County one week later."

https://www.newsreview.com/sacramento/making-of-a-killer/content?oid=349512
 
I had never heard of James Karis before. This article is a horrific read.

However, there is no similarity between the murder he committed and the Santa Rosa murders. He didn't strip his victim naked after killing her, and then throw her down an embankment, for instance.
 
I hadn't heard of him either, and stumbled upon him while searching for the other murder that took place in Grand Canyon area of AZ round the same time of Debra Carrick's murder. I was unable to determine the name of the young man who was killed for the use of his vehicle. I wish it were easy to find out, but I spent a while using different keywords and couldn't find out who he was or who the two people were who were convicted of his death.
 
If Deborah Carrick's ID and other belongings were found at Mark West Springs Road and Hwy 101, they were found over 10 miles from the nearest body drop site, as can be seen from this map: https://www.google.com/maps/dir/38....fa92c0d788!2m2!1d-122.748529!2d38.4965808!3e0

If she actually fell victim to the Santa Rosa Hitchhike Murderer, she will be an exceptional one. She would be the first victim whose ID and belongings were found. She would be the first whose face differs from the mid-teen semi-hippie looks of the other victims. Her remains were not dropped near Santa Rosa. Although Deborah's body was found in a canyon, by my reading it was not dropped into the canyon nor hurled down an embankment.
 
Re: Posts # 18 and 24 above:

Reference to the decision table I developed shows an interesting pattern. The age distribution of the Santa Rosa victims is 12, 13, 13, 15, 19, 19, and 23 years. The girls found outside Willits were 14 and 15. The three victims tortured to death by hogtying were the two 19 year olds and the 23 year old. To me, this indicates rage that he had snatched victims that didn't satisfy his twisted urges because they were too old. He wanted to grab a child, and ended up with a woman instead. In any case, I think he is a murderous child molester. I think he is local to Santa Rosa. And I doubt he is a notorious serial killer. I admit such a doubt is my own opinion, but I believe the facts in this thread will support it.
 
My preferred suspect is college professor Fred Manalli. He had explicit writings on Kim Wendy Allen if I'm not mistaken, and sometimes discussed the act of murder in letters to friends, acquaintances, and colleagues as if he had done it before.

A shady and EXTREMELY suspicious character!
 
Sailor, I tend to agree with you concerning Manalli and Kim. However, so far no one discussing these murders has posted a MSM link to Manalli. Thus the info I have gathered so far about him is the equivalent of internet hearsay. And I am not hearing anything that connects him with the Calistoga Six.

I believe there is a common murderer for the six girls dropped off Calistoga Road or Franz Valley Road.

And there is nothing to connect poor Jeannette Kamahele to the series of six, or to Kim. Jeannette simply vanished in the midst of the murders.

As for Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble, the girls that were dropped outside Willits...I think Jackie Ray Hovarter murdered them.
 
The link posted below leads to interesting information regarding a sighting of a gold and white pick up truck with a homemade camper shell. Said vehicle was seen by a Websleuther as it was parked on the side of I-80, near the Donner Summit in the immediate vicinity of a large scale police investigation.

I am linking this here since a pick up with a homemade camper shell is suspected to be tied to the Santa Rosa murders. The Donner Summit and Santa Rosa are several hours from one another.

The recently sighted camper sounds like it could possibly have been related to a crime. Does anyone recall what color the truck was that was associated with the SR hitchhiker killings?

Here is to seeing a break in this case soon.

http://www.websleuths.com/forums/showthread.php?168897-NV-I-80-Serial-Killer
 
Although I don't think he is responsible for the srhm I do believe Jackie Ray Hovarter is a strong suspect for the murders of Trimble and Graham. Hwy. 20 was the major truck route servicing the mills in fort Bragg the pullout where the bodies where found is the first one heading west that seems both heavily forested and large enough to easily accomadate a semi truck. I wonder if trucking logs, shipping and receiving records or some of the millworkers from that time could place him along this route. However there are eery similarities to the srhm including the double abduction, bodies found together, No clothes, one missing earring. I don't think Hovarter was responsible for any other of the srhm because he was sloppy and fortunately seemed this got him caught before he could really get good at being a killer. Also it's a longshot but I wonder if the mysterious extra tooth found at the hwy. 20 dumpsite which is said to have either native American or Asian has had DNA analysis possible link to Jeanette Kamahele? Maybe the tooth was left on purpose?
 
kemo said:
Sonoma Coed Killer – questersite

Lisa Smith may have been an early victim of the SRHM but she survived. Apparently she left her foster home in Santa Rosa, perhaps returning to Livermore. The problem with any attempt to locate her is that there are so many Lisa Smiths.


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Click to expand...

The suspect, Lance Jeffrey Voss, in the Lewis-Clark Valley Serial murders lived in the Bay area at the times of these murders. The FBI according to sources on the web added to the list of victims - Rosa Vasquez, Yvonne Quilantang, Angela Thomas, Nancy Patricia Gidley, Laura O'Dell (these victims were found within 4 miles of an address that Voss can be tied to) and Nancy Feusi, Brenda Kaye Merchant and Donna M. Braun. Voss moved to Idaho, but he continued to have ties to the California bay area until the mid 80's.
 
Crescent Crow said:
The suspect, Lance Jeffrey Voss, in the Lewis-Clark Valley Serial murders lived in the Bay area at the times of these murders. The FBI according to sources on the web added to the list of victims - Rosa Vasquez, Yvonne Quilantang, Angela Thomas, Nancy Patricia Gidley, Laura O'Dell (these victims were found within 4 miles of an address that Voss can be tied to) and Nancy Feusi, Brenda Kaye Merchant and Donna M. Braun. Voss moved to Idaho, but he continued to have ties to the California bay area until the mid 80's.
Click to expand...
I am intrigued. This man, LV, circumstantial evidence seems to swirl around him involving numerous other suspicious deaths. Does anyone know if he is incarcerated? I will need to dig deeper in order to consider the possibility of him being the SR Hitchhiker Murderer.
 
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