CA CA - Carolyn Davis, 15, Santa Rosa, 20 July 1973

DOB: 3 December 1957
Body discovered 31 July 1973
Considered sixth victim of Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer: http://www.websleuths.com/forums/sh...ls-young-women-1972-1973&highlight=Hitchhiker

Carolyn ran away from home and high school in Anderson CA on 6 February 1973. She left about 7 PM wearing a brown leather jacket sporting a fur collar, and some faded jeans.

Shortly thereafter, her parents received a letter from her. It was postmarked Soledad CA, and stated she was a voluntary runaway. LE would later trace individuals mentioned in this letter, in their futile efforts to solve the murder. They would also trace her travels to Illinois and New Mexico. She was also rumored to have traveled to San Diego, but that was not proven.

(Note: Anderson is in the northern Cal, nearing the Oregon border. Soledad is about 350 miles south of Anderson, in central coastal California. Santa Rosa is about half way betwixt them.)

Carolyn was in touch with her grandmother in July 1973. At about 1:30 PM on 15 July, the grandmother dropped Carolyn off in front of the post office in Garberville CA. Carolyn intended to hitchhike south on Highway 101 towards Santa Rosa, which was some 175 miles distant.

(Another note: Anderson and Garberville are both about 175 miles north of Santa Rosa. However, they lay on the two separate major highways in northern Cal, which are separated by an enormous wilderness.)

At about 7:45 PM on 31 July, a motorcyclist spotted Carolyn's body. She had been thrown off Franz Valley Road north of Santa Rosa, and landed within four feet of the body dump site for Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber. The lack of crushing of the hillside bushes and saplings seemed to indicate Carolyn had been launched over the vegetation. Detectives posited that either a very powerful individual had thrown her down the bank, or that two people cooperated to supply the motive power.

Carolyn was identified by dental records. The pathologist estimated her date of death as approximately 20 July 1973. Cause of death was strychnine poisoning; means of administration was unknown.

Sources:

Death certificate: http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/docs/dcs/davis_dc.pdf

Santa Rosa Press Democrat: http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/murdered_girl_identified.pdf

http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/another _slain_girl_found_east_of_SR.pdf

http://www.santarosahitchhikermurde...o_is_the_slain_girl_found_off_county_road.pdf

http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/witness_rewards_climb.pdf

http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/dental_chart_may_provide_girls_id.pdf

http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/lawmen_stymied_in_girl's_slaying.pdf

http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/shasta_girls_death_appears_premeditated.pdf

http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/articles/davis/strychnine_killed_caroline.pdf

Bumping the 45 year old case. She was found and identified but her killers are still unidentified.

EARONS, BTK and Dogs. Applying what we have learned about our canine friends and serial killers.

I believe I have managed to utilize what we have gleaned from EARONS and BTK to develop a pattern for something I call the Northern California Dog Poisoner (1960 - 2000) who used strychnine, a controlled substance. You read the full article here.

He was active at the time Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders (1972-1973) and victim Carolyn Davis was poisoned with strychnine.

The cases are too close to be ignored—same place, same time, literally a few months.

It is looking like he didn't know how much poison he would need to kill a human. The dogs were all given well over the lethal dosage, enough to kill a child. He was expecting a child to be poisoned but the papers revealed to him what the lethal dose for a human would be on the 20th April 1973. Carolyn Davis disappeared on July 15th, 1973.

So strychnine was used to murder a child in the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker crimes within the same time frame that strychnine was used to kill pets in the area.

If you read more about the SRHM crimes the working hypothesis was that a drug addict's fixing could be how strychnine was obtained and that a drug addict carried out that crime.

In my model, that SRHM crime and the dog poisonings are connected to the same offender. That this is stronger than the drug addict hypothesis.

I am surprised this connection to the SRHM crimes was not identified in the newspapers, nor in subsequent public information. Maybe there are articles but I haven't found them in my research yet.

So I am putting forward this alternative because we know more about some serial killers today. That some had a past involving activities around harming animals. This is different however from any claim that harming animals causes serial killers. I am not saying that. I am saying this all lines up far better than any other hypothesis so far because of the timing, location, crimes, and use of strychnine.

I hope this is the important point people would be interested in. I think it is a new pathway and might be the lucky break needed. Strychnine was a controlled substance at the time as covered in the newspaper articles.

I don't believe JJD is responsible for those crimes, BTW. However, like BTK, an analysis of JJD and these crimes seems fruitful in explaining Carolyn Davis through connections with offenses against dogs.