CA CA - Lisa Smith, 17, Santa Rose, March 16th 1972

I think that is an important point. Inaccurate hair color description is one of my peeves.
Do you know if Lisa is still actually missing? Some state she was found and others state she has never been located and is a presumed victim of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders
 
It is also worth noting that her page was taken down from the Charley Project website sometime in 2013.

I did a scan on the Wayback machine and found her old profile.

As far as I can find, there was no update given.
 
It is also worth noting that her page was taken down from the Charley Project website sometime in 2013.

I did a scan on the Wayback machine and found her old profile.

As far as I can find, there was no update given.
Meaghan took that down because she doesn’t know if Lisa is still missing.
 
Hey Websleuths. I did some research on the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders tonight and I'm at a bit of a dead end on something I want to look into. I was hoping someone could help.

I was wondering if you could help me with an investigative lead to look into the subject of a newspaper article involving one "Edward Lawrence Moak." He pleaded innocent when charged with raping a 17-year old in 1973. The article says the 17-year old was a hitchhiker. While Moak was from Camarillo, about 420 miles away, the hitchhiker was from Santa Rosa so there is a connection to the area.

I am wondering the outcome of the case and any surrounding details. Also, I could find no hits for Edward Lawrence Moak in any other articles, although I will continue to look (ie. "Ed Moak" "E.L. Moak" "E. Moak" and more). Whatever databases you have access to, please have a look at this guy.

Newspaper article: Page 19 of the May 11, 1973 edition of The Press Democrat.
 

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Lisa Smith

Disappearance
Lisa Smith, 17, was last seen hitchhiking on Hearn Avenue in Santa Rosa, California at around 7:00 PM. She was reported missing by her foster parents. They, along with her friends and boyfriend told deputies they could think of no reason why she would be gone that long. Days later, a young woman checked in at the Novato General Hospital sustaining injuries. She was allegedly beaten by a man after he picked her up as a hitchhiker. She gave the name, "Lisa Smith" and was released after treatment. The hospital today has no records of the incident and detectives are unsure whether they were the same person as the patient gave her age as 21 and "Lisa Smith" is a common name. Smith’s original missing person’s report is also missing, likely purged from the system after so many decades.

On April 1, 1971, the Press Democrat reported Smith was found to have hitchhiked to San Francisco after leaving her boyfriend and her disabled car and stayed with some friends on Third Avenue. It also said Smith and the woman at the hospital were the same people and she was returned to her home in Livermore. However, as a 2011 Press Democrat article stated she was still missing with authorities asking the public for assistance, it would appear the April 1, 1971 article is a hoax.
 
What exactly is the status of Lisa's case? Is she still missing or was she found safe? Santa Rosa Police are listed as the investigating agency. Maybe they would know for certain.
 
A 17 year old girl in foster care disappears and is reported missing. It is not at all unusual for kids in the foster system to run away and if they are approaching 18, (when they would age out of the system anyway), their case is generally ignored but they are on record as a “missing and endangered minor”. I do not know how the CLS (Child Protective Service) would handle situations like that but I suspect they were written off and forgotten.

Soon after, a girl checks into a hospital in a neighboring county (Marin) with injuries sustained while attempting to escape from a driver who had given her a ride and then seemed to be abducting her. She gave the same name as the missing girl but gave her age as 21 and did not claim to have a local address. As her name was very common, the hospitalized girl was only linked to the missing girl after she had been discharged and disappeared again. Later, the local paper reports that she was found safe “ at home with her family” in a different county(Alameda county) Since she had been living with a foster family in Sonoma county, it is unclear what family she was living with. Perhaps her biological family). The missing person case however, was never closed.

This whole situation raises two very tantalizing questions. Could the “Sonoma County” Lisa be an addition victims and, could the “Alameda County” Lisa be a witness who might be able to identify the “ Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Serial killer”. I think it is extremely unlikely that she was attacked once and survived and was attacked again and murdered. Because the name was so common and the child protective services did not use Social Security Numbers it identify clients, no one was ever certain if they were the same person. Since 1972, the “Alameda County” Lisa has probably married and changed her name, no one has been able to track her down. Many internet sleuths have tried.
 
Hello,

I joined Websleuths today strictly so I could post on the case of Linda Smith.

I noticed that the article stating that Linda Smith had been found by her foster family, and that she had been returned home to Livermore, California.

After doing some digging around on local newspaper archives, I was able to see that someone named Linda Michele Smith passed away in Livermore sometime in May 1999. I am not able to get access to the actual newspaper articles themselves (one from a newspaper named the Independent, and one from the Valley Times), but I am able to see dates and names.

I think this could potentially be the same Linda, and I am happy to share the sources with everyone. I know this thread started some time ago, but I'm hoping someone might read this and be able to help
 

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