CA CA Sherry Lynn Smith, 15, Eel Rock, 2 May 1976

burblestein

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jul 13, 2016
Messages
1,438
Reaction score
1,323
Sherry was raised in the hills of Mendocino County, which can be rather lonely. On 30 April 1976, she eagerly attended a dance at Garberville's Firemen's Hall. Unable to connect with an older man in whom she was interested, she chose to stay at the dance when her ride departed for home. Sherry was last seen headed toward John Annibel's car when the dance ended at 2 AM the following morning.

Her body was found off Eel Rock Road on 2 May 1976, by a motorcyclist making a comfort stop. She had been severely beaten, throttled to death, raped, and left with her pants around her ankles. The similarity to such prior cases as Janet Lee Bowman and Karen Frances Fisher brought Annibel into suspicion on both Sherry's death, as well as the two prior cases.

Despite extensive questioning of Annibel, and numerous interviews of dance attendees, LE was unable to press charges against Annibel. He went on to be convicted in 1999 of the first degree murder of Debbie Sloan.

Source: “Deadfall” by Robert Scott
 
Sherry was raised in the hills of Mendocino County, which can be rather lonely. On 30 April 1976, she eagerly attended a dance at Garberville's Firemen's Hall. Unable to connect with an older man in whom she was interested, she chose to stay at the dance when her ride departed for home. Sherry was last seen headed toward John Annibel's car when the dance ended at 2 AM the following morning.

Her body was found off Eel Rock Road on 2 May 1976, by a motorcyclist making a comfort stop. She had been severely beaten, throttled to death, raped, and left with her pants around her ankles. The similarity to such prior cases as Janet Lee Bowman and Karen Frances Fisher brought Annibel into suspicion on both Sherry's death, as well as the two prior cases.

Despite extensive questioning of Annibel, and numerous interviews of dance attendees, LE was unable to press charges against Annibel. He went on to be convicted in 1999 of the first degree murder of Debbie Sloan.

Source: “Deadfall” by Robert Scott
BBM

Actually, all this took place in Humboldt County. My husband and I lived off Eel Rock Road at the time. Although I didn’t know John Annibel personally, his family lived near us and I knew his grandparents and kids he hung out with. One of them even burgled our house in 1977. For all we know, Annibel helped. It’s too bad he wasn’t charged with Sherri’s murder. It might have saved some lives. But the code of silence in the “Emerald Triangle” is all but impenetrable.
 
I stand corrected. However, the area in question lies near the Mendo line.
 
I stand corrected. However, the area in question lies near the Mendo line.

I figured it was a typo. :) I knew you really didn’t mean to claim SoHum and Garberville for Mendocino County! It’s a stepchild even in Humboldt. :D
 
Sherry was raised in the hills of Humboldt County, which can be rather lonely. On 30 April 1976, she eagerly attended a dance at Garberville's Firemen's Hall. Unable to connect with an older man in whom she was interested, she chose to stay at the dance when her ride departed for home. Sherry was last seen headed toward John Annibel's car when the dance ended at 2 AM the following morning.

Her body was found off Eel Rock Road on 2 May 1976, by a motorcyclist making a comfort stop. She had been severely beaten, throttled to death, raped, and left with her pants around her ankles. The similarity to such prior cases as Janet Lee Bowman and Karen Frances Fisher brought Annibel into suspicion on both Sherry's death, as well as the two prior cases.

Despite extensive questioning of Annibel, and numerous interviews of dance attendees, LE was unable to press charges against Annibel. He went on to be convicted in 1999 of the first degree murder of Debbie Sloan.

Source: “Deadfall” by Robert Scott
 
Sherry Lynn’s Last Dance

Factually based on Robert Scott’s Deadfall. (My local insights are also included, in parentheses.) [Heads up! Lilibet’s insights are likely to be even more local.]

In early 1976, 15 year old Sherry went on a road trip down Highway 101 from bucolic northern California’s Emerald Triangle to the Bay Area city of Los Gatos CA. Sherry had been raised on Fruitland Ridge, some miles off the highway and into the woods; she had grown up there with her two sisters; her neighbors included the fraternal Annnibel twins. Now she was going south to visit her father and stepmother.

==Map: Los Gatos to Myers Flat==
Google Maps

After a week in the big city, Sherry felt overwhelmed and wanted to go home. She boarded the bus with the intent of breaking her journey to visit friends before she returned to her mom’s place. (Though Scott says Fruitland Ridge is in Miranda, the Google Map places it closer to Myers Flat.)

Sherry got off the bus in Garberville. She visited with her friend Glenda for several days. Like the Smiths, Glenda’s family also lived some miles east of the main highway, although in Alderpoint.

On 30 April, Sherry, Glenda, and Glenda’s family went to an all-ages dance at the Firemen’s Hall in Garberville, arriving at about 9:30 PM. Sherry quickly arranged for a ride with a friend at dance’s end, to elder sister Pam Smith’s place. Sherry didn’t want to barge in on their mother at 2:30 AM or so.

(Scratch your mental picture of a ballroom of sedate waltzers in ball gowns. Instead, picture an old pioneer barn dance attracting all the bush veterans, hippies, back-to-the-landers, loggers, fishermen, cowboys, Indians, and general isolates from miles about. Dub in a raucous rock sound track. Let the booze and dope flow bounteously while everyone frantically boogies down and madly socializes. Liaisons and assignations are made, dope deals arranged, hookups hooked, friendships and feuds pursued. That’s a NorCal dance.)

Over the next four hours, Sherry danced nine dances with four partners. Five of those dances were with 18 year old John Annibel, who had grown up an outcast among the Fruitland Ridge kids. (Scott says: Tell tale. Generally weird, irrational, and sometimes assaultive behavior.) Annibel wanted to leave before dance’s end. Sherry wanted to stay and socialize. They argued about that.

At some point, she cancelled her arranged ride, to switch to John Annibel’s car. Besides Glenda and two members of her family, three other individuals knew of Sherry’s change of plan.

Sherry was seen to retrieve her luggage from Glenda’s family’s car. She was also seen leaving the dance with John Annibel when it broke up at 2 AM. However, no one actually saw her get in his car. (At this point, most attendees are shopping about for post-dance parties, saying goodbye, etc.) At any rate, six witnesses stated Sherry left, or was planning to leave, with John Annibel.

Her body was found at 6 PM on 2 May 1976 by a motorcyclist stopping to urinate. Sherry had been beaten, strangled, and chucked down an embankment headfirst. She laid just off a bypass that paralleled Eel Rock Road. The bypass was blocked at the downhill end by a fallen tree, and was accessible only from the uphill entry. That bypass was barely visible from the main road; it would almost certainly take local knowledge to know it was there. The bypass was also very near the Annibel residence.

After tracing several leads concerning various individuals, homicide investigators soon settled on John Annibel as the chief suspect. When questioned, Annibel first claimed to have left the dance at midnight. When he found out there were witnesses to the contrary, he changed his tale to leaving at 2 AM, without Sherry. He then failed a polygraph test. His vehicle was searched, apparently with no significant finds.

Despite living about a 30 minute drive from the Firemen’s Hall, Annibel did not get home until 3 or 3:30 AM. He turned around and left again at 6 AM and returned at 9. Ironically, one of the two people reporting this was Pam Smith; she was involved with the other Annibel twin and was at their family spread. The other informant on the arrival and departure times was John Annibel’s uncle.

Despite all this circumstantial evidence, John Annibel was never arrested for Sherry’s murder. He would also be suspected in other homicides and disappearances. More on him here:


Suspected in the murder of Janet Lee Bowman, 19, Eureka CA, 30 September 1975: CA – Janet Lee Bowman, 19, Eureka, 30 September 1975

Suspected in the murder of Karen Frances Fisher, 21, Trinidad Head, 18 January 1976: CA - CA – Karen Frances Fisher, 21, Trinidad Head, 18 January 1976

His live-in girlfriend disappeared: Andrea LaDeRoute, 22, Fortuna, March 1980: CA - Andrea LaDeRoute, 22, Fortuna, March 1980

Other websleuths have noted other cases that may be linked to Annibel. One is the double murder of Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble, 16 December 1978: CA - Kerry Graham, 15, & Francine Trimble, 14, Forestville, 16 Dec 1978

Then there is the disappearance of Karen Marie Mitchell from Eureka, 25 November 1997: CA - CA - Karen Mitchell, 16, Eureka, 25 Nov 1997

And then he was finally nailed for murdering Debra Sloan in 1998.

Was it the lack of physical evidence that stayed the prosecutor’s hand in the Smith case? Or do you, my reader, also believe John Annibel should stand trial for Sherry Lynn Smith’s murder? Or, to put it another way, if you were on the jury, would you convict him?
 
Isn't that little settlement by the Eel River next to the enormous boulder in the water called Eel Rock?
 
Isn't that little settlement by the Eel River next to the enormous boulder in the water called Eel Rock?

It was named for the boulder, but although there is probably a cluster of homes, there is no actual town anymore and no one reading here (except perhaps me :)) would know where the area is.
History & Happenings - HUMBOLDT COUNTY - Eel Rock

Sherry’s body was found up on Eel Rock Road, far from the Eel River per Deadfall and my memory.

I lived off of Fruitland Ridge which was nearby and where John Annibel lived, but the nearest town to both is Myers Flat where the P.O. is. That’s why I suggested using Humboldt County, instead of Eel Rock.
 
I've searched Google maps for that little cutoff where Sherry was found, with no luck.
 
Sherrie-Lynn-Smith-238x300.jpg

by Lisa Music
April 4 2022 lengthy article.
A Night of Revelry Ended in Tragedy for 15-Year-Old Sherry Smith – A Cold Case Revisited – Redheaded Blackbelt (kymkemp.com)
''When someone is murdered that we do not know, particularly deaths that occurred decades in the past, we tend to disassociate from the horrendousness of the crime that was committed. Instead, we look at the evidence at arm’s length, keeping to dates and times, often turning victims into two-dimensional characters to protect ourselves from the mental anguish. When you add in multiple deaths over a short period of time, and the possibility that murders may be the work of a serial killer, we further distance ourselves from the lives lost, often focusing on similarities between murders, transfixed on the “whodunit” aspect.

Most people are familiar with Ted Bundy, his looks, his charm, but few can give those same details, or even recall the names, of his victims. This same phenomenon began to happen in Humboldt County in May of 1976. After a third female rape/strangulation occurred within eight months, the county was gripped by the possibility that a serial killer was responsible for the deaths.''

''Deadfall, a book written by Robert Scott about John Annibel, discusses his possible connection to Smith’s murder. The book shared witness accounts that John had danced with Sherry several times at the Fireman’s Hall and that people had witnessed Sherry getting into his vehicle.

Although investigators questioned Annibel in the murder investigation, the family had not suspected John of Sherry’s murder right away. He and his twin brother served as pall bearers at the May 6th funeral for Sherry at Eureka Sunset Memorial Park.

According to Deadfall, Annibel became the prime suspect in Sherry Smith’s murder. He agreed to a polygraph test, the results of which were determined to be inconclusive by local law enforcement. Those results were later analyzed by law enforcement elsewhere that believed the original assessment was wrong. When asked to take a second polygraph, Annibel declined through his lawyer.

Four years later in 1980, Annibel’s girlfriend at the time, Andrea LaDeRoute, 21, went missing. Annibel was a suspect in her disappearance but was never arrested. Her remains were found in 2002 at a property belonging to the Pacific Lumber Company, of which, Annibel was an employee for thirteen years.''
 

Members online

Online statistics

Members online
82
Guests online
1,838
Total visitors
1,920

Forum statistics

Threads
590,993
Messages
17,943,852
Members
228,361
Latest member
SGS3030
Back
Top