1987 Double Homicide Finally Solved | Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace | Forensic Files

Garden Grove California 1987 police get a very disturbing call a landlord says he's found his tenant
Shannon Lloyd lying face down in his bed Shannon a 23-year-old single mom the officers arrived at the scene they did
discover that she was nude and had possibly been sexually assaulted investigators run out of leads
the case goes cold 2 years later another murder discovered on a nearby Rural Road
the victim 27-year-old Renee quas they noticed what they belied to be a mannequin on the side of the road so
when they went to go investigate they realized it was a human body she was completely nude and she had ligature
around her neck investigators have no idea if these Savage crimes are linked is there a serial rapist and killer on
the loose in California it was like surreal you know just like a flip of a switch who is a
monster this is the story of a 35e search for the killer of two innocent young women I'm ncy Grace welcome to
Bloodline [Music] detectives Garden Grove California 1987 it's a small prosperous City in Orange
County just south of La the crime rate and Garden Grove in nearby communities is soaring in the
1980s by 1987 Shannon Lloyd is living there a young single mom with a little boy Shannon 23 years old considered a
lovely young lady you know she had some encounters with law enforcement but she was a loved daughter a loved
sister and a loved mother on May 21 1987 shedon Lloyd's landlord comes home from work finds his
bedroom door locked from the inside and the bedroom door to his bedroom was locked and he went to get a key to
unlocked the door and he discovered Shannon in his bed he went to call the police because it was obvious that she
was dead the officers arrived at the scene and they discovered her body she was on the bed face down with the covers
pulled up to her neck upon further inspection that they did discover that she was nude and had possibly been
sexually assaulted officers arrived on scene and detectives were called in to assist with
the investigation one of the detectives was Det Ive Ron shave and other guarden Grove Personnel who have since
retired inside detect as fine a gruesome murder scene it looks like the victim had no chance of
Escape she had been strangled with a pair of pajamas and the pajamas were still tied tightly around her neck and
the homeowner untied it thinking that she was possibly alive still she wasn't he noticed that she had rigor set in and
uh that's when he went to call for help at the time in the in the late ' 80s there was not a lot of technology and
and leads as far as that goes but they were able to Canvas the area they preserved the scene and collected all
the physical evidence and any kind of forensic evidence they were able to collect and preserve the canvas the area
interviewed neighbors uh family members and whoever they could in regards to what had occurred to try to learn what
happened to Shannon and that was the evidence that they were able to work on detectives Chase every lead they
quickly come up with a clear picture of Shannon Lloyd's final day she had a friend who had been at the house with
her prior to the two of them going out to Harbor Boulevard York they took the homeowner's car to get around that car
was found at Harbor and garden girl Boulevard by an officer by the name of Rob mathys and then the actual assigned
detective turned out to be my future partner in homicide Ron shave and he is one of the best homicide investigators
I've ever worked with Detective Ron shave and his team began working the case their first
suspect is the person who reports the murder Shannon's landlord his Alibi is solid he's quickly eliminated as a POI
Person of Interest we were able to eliminate him quickly he had Witnesses at work and the time of death made it
impossible for him to have been the killer Santa Lloyd's murder goes cold then two years later there's a murder of
another young woman also in Orange County are the two murders connected we find out next on bloodline
[Music] detectives 1987 Garden Grove Orange County California police investigating
the murder of Shannon L Lloyd a 23-year-old single mom her brutalized body discovered by her landlord there at
the apartment where Shannon lives detectives work the case but there's certainly no quick break
through they did a phenomenal job they had a sexual assault kit they had finger prints they had bedding there was a what
they believed at the time to be a used condom the condom wrapper clothing cigarette butts uh some used some
partially used there was a Vaseline jar and some other items of clothing that were
collected the protocols would be that you want to freeze the seam you want to document it through charts and
photographs and then collect the items of evidence individually you're looking for Witnesses you're looking for
suspects we thought that uh our techniques were pretty state-of-the-art we had techniques to identify fibers and
the whole science of fiber identification the blood work that we could do at the time would help us
eliminate a lot of suspects just by being a secretor or not and blood type could be obtained from that at that time
I had no idea that just a few years down the road we'd have DNA evidence available in 1987 forensic science is in
its infancy 21st century DNA investigative techniques are still years away so Garden Grove Police rely on Old
School police methods we had investigators canvasing the area hoping to see somebody come or go from the home
or a car to come or go from the home but we had nothing back then we didn't have
ring cameras we didn't have video surveillance on homes like we do today so everything had to be eyewitness
testimony we didn't have anything that could capture video evidence the investigation goes nowhere investigators
hope an autopsy of Shannon's body will reveal important Clues Blood and Tissue samples are taken at
autopsy and tested for drugs and alcohol and a rape kit was collected at autopsy it was revealed that Shannon had
passed from strangulation at the time that they did discover the body she had a piece of cloth tied around her neck so
that is likely what was used the evidence from the autopsy is useful but it's not enough to advance
the investigation months pass and one by one the leads dry up when detectives exhaust all those possible leads and
there's no other further leads to go on a Case unfortunately goes cold they hold
on to the case hoping that either someone becomes forward or new technology becomes available where then
they could revisit reopen those cases so it's very important for detectives and police departments to make sure that
those cases are never forgotten and that's what happens in Shannon Lloyd's case her murder is not
forgotten two years later another young woman found dead there in Orange County her body discovered by three men near
the eloro Marine base just 15 short miles north of Garden Grove they noticed what they believed to be a mannequin on
the side of the road so when they went to go investigate they realized it was a human body she was completely nude and
she had a ligature around her neck Orange County Sheriffs identify the victim as another single mom 27-year-old
Renee quas she had a a similar lifestyle to Shannon and she was also very loved by
her family she was also sexually assaulted and the cause of death was strangulation the rural crime scene
where Renee qu is found does not provide police with very many Clues there were two individuals that they had suspected
that Renee had been associating with at the time and those two individuals they had a criminal history but none of those
leads panned out there was no concrete evidence to tie those individuals to Rene's
homicide investigators now have two murders both of young women both women assaulted both single moms and both
killed just 15 short miles apart is that a coincidence the evidence available yields nothing else to link the two
cases once they kind of identifi those individuals who were the primary Persons of Interest at the time and they
couldn't make any concrete connections there was no additional physical evidence then that's kind of when the
case went called years past both murders go cold but there's still active investigations DNA technology is
advancing and the national DNA database codus is created police revisit the two cases hoping DNA from the crime scenes
might match an existing person from a different crime so in July of 1997 a suspect DNA profile was obtained
in the Renee quas Case by the Orange County crime lab and that came from evidence both at
the scene and from her body and at that time it was uploaded into cotus and had no hits cotus is the combined DNA index
system that is operated by the FBI in the United States it is a network of local state and National DNA databases
consisting of convicted offender DNA profiles arrested DNA profiles and profiles from crime scene evidence which
are known as forensic unknowns the codus database at the national level which is
known as endis is over 20 million profiles in California the state database known as the Cal doj esce is
over 3 million profiles the advancements of DNA really started in the early 90s there was a
case handled by the Orange County Sheriff's Renee quas and they developed a genetic male profile from that
investigation fast forward a few years in 2002 we developed a genetic male profile on our case so from that point
they had uploaded that DNA into codus the codus results yield both good and bad news for investigators the
unknown male DNA from the murders is a match Shannon Lloyd and Renee quas are victims of the same sadistic killer the
bad news the DN does not match any offenders in the kota's database we were excited because that
meant we had more parameters that we could compare to determine just based on who was in those vicinities at the time
would help us focus and at that time Garden Grove had really put a lot of effort they had some retired
investigators come back to work for them and they were trying to follow up on what leads that they had and maybe
identify other cases by Mo that they could request DNA samples on so there was a lot of work going on behind the
scenes that required step-by-step timec consuming efforts that don't necessarily
lead anywhere until you get that magic hit investigators from Garden Grove and the Orange County Sheriffs now know
they're looking for one man responsible for two murders and they've got his DNA profile but can they get his name that's
next on bloodline [Music] detectives Orange County California two murders 2 years apart one suspect the
first murder in 1987 is when Shannon Lloyd a single mom in her early 20s found dead in her apartment then another
young woman found dead in 1989 Renee quavas also a young single mom DNA proves the Killer is the same
man but now police need a name they need to identify him I was reassigned to homicide I had
worked uh domestic violence prior to that and in 2018 I received a phone call from Shannon's brother Tom and boy did I
get an earful and he was not happy he consistently called for updates by the time that I intercepted the call he was
frustrated understandably so he wanted answers his mom had passed away and she wasn't able to get that closure that she
needed at the time of her death his emotions were also really heightened so I had this conversation with him and I
just listened to him and I didn't know much about the case at that time so after that phone
conversation I thought about it a lot and it stuck with me and I said well in order for me to really have a good
understanding I'm going to have to learn this case like the back of my hand and that's what prompted me to pull the case
to see everything that we had and what more we could do and that's when I learned the details of the
investigation she really wanted this to be solved for the family and she really kept it alive I don't want to say it was
ever truly closed but her interest is the reason that it it got to the point of IGG
consideration IGG or investigative genetic genealogy is a forensic tool that delivers incredible results in
cases that seem impossible to crack when I was with the Orange County homicide task force they came out with a list of
people that had DNA but no hits in the codus database even though there was not a match in the database it matched the
two crime scenes together so that was kind of a a higher profile case because we we knew at the time that he had been
responsible for at least two murders detective terara Ramirez determined to find this brutal
killer after my initial phone conversation with Tom we stayed in constant contact I told him I said I I
read your sister's case I'm moving forward with this I will not re Tire until we solve this which is a big
promise to make and it was a heavy promise because I did a lot of praying hoping that the right answers would fall
into my lap it just reminded me of the purpose and you realize that these families victims you're their Lifeline
something that they dwell on day in and day out they don't have other cases they
don't have other distractions this was the most horrific thing to happen in their life and you were their only
Lifeline to give them the answer that they're searching for when studying the Case Files detective Ramirez struck by
the level of detail passed on by the original investigative team detective shave did such an
incredible job with his investigation I was hoping that maybe they missed something or they had overlooked or
there was still a potential witness or somebody that I could get that would generate a new lead for us they covered
everything maybe the most important thing the original investig ative team does is that they save crucial evidence
like DNA samples that can be analyzed when forensic science techniques improve in 2018 the notorious Golden State
killer murders in California are solved by a team using investigative genetic genealogy could this technique also
provide a breakthrough for the two Orange County murders the big takeaway for me is that the
traditional law enforcement codus database is completely different from investigative genetic genealogy DNA
you're talking apples and oranges and you can't use one for the other it's a completely different process but
investigative genetic genealogy uses familial relationships to identify unknown individuals uh is the
the end goal but based on the number of DNA segments and the length of DNA the more of those segments that match the
closer related you are I thought well why can't we do that with ours maybe that's our answer maybe
that'll be something that we can use and that's where I started doing my research
but at that time it was so new it wasn't familiar this is no one really knew what
to do with that I contacted an independent lab company and they seemed promising and I thought this is going to
work we we're going to get our answer however when I got the letter I noticed in fine print that they were going to
retain all evidence again this was new to me so I'm I'm learning as I'm going through this and I reached out to our
crime lab the question was if we use all this DNA and it doesn't work out I've now exhausted all the evidence that we
have because the Orange County Sheriff's Department the Renee quas case they didn't have any usable DNA or
evidence to use it was only in our Shannon Lloyd case the stakes could not be higher
detective Ramirez must decide whether to gamble on using the last bit of DNA evidence for one final
test because I had such a good relationship with Tom I called him and I said Tom look this is my predicament
this is the situation I'm in and ultimately he said Tera I I trust what what you decide to do and if we need to
wait we wait I sat on it and it just you know you get a gut feeling sometimes and
I said it's as much as I want this answer now it's not the right time and this isn't the right thing to
do so you fast forward two 3 years the advancement in the genetic genealogy skyrocketed and it became more and more
advanced and people were more familiar with what to do with it and then that's when I reached out to the Orange County
Crime Lab the investigated genetic genealogy unit and that's where I came into contact with Dave dekin and then
the forensic scientist Anna I had heard wonderful things about her and we came up with a plan the plan is to extract an
uncontaminated DNA sample from the crime scene and this proves far more difficult
than first thought I did some research to figure out if snip testing could be done for this case and if Poss
what lab would be the best choice to do this testing as to not compromise The Limited evidence that we had
remaining a snip profile is a profile that allows you to look at over 400,000 points of
identification and it's compared in public databases to other snip profiles and allows distantly related persons to
be known as far as on a match list and from match list that you get you can put together family trees and hopefully come
to an area where you believe that you have an investigative lead that would lead to the identity of either the
suspect or the missing person snip testing for IGG is still a fairly new technology and it's constantly evolving
at the start of IGG with the Golden State killer case only single Source DNA samples were used for IG testing however
this testing has continued to evolve at this point the testing had evolved and the challenging sample for the Lloyd
case was able to be tested for IGG so the sample was set for snip testing and in March of 2022 we obtained matchless
results from both Jed match and family treat DNA it's now been over 30 years since
the brutal murders of Shannon Lloyd and Renee quas and at last the net seems to be closing in on the killer when we
first obtained these match lists I analyzed the DNA to identify the top matches establish if there's any genetic
networks of relatives within the match list that are related to each other and to see if there's any other DNA related
information that can help in our family tree building process we had a number of
matches with our highest match being in the second cousin range and a number of other matches in the second cousin to
third cousin range as we were bu building these trees what we were looking for was uh someone that would be
in the age range that we predicted the suspect would have at the time of the crime and who would have connections to
the Orange County area so on March 23rd 20122 she came across a gentleman that's a loose term named
Ruben Jack Wilson Smith he was of the right age frame he also had an Orange County address and when you looked at
that address he lived 8 miles from where Shannon Lloyd was murdered and approximately 11 miles from
where Renee qu's body was located a 30-year investigation may be coming to an end police have a suspect
and the Savage murders of two young moms his name Ruben Smith who is Ruben Smith
and where is he we find out next on bloodline [Music] detectives Garden Grove California 2022
detectives closing in on a prime suspect in the homicides of not one but two single moms in the80s 2003 they came
cases are linked by DNA it proves the same man killed both women it takes over two decades and remarkable advances in
investigative genetic genealogy to finally deliver the name of a prime suspect who is he Ruben
Smith he was born in Michigan he did live in the Orange County area in the 1980s and then later moved to Las Vegas
Nevada in the '90s he was in the military for a short period of time we did some criminal
history indexes in California and did not find anything so an inquiry was made regarding contacts with law enforcement
in Nevada and we learned that in 1998 he was arrested for attempted murder and sexual assault and after
obtaining that report it was clear that he seemed to be what we would expect the suspect and those
two other murders to be Garden Grove Police and Orange County Sheriffs uncover more about Ruben
Smith's background they discover a brutal sex assault charge in Vegas it was late 1998 where we found
that he had been arrested for a sexual assault and and an attempted murder of a female while she was still alive and so
we dug into that just to see what the circumstances were and the hairs on your neck stood up because I was like this is
Shannon Lloyd this is a survivor of what Shannon Lloyd I imagine went through because the details were so
similar and in my gut I knew that this was going to be the right guy but again we still had to move forward
the attack where he was arrested occurred on July 30th of 1998 and it involved a woman who accepted a ride
from Reuben and she was a a pretty StreetWise person and she got into that car willingly and it was obvious that once
she was in that car that he had a plan for her he drove her where he wanted to drive her he tried to kill her while
sexually assaulting her and she's a true hero for being able to break loose and to flee and to actually report the crime
in which he got arrested for when I first met him he was very nice he was very charming and so I got
in the car with him I felt safe with him and as we were driving he kept telling me he had to make one stop to a storage
unit and when he pulled onto the street I knew right then something was wrong I go out of the car somehow we got out
outside and he grabbed me by the back of my hair and when he smashed my head up against the brick wall I knew I was
going to die I I knew it it's the the evil in him the feelings he generated off his body I knew if I didn't fight I
was going to die it was like surreal you know the man was so nice and so friendly
and then just like a flip of a switch he was a monster she ultimately is like the hero
and all this because without her statement and without her will to survive we wouldn't be here today
because she ultimately was who exposed Reuben Smith to his the horrific crimes that he he was doing to these
women because of his arrest a Blood Stained card was retained even though the case was not prosecuted and other
evidence had been destroyed the Las Vegas Metro Police Department still had that Blood Stained cart from
him thanks to the Las Vegas Survivor police have a clear picture of the pattern of Ruben Smith attacks on women
but now they've got to be certain the DNA blood sample taken by Vegas cops matches the DNA from the Mur ERS of
Shannon Lloyd and Renee quavas sounds routine right but of course there's a hitch he was married he had a an older
son and living in Las Vegas he had been arrested for another sex crime he knew that he was going to be going to
trial he obviously was aware that there's DNA evidence nowadays uh so his fear must have been
lingering and maybe even a guilty conscience either that or he's afraid of going to prison but he killed himself in
front of his wife and son maybe represented guilt I don't know we don't understand a lot even today what goes on
in the mind of an offender like that there are people I've come across that are no doubt just evil and there are
others who are driven by their own Phantoms that haunt them Ruben Smith's suicide makes it so
much harder to tie him to the two victims in Orange County but still police have that crucial blood sample
taken from the Vegas attack in 1988 now we were aware that he had committed suicide at this stage and he
had been cremated we were able to secure a portion of that Blood Stained card and
the Orange County Crime Lab was able to develop a profile which matched the suspect
profile in both the Shannon Lloyd and Renee qu's suspect that crime that he committed in Vegas mirrored exactly what
the belief was that both Shannon and Renee willingly got into a car with him and yet he had a plan to kill and
sexually assault them over 30 years later two devastated families and three law enforcement
agencies in Orange County finally have answers I was told by detective remirez that they found out who the true killer
was to these cases and I was extremely happy not only for the present detectives but also the past detectives
that had worked so hard on this case the forensic scientists all the crime scene
investigators uh for all three uh agencies it was very very joyful day when we found out who the killer was and
and also for the victim's families the first family member detective Ramirez tells is Shannon
Lloyd's brother Tom so closure for you would be to find out who did it what if I tell you we have that that
answer for you we do Tom all right I know that you've been wrestling with this for many many years
and um we we have a name we have a person that is responsible for for your sister's death his name is Ruben Smith
and I can show you a picture of him if you'd like I would love to see so what I can say is it doesn't look
like there's any connection there was any prior connection to him uh knowing Shannon prior to uh the night that they
met but um yeah by all means let me I will show you [Music] piece of garbage have no sympathy for him at all
the circumstances are terrible but to be able to give this closure and this relief of someone who's waited almost 30
years and deep down inside he thought it would never get solved it to me there is
there's no better feeling and it it's the driving purpose of the sacrifices that you make as a detective it's
something that you don't understand unless you're in Tom shoes and you don't understand really how much you are their
lifeline and that's that's that's pretty powerful Ruben Smith may be dead but it
does not deny two families and law enforcement answers they've wanted for 35 years that's next on bloodline
[Music] detectives Orange County California July 2022 police prosecutors victims families
deliver an emotional news conference to announce the murders of Shannon LD and Renee quas are finally
solved today is a good day I will not speak about the individual who took the life of my cousin Renee but
rather share her life with you Renee was loved by our grandma Mercedes Renee had
Brothers Michael Kelly and Victor she also had a sister named Rene she was surrounded by Family Who Loved Her Renee
had a son named Lou Ramirez he resembles her Plenty he was her Pride and Joy Renee
was the kind of mom that gave her son the unconditional love that only she can give him if I could speak with my cousin
again I would tell her how sorry I am I would make her laugh so I can see her beautiful
dimples someday I will get a chance again to hug you and to tell you I love you save a place for me in
heaven it's always good to give some sense of justice to the family obviously it's not going to bring their loved one
back but to know know that the person who was responsible this has been held accountable unfortunately he was
deceased at the time so there was no prosecution but it gives the family some closure to know that number one we still
look after these loved ones cases after so long and number two that uh they were
able to identify a suspect it had been a long time since I'd seen anybody related to the family
and that's moving when you see their um r resp I can't imagine great it I'm sorry I can't imagine waiting
that long to find out we would have loved to be able to actually apprehend Ruben Smith and bring
him to justice but sometimes it doesn't work that way but that's okay we still found out who he is what he did and we
know the truth the team that finally solves the case pays tribute to detectives who
precede them and the incredible science of investigative genetic genealogy this was the key to solving
the puzzle because that name wasn't on anybody's radar whatsoever I don't think it would have
been solved without IG you had a a person that had committed suicide and he knew what the monster he was and I think
he also realized DNA was on his way and it was becoming known that crimes were being
solved to see how powerful DNA could be in a case such as the Shannon Lloyd and Renee quas cases was incredible they
were tested multiple times using DNA and then in the end the newest DNA technology which is IGG was able to put
closure on both cases that's why I think it's still important to test DNA from old cases an old sexual assault kit with
the newest DNA technology CU you never know what other cases that it may link to I'm just really happy that we were
able to bring closure to the victim's families and that we have detectives from all over not only California Orange
County that are continuously working these cases and sometimes we may not have the answers at that time sometimes
we may not have the resources readly available but we do have a lot of men and women that are working hard and
never quitting to solve these crimes I'm grateful that Garden Grove PD is putting such an effort into cold
cases the transition that I saw from a little farming Community to what it is today was rewarding but I really can't
even imagine what the coming days are going to look like with artificial intelligence or new DNA technology or
face recognition things that uh I never dreamt of as an investigator investigative genetic
genealogy is no longer the future when it comes to catching vicious criminals it's the here and now it's the present
and it is mindboggling to think what forensic science will evolve into in the future the more that these types of
cases are are revealing themselves and they're um they're being solved it is it's it's these suspects know that
whether it was a year whether it's been 20 years that at some point it will catch up and it is going to catch up and
I look at the advancements from just the '90s to now I I can only imagine what's
going to be in 20 years I think that if you are doing wrong this is definitely a
testament to the advancements and their time will come for someone that's committed a
crime and left DNA your day will come and it's coming soon Shannon Lloyd and Renee quas both young
beautiful loving single mothers had their entire lives ahead of them when they were savagely brutally murdered the
determination of three generations of detectives plus incredible forensic science at least now provides answers to
loved ones left behind I'm Nancy Grace thank you for being with us here at bloodline detectives
[Music] [Music] [Music] for [Music]

Garden Grove, California, 1987, a young woman is found assaulted and strangled. Two years pass by when a woman in a neighboring jurisdiction meets the same fate. It will take years before forensics joins the dots and police identify this serial killer.

Now in its fourth season, Bloodline Detectives is the leading true crime series that explores how police departments harness genetic genealogy to solve crimes that were once considered "unsolvable," bringing long-awaited answers to victims' families.

=============== Like, comment and subscribe if you’re ready for more true crime. Your favorite shows like World’s Most Evil Killers, Meet Marry Murder, Forensic Files, Unsolved Mysteries, Murdered At First Sight and Bloodline Detectives are all available to stream 24/7 for free via the FilmRise Streaming Network. You can access The FilmRise Streaming Network through most free App Platforms and Smart TV portals such as Amazon Fire TV, The Roku Channel, Android, iOS and many more.

Brief Summary

The episode details the linked murders of Shannon Lloyd and Renee Quas, solved decades later through DNA advancements, identifying Ruben Smith as the killer.

Key points

A Second Victim. Two years later, another young woman, Renee Quas, is found murdered, raising fears of a serial killer.
The Disturbing Discovery. In 1987, Shannon Lloyd's landlord finds her dead in his bed, leading to a chilling investigation.
DNA Advances. Years later, DNA technology offers new hope in solving the murders of Shannon and Renee.
The Heroic Survivor. A survivor's bravery leads to the identification of the suspect, Ruben Smith.
Closure After 30 Years. Detectives finally identify Ruben Smith as the killer of Shannon Lloyd and Renee Quas.
Advancements in Forensic Science. New DNA technology helps solve cold cases that had stumped investigators for decades.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Who is a monster?

Reflecting on the brutality of the murders.

1:14WatchAug 1, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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