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

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Pettibon Junction said:
Local LE at the time seemed to have a pretty good idea who was behind these crimes. They even had two good suspects: a local sex offender and ex-con who committed suicide after being interviewed, and the aforementioned junior college writing professor with links to at least one of the victims who died in a car accident.
Click to expand...
Who was the "local sex offender" they were looking at?
 
There were enough similarities between these deaths that police and the FBI strongly believed they were all carried out by the same perpetrator, and the list of possible victims would only grow, with numerous other murders and unidentified remains attributed to the same killer over the years, many showing the same hallmarks as the others, having been raped, strangled, and unceremoniously dumped into ravines or off of steep embankments. In total there were at least 8 additional deaths and disappearances suspected of being tied to the others, and authorities were desperate for answers, clues, and suspects.
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In the absence of any solid suspects, investigators turned to known killers, of which many were on the loose in California at the time. One idea was that this was all the work of the notorious Zodiac Killer, who claimed to have killed 37 people in the San Francisco Area within the same time period as the Santa Rosa murders, but there was no solid evidence to this effect. The infamous serial Ted Bundy was also considered, who would confess to raping and killing dozens of women throughout the West, eventually claiming at least 100 killings before he was executed. Bundy was known to follow a similar pattern to the Santa Rosa killings, as he would rape, strip, and strangle, and dump the remains near roads, and he claimed he had been operating from 1969 all the way up to his capture in 1978. One police detective Robert Keppel would say of Bundy as a potential suspect:

Bundy is definitely a good suspect. The killings in Santa Rosa would fit his methods, he spent time in the area, and I’m sure he started killing well before 1974. It was an open market for Bundy.
thevanishinghitchhiker.jpg

Despite this, there is little evidence to place Bundy in the Santa Rosa area at the times of the killings, in fact it was most likely he was in Washington, and it remains a dead end. Other suspects were pursued as well. One of these was a man in Vallejo named Arthur Leigh Allen, who owned a trailer home in Santa Rosa and was a former student at Sonoma State University and convicted child molester. Interestingly, he had also been considered a suspect in the Zodiac Killings at one point, but this had fallen through when there was not enough evidence. Allen was never able to be tied to the Santa Rosa murders either, and his potential role in them remains a mystery.

Another idea is that this was the doing of some occult or Satanic cult operating in the area. The witchcraft symbol points to this, as does the fact that all of the bodies had been dumped on the east side of the road, seen to have some sort of occult significance, and this has been speculated as suggesting the victims were some sort of human sacrifices. Again, there is no real concrete evidence for this either, and it remains just another amorphous theory to add to the rest. In the end the phantom Santa Rosa hitchhiker killer has never been caught, the murders never solved, and it remains one of the eerier and more sinister unsolved crime sprees the state has ever seen.
The Phantom Hitchhiker Killer of Santa Rosa | Mysterious Universe
 
I’m confused with this thread. I’m thinking just from skimming the posts that several players are under investigation. I think these posts are involved but maybe not. They are current somewhat current. This one is detail oriented an worthy of a read:

Fascinated with the cold case disappearance of two teenage girls whose skeletal remains were found in July of 1979 in Mendocino County, Willits man George J Dorner wrote the following synopsis of what is known and speculates that their deaths have similarities to what occurred with victims of a convicted murderer and rapist.

Using information he found online, his own files, and a book called Lost Coast Highway, he wrote the following description of what he believes to have happened: see link:
...............................................................................................
Usually, when a case is this old, the possible witnesses have died or gotten lost in the turmoil of American society. This case is unusual because the youth of the victims means many of the victims’ contemporaries are still alive; some are still living in Sonoma County. There may be unexplored leads in their memories. Certainly, they have apparently never been interviewed.

This case may just need one last clue, another lead, a final bit of information, for solution. If you have aany information concerning this case, please call the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office at (707) 463-4411. Kerry and Francine deserve justice.
Hitchhiking to Oblivion: The Unsolved Case of Two Girls Found Dumped Over the Side of the Road in Mendocino County – Redheaded Blackbelt
 
Lately I have been looking into serial killings. I have noticed in a variety of states, there are certain years where a large group of individuals went missing. I was looking at a case of a girl that went missing in 1993 and when looking on the doenetwork.org I noticed a large amount of individuals went missing in California between the years of 1968 and 2008.

I wanted to search for the missing individuals on here before creating a thread. I came across this thread and noticed that there are a variety of serial killers that killed during these years in california. I wanted to create a new thread and list a serial killer and the possible related missing person to that killer. I think it might be easier to do this rather than keep replying to this thread.

So for example, one person could post all the possible missing person cases that are related to the zodiac killer ( i am a ware there is a forum for the zodiac killer already but there are so many posts that it is overwhelming at this point). Please let me know if this is a good idea or what we could do to connect each of these individuals to one killer.

There is a total of 467 women missing between this time frame in California. There is a total of 702 men missing between this time frame (i might have miscounted). I am aware that some killers did seek both genders that is why I included both.

I would like to make this simple and create a forum for each killer and the murders that have been identified for that killer and ones that could be related. My hope is that every individual during this time frame can have someone look at their case and they do not become forgotten.

If this is too complicated I understand. It is just crazy to see this many people missing over 40 years. Some years had at least 15 missing people. There is no doubt in my mind that most of these individuals were a victim of a serial killer and I want to make sure that we can solve as many cases as possible. I think this is our best shot at doing that. Please let me know what you think :)
 
Here is some more information about Ted Bundy possibly being a suspect in some of these cases:

Answers, Part One: A new lead in the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders
December 23, 2019 Tags: Alissa Turney, arizona, California, delphi, I-5 Strangler, indiana, murder, Roger kibbe, santa rosa, ted bundy, unsolved



  • weber_1.png

    Yvonne Weber
  • sterling_1.png

    Maureen Sterling
Yvonne Weber and Maureen Sterling:
On February 4, 1972, Yvonne and Maureen went to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena like many students from their school. One of those students, their friend Mary, clearly remembers that night. She wrote into Jensen and Holes: The Murder Squad to share what she saw that night.

Mary says that she was invited by Yvonne and Maureen to go smoke pot with an older man in the grove next to the ice skating rink. Mary declined but said she got a decent look at the guy-he had dark hair, looked at least twenty, was slender and clearly didn't belong at the arena.

It was the last time she saw Yvonne and Maureen. Mary says the police came to the school after the two young teens disappeared. According to Mary, the police just wanted to know where the girls would have gone-not if she saw anything.

After all these years, Mary says the man she saw that night before her friends disappeared resembled a young Ted Bundy. She hopes by coming forward and giving this information, other people who were there that night might also come forward with information.

Answers, Part One: A new lead in the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders - The Murder Squad
 
Here is another recently posted You Tube video about the cases:

 
The podcast had an interview with a woman who claims she was a friend of Yvonne and Maureen who was with them at the Skatepark that night. She said they told her they were going off to smoke some weed with a guy they had just met. She declined but saw the guy who she described as tall &thin, 17 to 20, neatly dressed in denim with short, dark hair. She thought he looked like Bundy. She claimed she never told this to the police because they were only interested in knowing where the girls had gone.

I’m a little skeptical since there was a witness who reported seeing them hitchhiking near the Skatepark and that witness came forward at the time. Two 12 year olds going off to smoke pot with a much older guy was not the “norm” at the time but like 12 year olds hitchhiking, it isn’t that improbable.

There were so many young girls murdered or missing in the Bay Area at the time who were believed to have been hitchhiking. There were some known Serial Kills and probably a few who have never been identified. There were probably a lot of one off’s that have not been solved. While there is a perception that most murdered young girls are the victims of predators on the prowl for the vulnerable, a more common scenario is that they are killed by a boy who they either knew or was part of their social circle and went with them consensually. These cases are usually solved but some are not and can be attributed to a serial killer type predator.

I doubt the SRHM were all done by the same perpetrator but most, like most of the similar unsolved Bay Area cases will not be solved because there is no DNA and so much time has elapsed. Witnesses and perps start to die off and the murders become part of history. Today the Bay Area is very different, it has become a high income low crime region. Fires and homelessness are big problems but sexual predators prowling the highways are not.
 
As long as we are throwing random "celebrity" serial murderers into the suggestion box, how about Gary Ridgeway? the Long Island Serial Killer? Jack the Ripper?

There never seems any consideration of modus operandi, signatures, or geographic familiarity--just throw a random name from the tabloids against the wall and hope it sticks. It's silly to do this without any consideration of known facts. In many cases, the poster doesn't even check to see if the designee was free or imprisoned.

Listen, folks. Franz Valley Road is so obscure, that a killer would just about have to live there to locate it. The idea that someone notorious drove into town and started dropping bodies back there is ludicrous. If you will refer back to Posts #18, 52, and 54, you will see a very thorough exploration of m.o., etc.
 
And regarding Post #18....
Rereading it leads me to such an obvious "slap to the forehead" conclusion. While there is speculation he had a job in the neighborhood, everyone (self included), no one has suggested he lived out there. Duh.
 
So here goes. Given that serial killers are creatures of gruesome habits, they either operate within familiar turf, or are peripatetic and opportunistic. The SRHHM is obviously not the latter.
There were two clumps of three victims--one trio on Calistoga Road, the other three on Franz Valley Road.
If he lived along Calistoga Road and felt comfortable dropping bodies there, why would he take some victims back in the boonies to Franz Valley Road? Answer: it's unlikely.
On the other hand, if he lived on Franz Valley Road, he had to constantly traverse Calistoga Road to go home to Franz Valley. If he couldn't take victim(s) there for some reason, he could have quickly chucked them over the side of Calistoga Road before he returned home.
So, based on actual factual info contained in this thread, I believe the murderer not only fitted my profile in Post #18, but lived on Franz Valley Road.
 
Also, if his Franz Valley residence was the enclosed murder site posited above in Post #24, he preferred to drop the remains over on Calistoga Road if he could. And with an obscure house on lightly occupied Franz Valley Road, the sadist could hold and torment his victims for extended periods of time before murdering them.
 
Hmmm....

I've been reading about Joseph Naso a bit today. While his known victims were a bit older, there was consideration for his being responsible for the Alphabet Murders, and those girls were certainly young.

Naso strangled, tortured, and dumped in rural areas. I'm not sure if he collected earrings. He definitely had a thing for pantyhose & lingerie. He had a large collection of bondage related stuff, which fits your profile. Probably not unusual for a guy like him, but noting.

I can't find a clear connect too to Calistoga specifically, but he was definitely active in the area and time. He was noted to "disappear" for extended periods of time from family life too, when he lived in Piedmont. I wonder if he had a camper?
 
I'm not knowledgeable about Naso, but the m.o. does seem to fit.
 
A Youtube clip on Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen:
The clip makes some interesting connections that point to Allen being the Zodiac. The Santa Rosa coverage is interesting.
 

Fredric "Fred" Manalli, 41
Born 7 March 1935 Died August 1976

Fred Manalli, a Santa Rosa Junior College Creative Writing Professor, was considered a potential suspect in 1976 following his death in a car crash. Investigation into his death turned up some clues linking him to victim Kim Allen, who had once been one of his students.

Manalli had been infatuated with Allen, and had drawn numerous sexual drawings featuring her likeness. Also found in his possession at the time of his death were pictures of himself cross-dressing, a lock of hair he kept in his wallet, and reams of writings heavily featuring sadomasochism, sex slavery, and sexual torture.

In the end, however, there was no concrete evidence to prove that Manalli was responsible for Kim Allen’s death or the deaths of any of the other Santa Rosa victims.
 
Victims of the Santa Rosa Hitch Hiker serial killer

Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber, both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students, disappeared around 9 pm on February 4, 1972, after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. Their bodies were found December 28, 2.2 miles north of Porter Creek Road on Franz Valley Road, down a steep embankment approximately 66 feet off the east side of the roadway. A single earring, orange beads and a 14-carat gold necklace with cross were found at the scene. The cause of death could not be determined from the skeletal remains.

Kim Wendy Allen, 19, Santa Rosa Junior College art student, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Food to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa. The victim had been bound at the ankles and wrists, raped and slowly strangled with a cord for an estimated thirty minutes. Semen was recovered from the body and a single gold loop earring was found at the site. Markings at the top of the embankment and a possible leg impression in the loam indicated the assailant likely slipped or fell while throwing or transporting the body. The two men who gave her a ride, one of whom was given and passed a polygraph test, were ruled out as suspects.

Lori Lee Kursa, 13, a Lawrence Cook Middle School student, had been reported missing by her mother on November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away. She had been known to hitchhike occasionally. Her frozen remains were located on December 14 in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa. The killer had thrown the body at least 30 feet over an embankment.
The cause of her death was a broken neck with compression and hemorrhage of the spinal cord. The victim had not been raped and likely died one to two weeks prior to discovery. A possible witness to her abduction later came forward stating that on an evening somewhere between December 3 and 9, while on Parkhurst Drive, he saw two men push a girl fitting Kursa's description into the back of a van driven by a Caucasian man with an Afro-type hairstyle. The vehicle then sped north on Calistoga Road.

Carolyn Nadine Davis, 14 years old, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on February 6, 1973 but disappeared July 15 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp, southbound, in Garberville. Her body was discovered on July 31 just 3 feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months prior. Cause of death was strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before discovery. It could not be determined if she had been raped. Investigators postulated that her body had been thrown from the road as the hillside brush appeared undisturbed. A witchcraft symbol meaning "carrier of spirits" was found by her body.

Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, of Miranda, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and was determined to have been dead approximately one week. Due to recent heavy rains in the area, high water marks suggested the body could have drifted several miles.

Unidentified Female Victim
On July 2, 1979, skeletal remains were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. Due to the age of the remains, authorities initially believed them to be those of Jeannette Kamahele until a comparison of dental records later proved negative. The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder but there was no other evidence to establish a cause of death. It was determined that the unidentified victim was approximately 16 to 21 years old, wore contact lenses, had red, auburn, or brown hair, was about 5 feet tall and at one time had broken a rib which was healed by the time of the murder. She died approximately three years earlier (circa 1976).

Possible victims

Lisa Michelle Smith, 17, was last seen hitchhiking on Hearn Avenue in Santa Rosa, Sonoma County, California. She was last seen on March 16, 1971, she vanished months before the killings started but authorities suspect it is possible she was a victim of the killings. Her body was never recovered.

Jeannette Kamahele, 20, a Santa Rosa Junior College student, was last seen on April 25, 1972, hitchhiking near the Cotati on-ramp of Highway 101. A friend witnessed her likely abduction and reported that she entered a faded brown Chevrolet pickup truck fitted with a homemade wooden camper and driven by a 20- to 30-year-old Caucasian male with an Afro hairstyle. Her body has never been found.

Kerry Ann(e) Graham, 15 and Francine Marie Trimble, 14 of Forestville, California disappeared in mid-December 1978. Skeletal remains were found the following July in Mendocino County where they were dumped off the side of a rural highway, but they weren't identified as belonging to Kerry and Francine until 2015 thanks to DNA analysis. A high school friend said the girls were going to hitchhike to a party in Santa Rosa however had no other information and did not know who they were meeting.

FBI report on additional victims (1975)

In 1975, the Federal Bureau of Investigation issued a report stating that fourteen unsolved homicides between 1972 and 1974 were committed by the same perpetrator. These consist of the six found victims (as of 1975) and the following:
  • Yvonne Quilantang, 15, was found strangled in a vacant Bayview district lot on June 10, 1973. She was seven months pregnant.
  • Angela Thomas, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco. A locket was recovered near the body.
  • Nancy Feusi, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area. Her remains were found on July 22, 1973, in Redding. She had been stabbed to death. In 2011, one of Feusi's five children, Angela Darlene Feusi McAnulty, was convicted of torturing, beating, and starving to death her 15-year-old daughter Jeanette Marie Maples. McAnulty became the second woman ever sentenced to die in Oregon and the first since the 1984 reinstatement of the death penalty.
  • Laura A. O'Dell, 21, missing since November 4, 1973, was found three days later in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. O'Dell's hands were tied behind her back, and the cause of death appeared to be from head injuries or strangulation.
  • Brenda Kaye Merchant, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville.
  • Donna M. Braun, 14, whose strangled body was found on September 29, 1974 in the Salinas River near Monterey.
LINK:
Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders - Wikipedia
 
A potential suspect in at least some of these murders would be Robert Bowman, of Ohio. He had murdered at least one 14 year old girl, Eileen Adams, after abducting her, keeping her tied up in his basement, torturing her, and eventually killing her by driving a large nail into her head. Her body was dumped in Monroe County, Michigan, north of his Toledo, Ohio home.

When Bowman left Ohio, he went out to California, where he lived for a time before eventually ending up in Florida. He was finally (after 40 years) arrested, extradited to Ohio, and is serving a life sentence for the murder of Eileen Adams.
 
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