CA CA - Christine Eastin, 19, Hayward, 18 Jan 1971

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I saw this case featured on Heavy Case File, YouTube channel.

I was struck by how much the suspect sketch looked like Lawrence Bittaker (on the left). The other photo is his rape/murder partner, Roy Norris

toolbox-515125590-58e150183df78c5162a82dd8.jpg
 
Christine Marie Eastin
  • christine_marie_eastin_1.jpg
  • eastin_christine2.jpg
  • eastin_christine9.jpg
  • eastin_christine_car.jpg
  • eastin_christine_sketch.jpg
Eastin, circa 1971; 1969 Ford Maverick; Sketch of suspect

  • Missing Since 01/18/1971
  • Missing From Hayward, California
  • Classification Endangered Missing
  • Sex Female
  • Race White
  • Date of Birth 01/04/1952 (67)
  • Age 19 years old
  • Height and Weight 5'7, 110 pounds
  • Clothing/Jewelry Description A black/brown leather coat, black boots, blue slacks, a red, white and blue pin-striped tunic and a bluish-gold scarf.
  • Medical Conditions There were rumors that Eastin was pregnant at the time of her disappearance, but this has not been confirmed.
  • Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Eastin has a scar on the center of her forehead, three-eighths of an inch in size. She has a surgical scar on her abdomen from an intestinal operation. Eastin's nickname is Christy (sometimes spelled "Christie").
Details of Disappearance
Eastin borrowed her former boyfriend's blue 1969 Ford Maverick on the evening of January 18, 1972 in Hayward, California. She was going shopping with a friend and promised to wash the car before returning it later that night. A photo of the Maverick is posted with this case summary.

Eastin bought a pair of boots while shopping, dropped her friend off, and then continued to Charlie's Car Wash, a self-service wash on Mission Boulevard in Hayward, near her former boyfriend's workplace. She was supposed to pick her him up from work, but never arrived.

The Maverick was located at the wash during the early morning hours of January 19, the following day. Eastin had apparently completed washing the vehicle's exterior before she vanished. The car was locked and papers from the interior were lying on the pavement outside of the driver's door. The police officer who responded to the scene thought it appeared to be staged. There was no sign of Eastin and she has never been seen again.

Her ex-boyfriend was questioned in her case and couldn't provide any useful information; he was eventually eliminated as a suspect. Authorities initially believed Eastin had left Hayward of her own decision, but her family stated all of her personal belongings were still at her residence and it was uncharacteristic of her to leave without warning.

Eastin graduated from Sunset High School six months before her disappearance. She was active in theater in high school, wasn't involved with drugs and didn't associate with the wrong crowd. According to her loved ones, she was trying to get back together with her ex-boyfriend, but he did not want to start seeing her again. Her case was reclassified as an involuntary missing person's case.

In 2019, nearly fifty years after Eastin's disappearance, a witness came forward and said she'd seen Eastin being kidnapped and didn't report it at the time because she didn't realize what she was seeing. She said she saw two men at Charlie's Car Wash in a white van and caught a glimpse of the driver, but not the other man, who was putting Eastin in the back of the van. A sketch of the driver is posted with this case summary. The witness also stated the van had distinctive rectangular side mirrors known as "West Coast Mirrors."

Foul play is suspected in her disappearance.

More photos at link:

Christine Marie Eastin – The Charley Project
 
Bittaker and Norris comitted all their murders in 1979. They met each other while they were in prison in 1976/77.
Bittaker spent most of the early 70s in and out of jail
 
Bumping for Christy. The Charley Project has added more photos of her. This girl was beautiful both inside and out.
 
Christine Marie Eastin, 19, had finished a night of shopping on Jan. 18, 1971 when she disappeared. A car she was driving was later found locked with her purse and scarf on the front seat at Charlie’s Car Wash, 25400 Mission Blvd.

Eastin, who had recently graduated from Sunset High School, had gotten hired at a job and started classes at Chabot College. Police began investigating her disappearance as a kidnapping and murder, but leads went cold soon afterward.

A $50,000 reward exists for information that leads to the conviction of the person responsible for her disappearance.

Hayward: Police seek tips in missing-person cold case
 
StarrChance said:
Found this, perhaps what he was referring too
Unsolved: Hayward woman vanishes in 1971
Former Hayward police officer Dave Legro responded to the car wash back in 1971 and saw the Ford Maverick in the parking lot.

"To me, it looked like it was staged," Legro said.

Legro, now retired, says this case has bothered him ever since.

He says somebody may have tried to make it look like Christy was kidnapped.

"The papers on the ground looked like it was for dramatic appeal," Legro said.

It turns out, there was some drama at the time Christy disappeared.

Christy desperately wanted to get back together with her ex-boyfriend.

"It sounded like he was ready to move on, and she wasn't," Lemmon said.

Perhaps the reason why?

"I learned that she might have been pregnant," Legro said.

Cordova said, 'Very possibly, she could have maybe said, you know, 'I'm pregnant or something, you've got to be with me' or maybe things got out of hand that way."

At the Hayward Police Department, Christy is the oldest missing-persons case.

"We would love to get closure on this case," said Capt. Jason Martinez, who oversees investigations.

He said of Christy's ex-boyfriend, "We've pretty much eliminated him as a suspect."
Click to expand...
StarrChance said:
Found this, perhaps what he was referring too
Unsolved: Hayward woman vanishes in 1971
Former Hayward police officer Dave Legro responded to the car wash back in 1971 and saw the Ford Maverick in the parking lot.

"To me, it looked like it was staged," Legro said.

Legro, now retired, says this case has bothered him ever since.

He says somebody may have tried to make it look like Christy was kidnapped.

"The papers on the ground looked like it was for dramatic appeal," Legro said.

It turns out, there was some drama at the time Christy disappeared.

Christy desperately wanted to get back together with her ex-boyfriend.

"It sounded like he was ready to move on, and she wasn't," Lemmon said.

Perhaps the reason why?

"I learned that she might have been pregnant," Legro said.

Cordova said, 'Very possibly, she could have maybe said, you know, 'I'm pregnant or something, you've got to be with me' or maybe things got out of hand that way."

At the Hayward Police Department, Christy is the oldest missing-persons case.

"We would love to get closure on this case," said Capt. Jason Martinez, who oversees investigations.

He said of Christy's ex-boyfriend, "We've pretty much eliminated him as a suspect."
Click to expand...
With all due respect to former police officer Legro, I think the papers found on the ground by the vehicle are signs of a struggle.
 
I have always thought this was a straightforward opportunistic stranger abduction. Someone driving past the self-serve car wash late at night noticed an attractive woman in a vulnerable situation. He probably drove close to her on the pretense of asking for directions or something. From that point on, it can go in a lot of different directions. Most likely, the abduction would involve an attack to either disable or restrain the victim. Such an attack would likely result in some evidence of a struggle. Anything the victim had in her hands would probably be dropped and scattered. The perpetrator would have no reason to clean up anything from the crime scene. His only priority would be getting out of there.

I don’t know of any photos on the crime scene being available. Any evidence that “ signs of a struggle” were staged would raise the possibility that someone close to Christy was involved. However, unless it is certain that staging occurred, and it doesn't seem to be in this case, it doesn’t really mean anything except that associates of Christy can’t be ruled out.

At this point, without forensic evidence, solving the case is becoming increasingly unlikely.
 
Thanks for sharing your thoughts on this, Kemo. I think that the only way this case is going to be solved is if there is an arrest in other missing persons cases. If this happens, perhaps the perp might confess and reveal Christy's fate.
Another way those papers might have ended up on the ground is if Christy was struggling to get back in the car, trying to loosen the hold of her abductor.
 
raindrops300 said:
Where was Ted Bundy in 1971? Although he preferred brunettes, he did attack a few blondes. I wonder if anyone investigated his whereabouts at that time.
Click to expand...

UMfanforever said:
They don't have anything beyond his own words saying he killed first in 1972. His first murders started in Washington. So I don't think he's the one.
Click to expand...

Bumping as well as saying we can't fully take his word for him not having any cases before '72-3. He was also asked once "what was your first murder?" and refused to answer. He did admit to killing at least 2 in California but they have not been identified, so it may be possible. I did check Ted Bundy: A Visual Timeline by Robert Dielenberg and it says this of January 1971, however:

"January 1971: Ted back again at the Univ. Wash., takes up
studies in psychology." (page 86.)

So that does make him unlikely to be involved here; though he did sometimes take drives for the specific intention of murdering people, but it seems like he did well in these particular classes so probably didn't have as much time to do so in Jan 1971.
 
A_B_N said:
I saw this case featured on Heavy Case File, YouTube channel.

I was struck by how much the suspect sketch looked like Lawrence Bittaker (on the left). The other photo is his rape/murder partner, Roy Norris

toolbox-515125590-58e150183df78c5162a82dd8.jpg
Click to expand...
I've checked on Wikipedia and, apparently, on January 1971, he was free and living in California: "A month after his parole in July 1967, Bittaker was again arrested and convicted of theft and of leaving the scene of an accident. He was sentenced to five years but was released in April 1970. In March 1971, Bittaker was again arrested for burglary."
I also found something curious when trying to find out something more about George Sponsel; I read somewhere he died in an accident a month later, so I look for him on Find a Grave, but I was unable to find a thing; however, when I widen the search I found this: Cheri Lee Askern (1952-1971) - Find A Grave...
Not a word about how she died, but I think is curious because they were the same age, living in the same location... I'm not saying this is related, it just attracted my attention.
At the begining, when I read about her, I thought of Cindy Mellin and, eventually, I started to wonder where Joseph DeAngelo was when Christine vanished (he was a police officer in Exeter, CA), so I think it's a nope.
 
Diane Redfern said:
I've checked on Wikipedia and, apparently, on January 1971, he was free and living in California: "A month after his parole in July 1967, Bittaker was again arrested and convicted of theft and of leaving the scene of an accident. He was sentenced to five years but was released in April 1970. In March 1971, Bittaker was again arrested for burglary."
I also found something curious when trying to find out something more about George Sponsel; I read somewhere he died in an accident a month later, so I look for him on Find a Grave, but I was unable to find a thing; however, when I widen the search I found this: Cheri Lee Askern (1952-1971) - Find A Grave...
Not a word about how she died, but I think is curious because they were the same age, living in the same location... I'm not saying this is related, it just attracted my attention.
At the begining, when I read about her, I thought of Cindy Mellin and, eventually, I started to wonder where Joseph DeAngelo was when Christine vanished (he was a police officer in Exeter, CA), so I think it's a nope.
Click to expand...
In 1971 Joseph DeAngelo was not a police officer yet. He began his career in law enforcement with an internship in June 1972 at the Roseville Police Department. It wasn't until May 1973 that he joined the Exeter Police Department. Based on my research, I do suspect the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker was active in the Fremont/Union City area going back to at least 1972
 
Murder Inc said:
In 1971 Joseph DeAngelo was not a police officer yet. He began his career in law enforcement with an internship in June 1972 at the Roseville Police Department. It wasn't until May 1973 that he joined the Exeter Police Department. Based on my research, I do suspect the East Area Rapist/Original Night Stalker was active in the Fremont/Union City area going back to at least 1972
Click to expand...
True. The problem of me having many tabs to read. Sorry.
 
Christine's NamUs profile was updated yesterday, 12/29/21
She currently has 35 rule outs on her page.
UP489 06/20/1984Spokane WA
UP841901/16/2001 Isle of Wight VA
UP10929 08/19/1971 Josephine OR
UP5556 05/30/1976 Virginia Beach VA
UP7672 04/01/1990 Orange CA
UP8579 01/25/1981 Hanover VA
UP6482 12/30/1979 Frederick VA
UP12683 06/06/2014 Newport News VA
UP6661 02/03/1991 Stafford VA
UP6642 08/07/1986 Chesterfield VA
UP6796 11/18/1985 Alleghany VA
UP6303 01/26/1997 Warren VA
UP7690 09/11/2005 Orange CA
UP6629 02/03/1991 Frederick VA
UP6665 05/14/2007 Petersburg VA
UP10647 06/07/2006 San Mateo CA
UP8493 12/06/1993 Fairfax VA
UP9938 01/11/1987 San Mateo CA
UP6259 04/22/1981 Lawrence OH
UP1567 06/01/1987 Knox TN
UP2512 06/07/1979 San Bernardino CA
UP7519 06/06/1990 Elko NV
UP8425 09/30/1990 Washoe NV
UP2505 10/15/1976 San Bernardino CA
UP3153 04/19/1981 Will IL
UP6150 11/07/1998 Stafford VA
UP8821 10/11/1991 Hartford CT
UP8642 03/30/2011 Fulton GA
UP8191 03/29/1999 Hamilton TN
UP8427 07/17/1982 Washoe NV
UP8077 01/02/1989 Tulsa OK
UP4790 04/24/1981 Miami OH
UP5203 01/12/2004 Marion OR
UP6249 11/14/1980 Rockingham VA
UP2703 06/15/1993 Douglas CO
 
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