CA CA - Robert Domingos, 18, & Linda Edwards, 17, Santa Barbara Co, 4 Jun 1963

Robert Domingos & Linda Edwards murdered on a beach in Santa Barbara County June 4,1963. They may or may not be early Victims of the Zodiac Killer(due to extremely similar M.O. of a Zodiac attack in 1969)
The young College senior Sweethearts were at an isolated beach for Senior ditch day.Their attacker forced Linda to tie up Robert up using pre-cut lengths of rope, at some point there was a struggle, and the pair was shot. Their bodies were taken to a nearby structure on the beach and the perp tried to light it on fire. In the weeks before, there were sniper incidents on the surrounding beaches. Additionally, an area man was murdered in the days before.
This case needs fresh eyes! I hope we can brainstorm about it. There is an excellent documentary about their case made by high school friend of the pair,John Averitt. It's worth watching!

The documentary- [video=youtube;-MoaULlPWuc]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-MoaULlPWuc[/video]

More about their case-
http://zodiackillersite.com/viewforum.php?f=36

BUmping. Maybe related to Zodiac Killer

Fede said:

BUmping. Maybe related to Zodiac Killer

Click to expand...

The pre-cut rope and getting the woman to tie up the man reminds me of the MO of the GSK.

I have only just looked at this case, because I needed to reassure myself it was not in the Zodiac Cluster.
IMO it isn't related to Z.
The Zodiac didn't move a single body, or pose any of them. He was a classic "Comfort" killer, keeping his distance and probably killing to retain his life-style i.e money, reputation etc. [I've already had my say about Berryessa on that thread]
The Zodiac did not attempt to destroy a single crime scene - he had no need to cover up his crimes.
And three, all the serial killers I am aware of start simple and elaborate crime on crime, they don't start complicated and then devolve.
The business of the Super X ammo can be explained if the Zodiac is the copycat - either because he had read of this crime, or because it had an unknown significance for him.

Linda Edwards and Robert Domingos
Murdered 4 June 1963

Foxinbox Wrote.
they don't start complicated and then devolve.

But the crime was in daylight . He had to go back up to his car on the hiway.
That is a big mistake, and his car was also in plain view.

This crime is earlier than any of the Zodiac Crimes, so it should not be complicated, but it's actually lots more complex than any of the Zodiac attacks.
I don't know what car the Lompoc killer drove, but if it was left on the highway it would be parked there quite a while.
The killer fought with Robert (he had bruised lips)...shot and killed the couple...dragged the bodies 30 ft / 10 metres, one at a time... cut off Linda's clothes...cut her...arranged her body on top of Robert's body...finally attempted to set fire to the crime scene.
If the murderer was very strong, I reckon that would take at least 20 minutes for the car to be parked up on the side of the highway.
Hope this helps.

Foxinbox wrote
This crime is earlier than...
It was daytime so this was not a local person. But anybody could have walked in on what was happening at the shore. And ran back to their car and gone for help before the Killer left.
He must have seen the error in that. Somebody could have remembered something about him or his car, even someone reporting a out of state plates could help after the fact.

You are right about out of state number plates - they would be noticed. So it's unlikely this killer came far. Shell casings matching those from the crime were found in the grounds of a local school, and the ammo sale was traced to Vandenberg AFB.

No Accident
I Can see a lot has been studied in this case. Has anyone found facts that show it was a Ritual
and part of a Medieval drama. Because it is a unusually crude crime.

Crude is a good way of describing it! There's a lot of raw emotion in this murder. Makes me think the killer or killers were young, or maybe low intelligence. I'm not sure about organised ritual, but the killer certainly played out their own agenda. Were you thinking of the Manson murders? The Manson Ranch is only 100 miles away from this crime scene, so I'd say Charlie would be a red-hot suspect, but he was in prison in 1963 and didn't start thinking about forming his cult until 1967.

Robert Domingos, 18 and Linda Edwards, 17 were a young couple very much in love. The two were planning to marry in November of 1963 but on June 4th of that same year, someone put an end to that plan and all their future hopes and dreams. ...

June 4th, 1963 was Senior Ditch Day at Lompoc High School. It was a day which traditionally saw those in the senior year take a day off from classes and spend the day partying instead....

The young lovers drove down to Gaviota Beach near Santa Barbara in Robert’s 1957 Pontiac. He parked the car near some bushes just off Highway 101 and then the couple hiked down the short trail leading to a secluded spot of the beach. Sadly, the two teenagers would never make it home.

The following morning both the teenagers were reported missing. During the search, a friend remembered that Robert and Linda had previously mentioned spending time together at Gaviota Beach. Upon arrival in the area, Robert Domingos dad George Domingos spotted his son’s 1957 Pontiac parked along Highway 101. During a further search of the area, a Highway Patrolman named Paul Schultz came across a shack. On entering Schultz discovered the bodies of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards.

THE SEQUENCE OF EVENTS
After an examination of the murder site and the surroundings, investigators began to put in place a picture of the events which had taken place. Detectives believed that the assailant had first made Linda restrain Robert’s hands behind his back with a piece of pre-cut rope whilst holding her at gunpoint before the attacker himself began to tie up Linda.

At this point, Robert managed to somehow break free... After an altercation, Linda and Robert made a dash for freedom.

Lamentably, the young lovers were gunned down in their bid to escape. After been shot in the back the killer then approached the prone couple and shot them both multiple times at close range.

After the executions, the perpetrator discarded the bodies of Linda Edwards and Robert Domingos inside the shack where their bodies would ultimately be found. The killer had ripped off the swimsuit that Linda Edwards had been wearing but later examination showed she wasn’t the victim of a sexual assault.

The killer then attempted to torch the shack before making his getaway, if he had stuck around he would have seen the fire failed to take hold thus leaving behind several clues. Four boxes of .22 calibre ammunition were found in the shack along with a number of pre-cut bits of rope and some discarded matches...

LINK:

Robert Domingos And Linda Edwards - The Gaviota Beach Murders

Police checked into a few potential suspects in the course of their investigation of this murder. Most of them were ruled out when their alibis were confirmed. One known only as "Sandy" was never located or identified.

Height and weight descriptions of "Sandy" vary widely from one source to another. He was described by two teens who claimed that they robbed an old man, Vern Smith on the same beach only a few days earlier, and that "Sandy" stabbed him to death. A car stolen by the trio was found abandoned in Salinas, California and inside it was found clothing thought to have been owned by "Sandy". Two pieces of the clothing were marked with the names of: Robert Coffman and William Carr - thus the alleged/assumed aliases of "Sandy".

Here is a sketch made of "Sandy" at the time:

Interesting, I'd found references to Sandy in the news reports but I hadn't seen the sketch before. It's very detailed, too much perhaps. I wonder whether he ever existed. = I'm a cynical old fox, I'm afraid.

Foxinbox wrote Where you thinking of Manson murders.

I had been thinking more along the lines of something out of centuries ago. And oversea,s from a part of the world where you are i presume. However i saw No clear indication there was a culture or ritual that would have been applied by the murder in this case.
It maybe he was acting out a part he saw within his home town. He came to the beach armed and dangerous. and like Richard wrote he left four empty boxes of ammo. So that Tells us more about who he was. So a Shooter from out of state who was shooting near his home town and acting a part.

Il Mostro Firenze? The crimes have quite a bit in common. The person who committed the Italian attacks had a serious, serious mental problem. It would be difficult to keep a lid on such a deviant mindset. He'd be incarcerated or hospitalized for some other crime, because his behaviour would have become so erratic. That is possible of this crime also.
There's always Bundy, sub-human little rat that he was. But he liked to get up very close and personal to see the terror in the eyes of his victim and it's not his MO at all. He liked the ladies, and a particular type, too.
I can't think of a European custom or ritual that fits these murders. but although I have a bit of knowledge on folklore, I'm not an expert. How about Central America? There's a definite whiff of Mexican Cartels about this. How about a disturbed drug drop at an isolated beach?

It was a isolated beach
But how about Central America. By the time this happened everybody was going to movies and reading books and comic books. He was probably acting out something he heard about.
And probably when the 2 victims drove to the parking lot it was empty, or nothing there to be concerned about at the time. They knew the area, but still it was along way from home.

I still wonder if the Zodiac Killer did this.