CA Wilson Chouest, suspected SK, known murder victims in Kern and Los Angeles Counties, 1980s

[Springrain]

I will preface this thread by saying that, while we know Wilson Chouest's identity, there is so much about him that we do not know.

Here's some introductory information to help start:

Wilson Chouest was born in New Orleans, Louisiana in December 1951, and is currently 70 years old and incarcerated at Corcoran State. Sometime before 1977 (unclear when), he had moved to California, and in California was known to have kidnapped and raped several women, as well as committed robberies. He was incarcerated sometime after kidnapping and raping women in 1977 and was released in June 1980. He then killed Shirley Soosay in July 1980; Shirley was found murdered in Delano on July 15 and was last seen at a bar in Lemoore. Just three days after Shirley's body was discovered, 5 months pregnant Ventura County/Westlake Village Jane Doe was found murdered in Westlake Village in a high school parking lot. Both women had been violently raped and stabbed repeatedly, and Ventura County Jane Doe was also strangled. He kidnapped, robbed, and raped more women later in 1980 and was successfully charged with those and began serving a life sentence for the numerous abductions, robberies, and rapes he committed. In 2015, he was linked by DNA to the murders of Shirley Soosay (who was then still unidentified, only being identified in 2021) and the pregnant Ventura County/Westlake Village Jane Doe and was charged with those murders.

There is still a lot of information we have yet to discover about him and his whereabouts, as we know he is a Louisiana native but spent a substantial amount of time in California, and could have been anywhere before 1977. Perhaps this can serve partly as a research thread?

 

[Springrain]

OK, this poster provides more information!

Transcription:
Born in Louisiana. Criminal Record dating back to 1969 in LA.
12/68 - 12/70 Served U.S. Army. Discharged with heroin problem.
1972 Arrested for fraud and sentenced to 18 months prison suspended and moved to L.A. Prob.
Between 1974 and 1977 Violated probation and was sent to prison in California for 22 months.
10/1977 Arrested for kidnap and rape of 20-year-old near Topanga Mall.
10/78, plead guilty to kidnap and assault with a deadly weapon. Rape charged dismissed. Sentenced to 4 years in state prison.
6/15/1980 Paroled and went to live with a woman in Lemoore, CA.
9/16/1980 Arrested for kidnap and robbery of two college students at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. He raped one of the women. Sentenced to LIFE.

Also includes a photo of the green 1968 Plymouth he drove at the time of the murders of Shirley Soosay and Westlake Village Jane Doe.

This has been brought up before but worth noting that he attacked the women at the College of the Sequoias and he also claimed to have picked up Westlake Village Jane Doe there.

 

[Springrain]

Forensic reconstructions of Westlake Village Jane Doe:

Description:
Date of Discovery: July 18, 1980
Location of Discovery: Weslake, Ventura County, California
Estimated Date of Death: 12 hours prior
State of Remains: Recognizable face
Cause of Death: Homicide by stabbing and strangulation

Physical Description​

Estimated Age: 15-30 years old
Race: Native American and Hispanic, with small amounts of Sub-Saharan African and Asian ancestry.
Sex: Female
Height: 5'1" to 5'3"
Weight: 110 to 115 lbs.
Hair: Black, shoulder-length with bleached tips. Penciled brows 1/4" above natural, which were shaved.
Eye Color: Brown
Distinguishing Marks/Features: Four-to-five months pregnant with a boy; evidence of prior pregnancies; episotomy scar present. Heavy mascara applied to eyelashes. Red polish on finger and toenails. Mole on back of left hand, below the index finger; other birthmarks were visible on her face. Two vaccination scars on left upper arm. Small ovoid scarring on left knee. Pierced ears. Scar on right buttock.

Identifiers​

Dentals: Available. Extensive dental work. Teeth #24 and #25 mesial lingual rotation.
Fingerprints: Available
DNA: Available.

Clothing & Personal Items​

Clothing: White pullover short sleeve shirt, black bra, white underwear, and red corduroy pants. Black high-heeled open-toe shoes were found near the body.
Jewelry: Unknown.
Additional Personal Items: Unknown.

Circumstances of Discovery​

A Westlake High School employee found the body of a pregnant woman in the school parking lot at 100 Lakeview Canyon Road. The woman had been raped, strangled and stabbed to death. Evidence suggests she was killed at another location.

Investigators believe she may have been from Kern County or the San Fernando Valley.

In 2015, DNA results from scrapings of her fingernails and clothing linked the woman and 59UFCA (discovered in Kern County) to Wilson Chouest, a 63-year-old, who was already in prison. He did not apparently know the victims. He was charged with the murders of the adult victims and this victim's unborn son.

A guilty conviction was reached for the two women. The charges relating to the death of this victim's unborn son were dropped, as a result of law changes taking place in 1994.

The same year, the DNA Doe Project took both cases. Analysis of her DNA suggested she was 60% Native American; mostly apparent on her mother's side. She likely had a Hispanic father, and small amounts of Sub-Saharan African and Asian traits were also observed. Very distant cousins of this woman were identified in various regions of the United States and Central America. The organization released the following surnames in relation to the geographic locations of the woman's family members:

Southern Texas (between San Antonio and Brownsville) and Northeastern Mexico: "Bermea," "Cantu," ''Casares'', "DeLeon," "Garcia," "Garza," Gonzalez," "Guerra-Canamar," "Guevara," "Leal," "Quintanilla," "Robles," "Talamantes," "Tijerina," "Treviño," "Vela," "Villarreal" and ''Zuñiga''.

Northern New Mexico and Southern Colorado: "Cordova," "Gallegos," "Martin-Serrano," "Martinez," "Montoya," "Peralta," and "Romero."

California: "Rios," "Uribes," "Soto," "Lara," and "Romero."

Central Mexico: "Aguirre," "Alvarez," "Arriaga," "Ayala," "Bañuelos," "Chavez," "Escobedo," "Esquivel," "Perez," "Rubio," "Sustaita," and "Zavala."

Guatemala: "Lopez."

 

[Springrain]

He was raised in Louisiana and am pretty sure he was there until he joined the army "at age 18", which would have been in December 1969-December 1970. He was expelled from Catholic school, so I don't know how all this fits in here...Was he in the class of 1969 or class of 1970? (His BD is in December)

When he was expelled from Catholic school, did he attend public school or did his education end? Did he join the army due a court order, which was common back then?
Was he expelled a like age 16 and sat around doing nothing until he joined the army at age 18?


He has alot of family in Louisiana (I'm on one of those genealogy sites and this is where I get birth records, marriage records, divorce records etc)

Bringing this forward from the Westlake Village Jane Doe thread. Thank you Friday Fan.

 

[Friday Fan]

OK, this poster provides more information!

Transcription:
Born in Louisiana. Criminal Record dating back to 1969 in LA.
12/68 - 12/70 Served U.S. Army. Discharged with heroin problem.
1972 Arrested for fraud and sentenced to 18 months prison suspended and moved to L.A. Prob.
Between 1974 and 1977 Violated probation and was sent to prison in California for 22 months.
10/1977 Arrested for kidnap and rape of 20-year-old near Topanga Mall.
10/78, plead guilty to kidnap and assault with a deadly weapon. Rape charged dismissed. Sentenced to 4 years in state prison.
6/15/1980 Paroled and went to live with a woman in Lemoore, CA.
9/16/1980 Arrested for kidnap and robbery of two college students at College of the Sequoias in Visalia, CA. He raped one of the women. Sentenced to LIFE.

Also includes a photo of the green 1968 Plymouth he drove at the time of the murders of Shirley Soosay and Westlake Village Jane Doe.

This has been brought up before but worth noting that he attacked the women at the College of the Sequoias and he also claimed to have picked up Westlake Village Jane Doe there.

Ah...a better timeline! Good find!

Sounds like a carrier criminal. I can't figure out if the LA in 1969 criminal record is Los Angeles or Louisiana ?

Anyway we have him in Los Angeles in 1972 with a fraud conviction.


What a career criminal...
Thrown the slammer in 1974.

Marriage: 22 November 1975

Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Daughter born: 24 Apr 1976 - Daughter commits suicide: 4 May 2016 (source find a grave) I read her father drove her to it.

His daughter appears to have been a lovely, sensitive, wholesome person....
Very sad..she was into wholesome things like watching romantic comedies, art, shopping, Saturday Night Live, Bettie White, John Hughes movies, good stuff and she was very attractive too. She was too good for this cruel world...


Wilson's first wife divorced him in 1984 and she apparently remarried. She also seems to be a very normal, middle class person who provided a decent life for her daughter...

 

[Springrain]

Ah...a better timeline! Good find!

Sounds like a carrier criminal. I can't figure out if the LA in 1969 criminal record is Los Angeles or Louisiana ?

Anyway we have him in Los Angeles in 1972 with a fraud conviction.


What a career criminal...
Thrown the slammer in 1974.

Marriage: 22 November 1975

Los Angeles, Los Angeles, California, United States

Daughter born: 24 Apr 1976 - Daughter commits suicide: 4 May 2016 (source find a grave) I read her father drove her to it.

His daughter appears to have been a lovely, sensitive, wholesome person....
Very sad..she was into wholesome things like watching romantic comedies, art, shopping, Saturday Night Live, Bettie White, John Hughes movies, good stuff and she was very attractive too. She was too good for this cruel world...


Wilson's first wife divorced him in 1984 and she apparently remarried. She also seems to be a very normal, middle class person who provided a decent life for her daughter...

Thank you so much, Friday Fan! I just began working on a Chouest doc and trying to put together a timeline. I didn't realize he was married and had a daughter. This helps straighten out the timeline more.

Very sad to hear about his daughter's death. She sounds like a really nice person. Very, very unfortunate situation with her father. She didn't deserve that.

 

[hafom8840]

Alright scratch my initial thought, I know these aren't the only two people he killed.

 

[Springrain]

This is from the first (there are ten total) parole hearing transcript that I have: "It's noted that the Prisoner dropped out of school at age 15, although he did attend a college under the SETA program and later received his high school equivalency."

I wonder if he went to college in Louisiana, California, or elsewhere, and if he got his GED/high school diploma through a community college? I know that, at least here in Washington, there are community colleges with programs for 18-21 year olds to enroll in to get high school diplomas (not GEDs), I wonder if there was something similar in whatever area he was in at the time.

Bringing these posts forward from the Westlake Village Jane Doe thread.

Alright scratch my initial thought, I know these aren't the only two people he killed.

He was SUCH a sick man.

 

[Friday Fan]

He filed a HC writ in 2009 after his parole was denied. This is the federal court's response. Wish we had access to all his parole hearing documents.

https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCOURTS-caed-1_07-cv-01427/pdf/USCOURTS-caed-1_07-cv-01427-2.pdf

Here is his appeal for his murder conviction

People v. Chouest, 2d Crim. No. B291449 | Casetext Search + Citator

 

[CarlK90245]

I just got a response from Steve Rhods regarding Wilson Chuest's occupation. Steve says that other than a brief job that he had at an automobile junkyard in the San Fernando Valley, he got by through theft and drug dealing.

 

[Springrain]

I'm working on a Chouest "mega doc" that will contain a timeline of everything we can nail down the chronology of. Some things I unfortunately am not able to find the exact dates of, so trying to figure out a way to incorporate those events into the timeline.

 

[Springrain]

OK everyone. I finished my first version of his timeline. What I have nailed down is he spent pretty much all of his adult life in California after getting discharged from the military due to heroin addiction. I have no records of him committing crimes outside of California or spending much time outside California after leaving Louisiana. That being said, I am still going to consider him for crimes in Louisiana because of his connections and the fact that he lived there as an older teenager and young adult.

This is a long one and some of the dates are not exact (I did my best to nail them down), so if you have any corrections or recommendations to make, please let me know!

Finished the Chouest timeline. If you have any recommendations or corrections to know, please let me know ASAP. Would love to have you hop over to the Chouest thread (CA - Wilson Chouest, suspected SK, known murder victims in Kern and Los Angeles Counties, 1980s).

Timeline
December 2, 1951: Born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
December 1968 - December 1970 (Age ~17-19): In U.S. Army (undisclosed location). Discharged in December 1970 for heroin addiction.
1972 (Age ~20/21): Moved to Los Angeles, California.
1972 (Age ~20/21): Arrested for and convicted of fraud (Los Angeles, California) (unknown prison). Prison sentence was suspended, and he was released on parole.
1974 - 1975 (Age ~22-25): Violated probation terms of release and was sent to unknown prison (California) for 22 months.
April 24, 1976 (Age 24): Daughter is born.
~ 1977 - 1980 (Age ~25-28): Chouest briefly is employed at an automobile junkyard in the San Fernando Valley.
October 12, 1977 (Age 25): Kidnaps and rapes 20-year-old near Topanga Mall (Canoga Park, California). The victim is driven to the Calabasas-Woodland Hills area and left to die, but survives.
October 15, 1977 (Age 25): Arrested for kidnapping and rape of Topanga Mall victim.
October 1978 (Age 26): Pleads guilty to kidnap and assault of Topanga Mall victim with a deadly weapon. Rape charged is dismissed due to a plea agreement. Sentenced to 4 years in unknown state prison.
June 15, 1980 (Age 28): Released from prison, paroled, and begins to live with a woman, CB, in Lemoore, California.
July 13/14, 1980 (Age 28): Murder of Shirley Soosay (Delano, California). Shirley Soosay is employed at an apple orchard under the name “Rebecca/Becky Ochoa”, was known to have been in the area for at least several weeks, and meets Chouest at a bar in Hanford, California. From there, she is abducted, raped, and stabbed to death by Chouest before being dumped in an almond orchard.
July 14/15/16, 1980 (Age 28): Chouest forces CB's sons to clean blood from his car, claiming he struck a deer, but confessing to one person that the blood was from Shirley Soosay (then unidentified).
July 17/18, 1980 (Age 28): Murder of the pregnant Lyra Jade (Westlake Village, California). Chouest claims she was picked up hitchhiking in Visalia, but evidence emerges showing she likely met Chouest at Tiny Naylor’s burger joint close to Koreatown (Los Angeles, California), where her baby’s father lived at the time. Lyra Jade is raped, strangled, and stabbed to death by Chouest before being dumped in the Westlake High School parking lot.
August 1980 (Age 28): Approaches a woman leaving the College of the Sequoias (Visalia, California) and threatens her with a knife, attempting to force her into his car in front of witnesses. She gives Chouest her wallet, which he uses to take her contact information and call to taunt her about taking her money.
September 16, 1980 (Age 28): Abducts at knifepoint a woman leaving a night class in the College of the Sequoias (Visalia, California), and robs and rapes her in a cornfield in rural Tulare County. When she expresses her husband would worry, Chouest apologizes and drives her back to Visalia.
September - December 1980 (Age ~28/29): Chouest is arrested and sentenced to life in prison for multiple counts of rape.
2005 (Age ~53/54): Denied parole.
2012 (Age ~60/61): DNA from Lyra Jade’s rape kit (found on her clothing and body and underneath her fingernails) matches Chouest’s DNA in the system. He is identified as a suspect in her murder.
2013 (Age ~61/62): Chouest is interviewed by investigators from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office and claims he had never met or had sex with Lyra Jade. He also denies claims made by CB's sons that he killed a woman (Shirley Soosay) and that they were forced to clean blood from his car. He provides investigators with another DNA sample.
September 30, 2015 (Age 63): While imprisoned for his life sentence, Chouest is charged with the murders of Shirley Soosay and Lyra Jade. He is ordered to serve two life sentences.
April 23, 2021 (Age 69): The Delano victim known as “Rebecca/Becky Ochoa” is identified as Shirley Soosay missing from Seattle, WA. Shirley is one of the first missing First Nations people to be identified through forensic genealogy.

 

[wendybtn]

Bringing these posts forward from the Westlake Village Jane Doe thread.



He was SUCH a sick man.

In post #2 above, it looks like he went into the military at age 17. There were no GED programs at that time.

 

[Friday Fan]

OK everyone. I finished my first version of his timeline. What I have nailed down is he spent pretty much all of his adult life in California after getting discharged from the military due to heroin addiction. I have no records of him committing crimes outside of California or spending much time outside California after leaving Louisiana. That being said, I am still going to consider him for crimes in Louisiana because of his connections and the fact that he lived there as an older teenager and young adult.

This is a long one and some of the dates are not exact (I did my best to nail them down), so if you have any corrections or recommendations to make, please let me know!

Finished the Chouest timeline. If you have any recommendations or corrections to know, please let me know ASAP. Would love to have you hop over to the Chouest thread (CA - Wilson Chouest, suspected SK, known murder victims in Kern and Los Angeles Counties, 1980s).

Timeline
December 2, 1951: Born in New Orleans, Louisiana.
December 1968 - December 1970 (Age ~17-19): In U.S. Army (undisclosed location). Discharged in December 1970 for heroin addiction.
1972 (Age ~20/21): Moved to Los Angeles, California.
1972 (Age ~20/21): Arrested for and convicted of fraud (Los Angeles, California) (unknown prison). Prison sentence was suspended, and he was released on parole.
1974 - 1975 (Age ~22-25): Violated probation terms of release and was sent to unknown prison (California) for 22 months.
April 24, 1976 (Age 24): Daughter is born.
~ 1977 - 1980 (Age ~25-28): Chouest briefly is employed at an automobile junkyard in the San Fernando Valley.
October 12, 1977 (Age 25): Kidnaps and rapes 20-year-old near Topanga Mall (Canoga Park, California). The victim is driven to the Calabasas-Woodland Hills area and left to die, but survives.
October 15, 1977 (Age 25): Arrested for kidnapping and rape of Topanga Mall victim.
October 1978 (Age 26): Pleads guilty to kidnap and assault of Topanga Mall victim with a deadly weapon. Rape charged is dismissed due to a plea agreement. Sentenced to 4 years in unknown state prison.
June 15, 1980 (Age 28): Released from prison, paroled, and begins to live with a woman, CB, in Lemoore, California.
July 13/14, 1980 (Age 28): Murder of Shirley Soosay (Delano, California). Shirley Soosay is employed at an apple orchard under the name “Rebecca/Becky Ochoa”, was known to have been in the area for at least several weeks, and meets Chouest at a bar in Hanford, California. From there, she is abducted, raped, and stabbed to death by Chouest before being dumped in an almond orchard.
July 14/15/16, 1980 (Age 28): Chouest forces CB's sons to clean blood from his car, claiming he struck a deer, but confessing to one person that the blood was from Shirley Soosay (then unidentified).
July 17/18, 1980 (Age 28): Murder of the pregnant Lyra Jade (Westlake Village, California). Chouest claims she was picked up hitchhiking in Visalia, but evidence emerges showing she likely met Chouest at Tiny Naylor’s burger joint close to Koreatown (Los Angeles, California), where her baby’s father lived at the time. Lyra Jade is raped, strangled, and stabbed to death by Chouest before being dumped in the Westlake High School parking lot.
August 1980 (Age 28): Approaches a woman leaving the College of the Sequoias (Visalia, California) and threatens her with a knife, attempting to force her into his car in front of witnesses. She gives Chouest her wallet, which he uses to take her contact information and call to taunt her about taking her money.
September 16, 1980 (Age 28): Abducts at knifepoint a woman leaving a night class in the College of the Sequoias (Visalia, California), and robs and rapes her in a cornfield in rural Tulare County. When she expresses her husband would worry, Chouest apologizes and drives her back to Visalia.
September - December 1980 (Age ~28/29): Chouest is arrested and sentenced to life in prison for multiple counts of rape.
2005 (Age ~53/54): Denied parole.
2012 (Age ~60/61): DNA from Lyra Jade’s rape kit (found on her clothing and body and underneath her fingernails) matches Chouest’s DNA in the system. He is identified as a suspect in her murder.
2013 (Age ~61/62): Chouest is interviewed by investigators from the Ventura County District Attorney's Office and claims he had never met or had sex with Lyra Jade. He also denies claims made by CB's sons that he killed a woman (Shirley Soosay) and that they were forced to clean blood from his car. He provides investigators with another DNA sample.
September 30, 2015 (Age 63): While imprisoned for his life sentence, Chouest is charged with the murders of Shirley Soosay and Lyra Jade. He is ordered to serve two life sentences.
April 23, 2021 (Age 69): The Delano victim known as “Rebecca/Becky Ochoa” is identified as Shirley Soosay missing from Seattle, WA. Shirley is one of the first missing First Nations people to be identified through forensic genealogy.

Awesome! Awesome! Great work Springrain!

 

[Springrain]

Chouest was on such a wild crime spree in the summer of 1980 that I expect he has more unknown victims from that time period specifically, both surviving and deceased. He was "busy" from June to September running around abducting, robbing, sexually assaulting, and killing who knows how many women in truth.

I'm thinking of running searches for unidentified female Does in Los Angeles and Tulare counties from June to September 1980 when I can get back onto NamUs, but I think I should probably just do a search for all female California UIDs just to be on the safe side, even though he was only known to attack in Los Angeles and Tulare counties.

Other time periods of interest IMO are January - October 1977 and 1974 - 1975.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

 

[Friday Fan]

Chouest was on such a wild crime spree in the summer of 1980 that I expect he has more unknown victims from that time period specifically, both surviving and deceased. He was "busy" from June to September running around abducting, robbing, sexually assaulting, and killing who knows how many women in truth.

I'm thinking of running searches for unidentified female Does in Los Angeles and Tulare counties from June to September 1980 when I can get back onto NamUs, but I think I should probably just do a search for all female California UIDs just to be on the safe side, even though he was only known to attack in Los Angeles and Tulare counties.

Other time periods of interest IMO are January - October 1977 and 1974 - 1975.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Also there could be a few cold cases on known victims too.

 

[Springrain]

Also there could be a few cold cases on known victims too.

Very true and great point!

 

[hafom8840]

Chouest was on such a wild crime spree in the summer of 1980 that I expect he has more unknown victims from that time period specifically, both surviving and deceased. He was "busy" from June to September running around abducting, robbing, sexually assaulting, and killing who knows how many women in truth.

I'm thinking of running searches for unidentified female Does in Los Angeles and Tulare counties from June to September 1980 when I can get back onto NamUs, but I think I should probably just do a search for all female California UIDs just to be on the safe side, even though he was only known to attack in Los Angeles and Tulare counties.

Other time periods of interest IMO are January - October 1977 and 1974 - 1975.

Would appreciate any thoughts on this.

I'm completely with you. I refuse to believe that these two were the only ones. He could have been responsible for very well known doe cases talked about all the time on this website for all I care. Perhaps someone could check UIDs in the bordering states and see how many cases are similar (native/latina; stabbed to death)

 

[Springrain]

I'm completely with you. I refuse to believe that these two were the only ones. He could have been responsible for very well known doe cases talked about all the time on this website for all I care. Perhaps someone could check UIDs in the bordering states and see how many cases are similar (native/latina; stabbed to death)

I'm so curious if he had a preference for victimizing Native American/First Nations and Latina ladies or if it just happened that way with the two known murder victims. I remember he made racial comments about one of them (can't remember if it was Shirley or Lyra Jade - I think Shirley, but not 100% sure) that implied he would never be attracted to a Native or Latina woman, which to me, hints that he was because he is a known liar and something about the way he said it pointed me in that direction. I am not sure about the race or ethnicity of his known surviving victims. I do think he probably "liked" Native and Latina ladies so I am going to specify my searches to them but not rule out others.

 

[hafom8840]

I'm so curious if he had a preference for victimizing Native American/First Nations and Latina ladies or if it just happened that way with the two known murder victims. I remember he made racial comments about one of them (can't remember if it was Shirley or Lyra Jade - I think Shirley, but not 100% sure) that implied he would never be attracted to a Native or Latina woman, which to me, hints that he was because he is a known liar and something about the way he said it pointed me in that direction. I am not sure about the race or ethnicity of his known surviving victims. I do think he probably "liked" Native and Latina ladies so I am going to specify my searches to them but not rule out others.

How many of his victims who didnt die were hispanic or native amreicna?