Santa Rosa Murders ////// Suspects | Forensic Files

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surprise you. [Music] Heat. [Music] Hey, Heat. [Music] [Music] In the early 1970s in Soma County,
California, young women and girls were turning up dead. homicide victims discarded by the killer or killers as
detectives put it like trash. Many of the crimes were similar in both nature and victimology.
Despite an extensive investigation, the killer or killers remain unidentified to
this day, and loved ones of the victims are still awaiting justice. Among the victims, all of the women were
last seen hitchhiking in and around Santa Rosa in Soma County in the North Bay area of California.
The remains of all of the victims except for one whose body has never been found
were discovered in rural areas. The victims were found nude, their bodies discarded near creek beds and at the
bottom of steep embankments in an area northeast or east of the city. A single gold earring was often present at the
crime scene. Police believe that the perpetrators of the Santa Rosa murders had interviewed potential victims before
killing them. This is thought to mean they assessed their victims based on certain characteristics, behaviors, or
vulnerabilities before committing the crime. If their suspicions are true, this means
that the killer or killers very likely and even perhaps on more than one occasion let some unsuspecting
individual go free as they did not fit their preferred criteria for a suitable victim.
One should consider themsel very lucky to fall short of this benchmark. This is true crime garage.
[Music] Sonoma County located in the Bay Area of Northern California is home to the
prosperous and vibrant city of Santa Rosa. This is wine country and God bless them for that. California's wine
country. Today, Soma County has more than 425 wineries, ranging from small familyrun
operations to internationally acclaimed wine houses. And this great county is host to more than 8 million tourists per
year. But back in the 1970s, the city of Santa Rosa was undergoing transformative change. This is thanks to
urban redevelopment at the time and the city was growing in terms of population as well, but it was still surrounded by
classic small town America in rural areas. The 1970s saw a significant rise in violent crime such as assault, rape,
and murder from prior decades. The decade also has the dubious distinction of being at the forefront of the golden
age of serial killers. The term serial killer, most likely coined by former FBI agent and profiler Robert Wrestler,
first entered the conversation in 1974. During this time, the country saw an extraordinary surge in cases involving
offenders who committed multiple murders over extended periods of time. While operating in the shadows and eluding
capture, notorious figures like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gasey, the Zodiac Killer, and the Son of Sam dominated
headlines, creating a culture of terror that rippled through our society. The breakdown of the 1950s style traditional
family unit coupled with the economic turmoil caused by urbanization and the energy crisis combined to create
an environment where serial killers could operate more freely. Sophisticated forensic technology had yet to be
invented and the absence of a system supporting coordination among the various law enforcement agencies and
jurisdictions contributed to the inability to track and capture these serial offenders. Within society, the
fear of violent crime became widespread, influencing pop culture and media alike.
But here in Soma County, the bodies dumped in rural areas were piling up and adding up. They were finding bodies in
creek beds and steep embankments. First, it was the missing girls, Marlene Sterling, age 12, and Yavon Weber, a 13,
two middle school friends who disappeared on February 4th, 1972, after leaving a local ice rink. But their
remains weren't found until 10 months later in December of 1972 on France Valley Road. Then there were the
hitchhiker murders. Kim Wendy Allen, age 19, an art student who frequently hitchhiked. She was last seen on March
4th, 1972. Her body was found the next day in a creek bed, and she had been sexually
assaulted and strangled. Someone who never came forward, never identified, mailed the victim's missing checkbook
from a post office in Kentfield. This 20 days after her body was recovered. The distance between these locations is
approximately a 40 to 60 minute drive from where she was found to where the checkbook was
mailed. And again, that checkbook mailed in Kentfield, a location very close to where she worked at a grocery store in
Larks. Janette Kamahle, age 20, a college student who was last seen hitchhiking on April 25th, 1972.
This near Highway 101. Her body has never been found. Lorie Lee Kursa, aged 13, a runaway who disappeared in
November of 1972. Her remains were found in a ravine off a Kalisogga road in December of 72. Remember this victim,
Lori, was found tied up in a very specific and unique way. Of these five victims, Janette of course presumed a
victim as she's never been found. But after the two girls bodies were found 10 months later, the two missing middle
school girls, it was then that police were pretty much convinced that the four confirmed murder victims along with the
missing hitchhiker Janette Kamahle were possibly and probably linked. Whether the murders were the result of a
single perpetrator or multiple asalants, they could not confirm nor 100% agree. We talked a lot about the Press Democrat
newspaper that covered this case and these victims, their cases extensively over the months that the investigation
dragged on. In one article in particular, Soma County Sheriff Don Stripek reiterated his belief that these
unfortunate young women had in fact fallen prey to the same killer or killers, citing the similarities between
the victims. All four of the found victims were found nude. Their bodies had been discovered at the bottom of
steep embankments off of desolate country roads. Two of the girls were known to routinely
hitchhike, and the other two were deemed likely to have accepted a ride. Clothing and jewelry known to be worn by
the victims were not recovered at any of these crime scenes. But in the case of Kim, Moren, and Yavon, that weird little
detail of a single earring found at each of the scenes. While it was true that the cases of death varied, the
determination of how these victims were killed, strangulation for Kim, a broken neck for Lorie, and an undetermined
manner of death for Marine and Yavon. The sheriff says, "You know what? That's not going to rule this out because what
they're seeing here, Captain, is very similar crime scenes where the victims are found and also very similar ways
that the killer or killers are procuring their victims, finding their victims, going to the ice rink, offering a ride,
perhaps hitchhiking. Those two, we did have the witness saying that maybe they were hitchhiking or seen hitchhiking
later. I am of the belief that whoever that guy was that was talking with them at the ice rink was probably a person
that was able to get them into a vehicle willingly and pretty easily. But then the other victims known to have been
hitchhikers and known that they were going to be hitchhiking on the day when they were last seen. While some of the
members of law enforcement, including high-ranking officials, felt that the cases were unrelated,
you could argue this day and night, and I'm sure that they did. And the reason for that is there's simply not
enough evidence, physical evidence to go beyond just gut instinct to make a clearcut determination
one way or another. Now, we know that regardless if they were agreeing or not, the investigation ramped up and as it
should, they decided that a group of up to eight investigators would be focusing on the what was dubbed
the hitchhiker murders, as well as sharing information with neighboring counties in an attempt to crack the case
wide open. I don't know what their strategy was at the time. They were not openly discussing their strategy for
this team, this task force, if you will, that was put together working these homicides. If it were me, and we've
talked about this in some other cases, especially we go way back in the garage archives to when there was no arrest.
Rex Huraman, nobody knew who he was at the time, but when we were talking about the Long Island serial killer case and
there was so much debate as to what victims, what cases within that were in fact related to it or belonging to and
having been killed by the same perpetrator. We said the same thing or at least I did here captain was I am of
the belief that the the best way and the most clear concise way to avoid confusion would be to work these cases
independently. And here you have a unique situation where yeah we have the five victims. One never
found of the four remaining victims. Two of them are found together. So you know
they were last seen together. Their bodies are found together. Those cases are absolutely connected.
>> Right. >> And I hate to say this because you know I believe every victim deserves a voice.
Every case should be worked to its fullest. But also, time is of the essence here, right? You are working
under a deadline. And pun intended, I guess I'm not trying to be funny here, but the deadline is the longer your
investigation drags on, the longer that you don't find this maniac or find the persons who are responsible, very likely
you're going to end up with another dead girl. So, you are under the gun, you are
under the clock and behind the eightball, my friend. So, what what you got to do is you got to start making
strategic moves. My move would be to other than information coming in to you, ignore the missing girl case. Sorry, but
I I have to give some direction to this investigation. I have eight investigators. I I'm going to take six
of them and put them in in pair them up, right? So, I got three sets of two. I want two detectives working the missing
girls case, Marine and Yavon, who were eventually found 10 months later. I want two detectives working independently
on Kim Allen's case and I want two detectives working independently from the other cases on Lorie Lee Kurs's
case. That leaves me with two detectives left. I want one detective who is responsible for taking in all of the
tips, all of the secret witness tips that might come in, all the phone tips that come in, people dropping by the
sheriff's office to submit information. I want just one person fielding all of that. Because what happens is if you get
all these detectives, all eight of them in the same room, the phone is ringing off the hook. They're picking it up at
random. Captain, it's your turn to answer the phone. I took the last one. You start really muddying the waters and
and adding unnecessary confusion and chaos to your investigation. I want one detective fielding all of the incoming
information and it is their job to hand off that information to the appropriate channels. What investigation does it
belong to? The two missing girls? Does it belong to Kim's case? Does it belong to Lor's case? And if it belongs to the
missing girls case, take the information and give it to the captain of the homicide unit who should be overseeing
all of these detectives. And then my remaining detective will be in charge of constantly reaching out to the
surrounding jurisdictions, looking for similar cases, looking to talk to anybody that may have information that's
coming from outside of our county lines. As the captain of the homicide unit, it's about delegation, coordination, and
management. And again, I don't know how they were working it. That's how I would
have worked it. >> Would you give like daily pep talks? Yeah. Well, so that that's that's
interesting, right? What what I think that's a a fine line, right? When is there too much of us of a huddle, right?
Let's huddle up and let's share what we know. I think I think there can be a situation where there's too much. And I
think that again makes it more tricky than it needs to be because here's the thing and thank God they got some great
detectives and great uh uh leadership that eventually came in on the Long Island case and and they have an arrest.
Recently, an update in that case, it was determined in court that Rex Herman's defense council wanted to make it so,
hey, when I go to trial, you're trying me for each one of these homicides separately,
not all together. >> Right? >> After some court hearings, the judge ruled, "No, we're going to every murder
he's charged with is going to be present at that trial. We're going to have one trial for all of these murders. let the
jury decide which ones he is in fact guilty of. >> Yeah. But I think that goes in the
prosecution's favor because you're then having a mountain of evidence. >> Absolutely.
>> And that's probably bad for Rex because in some of these cases they don't have
much of anything other than maybe a hair sample. >> You're right. And what's going to
happen, I think there is it's going to become a totality of evidence situation, which most cases do, but here it won't
be for one single murder like you just said. It's going to be, oh, here's this evidence for this murder. Here's this
evidence for that murder, and let's pile it all together, and now he looks like he has to be this giant ogre monster
that was killing petite women for many years right underneath our nose. Well, I think the other thing that's scary is
not just will we find another victim because the killer could move. >> Exactly. >> The killer could stop. The killer could
go dormant and without DNA evidence, without cell phone data evidence. But my my pep talk would be like, "Hey, look, I
want you out there kicking nuts and sucking butts. I need somebody to get a nice
>> That's assault. >> Yeah, but hey, any means necessary. I need somebody collecting some good
coffee and collecting some good donuts. And uh let's start off this day with a dark cup of coffee and a nice [ __ ]
The the thing here why this tactic in my mind works is that you don't have to have any great
understanding or agreement that these cases are connected. If you work them independently,
you should end up with the same result is what I'm getting at. Whether they're connected or not, right? If as long as
you track down the killer of one of these victims, if they are in fact then later connected,
you will start seeing that connective tissue much more clearly. Once you have a suspect in one of these cases, you're
going to start going, "Oh, wait. Uh this your suspect in the two missing girls case matches the description of what the
eyewitness said uh of the Caucasian man with the afro in the van that was seen picking up one of the other girls. You
can you see what I'm saying here? It's don't allow it to be whether or not they're connected to complicate your
investigations. work them like you would any regular homicide investigation. That's what you know how to do. That's
what you're good at. That's what got you to being captain of the homicide unit. So, work it like that. And if they are
connected, you'll start to see that after an arrest has been made. If they're not connected, worst case
scenario, you've solved one or two of these homicides where here we sit today 50 years later and none of them have
been solved. >> The only way I'm becoming chief of police is through nepotism >> or it sounds like you're into butt
sucking. Um, >> well, no, no, I I wasn't into butt sucking. I was ordering the butt sucking
to be done. >> You're delegating. >> Let's be clear about that. So, let's let's take a quick I want to take a
quick brief look at this because there is a lot to get to still here with this case. But the the victims that we
haven't reviewed recapped yet here today is Carolyn Davis, age 15, a runaway who
disappeared while hitchhiking in July of 73. Her body was found about 2 weeks later on France Valley Road. Remember
this is the one captain where she was found near Sterling and Weber, the the two missing girl victims where they were
discovered. So she died, Carolyn Davis died of strick nine poisoning and was and there was some kind of symbol that
was found near her body. So if you're looking at this one, whether these are linked or not or what
have you, this one's a this one's a no-brainer to me. It doesn't, you know, the simp I think it's probably connected
to the two missing girls due simply to the very close proximity that some reports say 4 feet, 3 yards, 10 ft
to the other bodies that were previously found with the two missing ice rink girls got to be linked.
And I really wish that we had some good information as to whether or not there would have been any reason to believe
that this victim, Carolyn Davis, what you have here with Caroline's case that's different from your two missing
girls case, remember they weren't found for about 10 months. So you're very limited on what you can tell about the
body, what you can tell from the body, and the evidence that would be collected at that scene. Carolyn Davis is found
about two weeks later in that same location. So, you have a much better, much higher likelihood of learning more
about her body, what was done to her, and so on, and the evidence that was found at the scene. I wanted to know and
it would be helpful to know if the experts that worked this case at the time if they had any reason to believe
that Carolyn Davis was restrained or tied up prior to or during her death because we will see signs of that with
other victims. >> Right? So if you're looking for linkage, that would be a way to connect now three
murders to probably two others, at least two others. So that's because we have Teresa
Walsh, age 23, last seen hitchhiking in Malibu in December of 73. She was found hog tied and strangled,
submerged under a log in Mark West Creek just a few days after she went missing.
Again, if you're looking as to what is linked and what is not due simply to the hog tied and strangled victim,
Lorie Lee Kursa, age 13. Remember, she was found tied up in a very specific manner. Hog
tied in a very specific manner. Terresa Walsh found hog tide in a very similar specific manner. That's why I want to
take a look at those previous three and is there anything any indicators that Carolyn Davis was tied up, restrained or
tortured using liatures prior to or during her death. Now we talk about restrained, we talk about tied up,
strangulation. One thing that is often overlooked with these ligature and binding cases and this is trying to
crawl inside the mind of the monster here is constrictors. There can be a constrictor element to
the torture. Less for strangulation, more for constricting. Again, this means something to the killer. It's part of
his art. The fantasy is of his design. The signature is whether he can control it or not is another aspect to examine
here. Then we have the Soma County Jane Doe. Okay. So this is many years later in July of 1979. The skeletal remains of
a young woman were found about 100 yards from where Kursa was discovered. Again,
you have what? 6 years had passed. 7 years. So, seven years had passed and now you're getting this repeat in your
case where you're finding now an unknown victim six to seven years later 100 yards from
a previous victim. Well, we've seen that m movie before, haven't we? We've seen that movie before. And remember, we
talked about how police and the FBI believed that this killer likely would want to play games with police and taunt
them. And placing Carolyn Davis's body near the two missing girls bodies, that's a taunt. That's a tease. Finding
Jane Doe's body in 79, 100 yards from where Lorie Lee Kursa's body was found. This is very similar. So what's one
thing about her? So she's found hog tied as well. Again, it goes back to these liatures. These cases are starting to
look more and more connected as you go. This victim's found hog tied. She wore hard contact corrective lenses.
This was an indicator to the experts at the time that her death likely occurred between 1972 and 1974.
This is really interesting. They're basing this simply off of the idea of when these kinds of these specific
contact lenses that were found that when they were manufactured and when they were sold and available to the
public, they weren't available prior to and they stopped selling those and moved
on to I guess I guess if these are hard contact lenses. I've never had to wear lenses but or contacts but they must be
soft. You know, I've seen them. They they they appear to be soft today, but it sounds like in 1974, 1975 at some
point they started manufacturing and selling soft contact lenses. And so they're basing this information off of
that idea of, hey, this is this is a piece of physical evidence that we found on our person on our victim here,
>> right? >> This is an indicator of who she may be when when the murder occurred and when
she was placed here. The 1970s was the golden era of hitchhiking, especially in the state of California, and sick
monsters were using this to their advantage to play out their twisted, torturous fantasies. Just ask Ed Keer
next time you're at Vakavville. Keer at this very same time that we're discussing here, this very same time as
our Santa Rosa cases, he was down in the Santa Cruz area driving up and down the
roads looking for pretty young college women to get into the small cabin of his car where he took up so much space. You
do not want to have to fight a very large, powerful man inside of a phone booth. And that's what he did between
May 7th, 1972 and February 5th, 1973. He simply plucked them off the street. Thumb or no thumb, he would slow down,
pull over, and offer up a friendly gesture of, "Hey, do you want to lift?" Or maybe even more sly, "Hey, where you
going?" Keer picked up five hitchhiking college students and one high school student and took them to isolated areas
where he shot, stabbed, smothered, or strangled them. He then took their bodies back to his home where he
decapitated them, engaged in acts of necroilia with their corpses, and then dismembered them. Of course, we talked a
lot about Old Edward during our examination of the Minehunter Show, but despite the dangers and high-risisk
status of hitchhiking, travelers, especially students, were still seeking the cheapest mode of transportation by
using their thumb to catch a ride. It could never happen to me. getting into a vehicle that they had never seen before,
driven by someone they had never met. Then only after it is far too late, regrettably learning that hitchhiking
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to get started. greenlight.com/g. Check out greenlight.com/g today. All right, we are back. Tall cans in the
air. Thanks for joining us here in the garage. Cheers to you, Colonel. >> Cheers to you, Captain. The captain's
right. If you see a tall can sitting there, grab it. Open it up. >> Take a picture.
>> Toss it in the air. >> Put it in the air. >> Keep your hand on it when you put it in
the air, though. >> Yeah. And then uh >> don't really TCG for life. And then look at the odd
stairs that you have to deal with after that. But u >> Yeah, but also make sure that you open
your can first before you help your buddy open his can. >> That's right. That's right. Airplane
rules always in effect. Months would pass. The police are getting no closer to solving the case. We talked about
Sheriff Don Stripic who openly speculated as to whether the Santa Rosa murders were the handiwork of a serial
killer. In April of 1975, the local news there, they're showing footage of press conference that was
held by the sheriff's office regarding these Santa Rosa murders. In this press conference, they're
discussing at least six or seven young women who were confirmed victims who had been murdered while hitchhiking around
Santa Rosa between 1972 and 1973. Stripic affirmed his belief that there were possible connections to up to 13
other unsolved California murders. A reporter explained that Stripe had been consulting with an investigator and we
talked about this in our second part of this. They were looking into witchcraft teachings
because of a symbol that was found and I I don't know why I did that. This is an
audio show. You can't see that I made air quotes with my fingers. a symbol that was found at one of the scenes
which they believed had some type of tie to potential English witchcraft, meaning
that it was a symbol meant to speed the deceased to the afterlife. This would be
interesting if you're looking at some of what serial killers have said over the years. While still unidentified, the
Zodiac Killer referenced gathering slaves for the afterlife, meaning his victims would become his
slaves. BTK talked about gathering slaves for the afterlife. And even Edund Keer talked about it. Is it something
you think they hear from other killers and then they adopt that ideology or is it something
that maybe is playing, you know, almost as if this is some kind of mental illness? I think you're right.
I think it's I think it can be both. Okay. I think maybe the rationale of it might be pointed out to them by another
killer where they're like, "Oh, well, that makes some sense." But I think you're more on to something here with
the mental illness part of it. And and to be clear, this is not, you know, a victim
of mental illness. This is this is psychotic mental illness of, >> right? You know, Ted Bundy said this not
only points out his own narcissism, but it also points to what he thought of the
rest of us. He said something. It was, and I I don't want to pretend to have the the quote
here in front of me, but it was something to the effect of, you know, there's millions of girls out there.
What does it matter if one of them disappears? What does it matter if one of them is killed?
There's millions of other girls out there. There's millions of people on this planet. What does it matter if one
of them is killed? >> Well, part of mental health is an individual thinks of themsel as less than. Those
are the individuals that we need to help. when an individual has a mental illness that they think others are less
than. Not even just less than themselves but less than human and they shouldn't have
humanity towards those humans. Those are the ones that we might not be able to help and those are the ones that we
might need to lock away. Yeah. And so Zodiac claims he's collecting slaves for the afterlife.
Ed Keer said something he he his description was a little bit different and I don't have that in front of me
today but but interesting that he would say something similar and then but but there's also no reason to believe that
somebody like Ed Kemper would not have followed the Zodiac case when when that was going down especially considering
they live in the same state >> right >> and we know Keer's fascination with police police work. So he there I would
wager Franklin that he followed the case. Then you have somebody as sick and twisted as Dennis Rder who I think
sometimes what gets lost in the whole story of Dennis Rider or at least people's perception of him as a killer
or serial killer is that he he's also a pedophile. Very much a pedophile. While he has a lot of adult victims, he's not
above being a pedophile. I mean, his first murders of half of the Otto family were two children and the parents. And
later he would tell Katherine Rams and his correspondence with her that he always thought of the four of the Oteros
as his slaves. And this is what a sick effer this guy is. He's he's saying that they're forever his slaves. That the
children are his sex slaves. The boy and girl children are his sex slaves forever
for eternity. And that Joseph Ouro, the the father, is his manual labor slave to
do all the work for him in the afterlife so that he so that he can be king raider
and not have to do anything. And the the mother, the murdered mother who he killed would be a similar type of slave
but doing more female type work. These are his words. Don't read them as mine. Please God, don't read them as mine. But
it's that God complex of, oh, I did and I can and I will. I have the ability to take your life and
end your life here in this moment. I am God. And I think that's why it's not much of a leap, right, to go from I am
in control of whether you live or die, your existence to that, oh, you you're my slave now. I forever
own you. >> Oh, I think he's probably wrong about that. >> Yeah. Yes. Yes. He's he's he's very
wrong about many things. These guys often are. All right, let's examine this this symbol that was found. There is
reporting out there and that I can't confirm this to be exactly the case, but it sounds like the this was simply a
stick symbol, sticks put together, which we've talked about this in other cases can simply be happen stance. Mother
nature is in control. We are not. She could have placed those sticks there with her infinite power completely
randomly. Or in this situation, there were two boys that came forward that said that they had they were playing
around and and set those sticks in that manner. Didn't have any meaning to it. It was just something that they had did.
And that they believe that they had done that while they were in the area many months before that body was even found
there. And it just so happened to be lying near the body when the body was eventually found.
>> Right. So most of the time >> be a nothing burger. >> Exactly. And I I am of the belief that
90% of the time these things are nothing burgers. We talked about a profile. The
profile again a lot of this stuff looking like maybe not all of these cases but a lot of them could be
connected and reason to believe that they could be connected. The profile developed by psychologists depicted a
male offender who possessed at least a high school education, grew up as a loner, had a doineering mother, likely
deeply hated all women in general. As a child, this offender would have tortured
and killed animals, perhaps strangling or even poisoning them. Has long-standing mental problems. possesses
a savior complex to the point that he believes he's doing the world a favor by murdering these young women and he would
be of the type to want to play games with the investigators, taunt the investigators and tease law enforcement.
Rubbing the the murders in their face, rubbing it in their face that they cannot solve them or find him.
The other thing that we talked about a little bit beyond the hitchhiking nature of some if not all of the victims here
is the the single earring that was found at several of the scenes. Not all the scenes, but at several of the scenes
seems to be some kind of marker or some kind of tell of this killer to point out
to police, this is me. I'm still out here. I'm still doing this. I'm still doing my thing. You're doing your thing,
but you ain't caught me yet. >> Well, it's interesting because I think this profile is probably pretty similar
to the Zodiac profile. >> Similar to Zodiac, similar to BTK. Yes. Where with Zodiac,
I would push and say that the the game was more important. The game to him was equally as important as the murders.
where with BTK and with this perpetrator, it appears to me that the murders are probably far more
significant, at least with this guy, right, >> than than the taunting and the playing
of games with police. You know, Raider really ramped up his teasing the police and making a name for himself in the
media when more when he was not killing than when he was actively killing. This guy seems
to be doing it because like because he can, but the but the kill is a large part of it. And then with the exception
of one or two of the victim, I mean, we had the one victim who was found hours believed to be hours after she was last
seen disappears less than a night, one night's time. these other victims because of the the delay between when
they're last seen and when they're eventually found. There's that leaves the door open for the possibility that
this person was taking them elsewhere or had the ability to keep them somewhere,
even if it's in a van, and do some things. There's elements of torture here where the Zodiac killings were quick.
strike, strike and kill where BTK wants to be alone with the victim. I see some of that here with the hog tying and the
very specific way that these victims were tied up in some of the cases. That takes a lot of time and it takes
privacy, but it could be escalation if this is the Zodiac. And also maybe if this is the Zodiac, maybe you just got
tired of publicly taunting law enforcement and just thought, I'll I'll kill these individuals. I'll place
items. Let's say hypothetically this is the Zodiac. Then you go, well, do you really want to cause attention to that
you have moved and are killing in a different location? >> Yeah, the Zodiac's a tricky one. And I
think that, you know, everything that you're setting up here is a lot of the reasons why at the time there were
people who did think that there was a connection. There were even people in law enforcement, as we discussed in the
the earlier episodes on this case, that there's a direct connection here. part of that because of in those tauntings
and in those communications from the Zodiac, this is the Zodiac speaking. He says that he's going to change the way
that he kills, that he's no longer going to announce his killings and that uh going forward it will be up to the
police to to determine if they were connected or not. I'm not going to say that this wasn't the Zodiac and I'm not
saying that he is incapable of change, but I I kind of believe that that his we talked what did we do five episodes on
the Zodiac and and he's crept his way into many of our other cases throughout the years and when we talk about
actually I think I can think of seven at least seven or eight episodes on Zodiac
over the years. But I've always believed with Zodiac that the game was so important to him. the teasing was so
important to him, the the being known, the Zodiac name. I I don't know that he would be able to to let that go.
>> Yeah, maybe. Or the Does the legend of the Zodiac become less than if you change your location
and change the your manurisms and and and how you're committing these crimes. same year that the profile was released,
there was an FBI report that was issued that same year and it was titled Unsolved Female Homicides and an
Analysis of a Series of Related Murders in California and Western America. And this was from the US Department of
Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation. This report outlined the suspect the suspected
connection between the six established Santa Rosa hitchhiker victims and the eight possible victims that they were
attributing to the same killer. So this 75 report issued by the FBI is stating that there are 14 unsolved homicides
between 72 and 74 that they were working and believe to have been committed by the same
perpetrator. And of course that includes the the victims we've already discussed.
One of these victims that they cite in the report was Rosa Vasquez, a key punch operator for a hospital in the Prescidio
of San Francisco. If you want ties to Zodiac, well, there's your tie. San Francisco, the Prescidio.
She's last seen there May 26, 1973. I I do want to while we're talking about cases that are connected or or if this
is all the same killer, I do want to circle back to something that you had picked up on early in this case that
that is quite insightful here and quite uh >> some would say genius. >> Yes. I f I find it in incredible that
that you had picked up on it because this is something that's just not discussed in a lot of these in this case
in particular, but not in a lot of cases when we're talking about the last known
date day of the week when some of these victims were seen. The the first three victims, the two missing girls who go
missing the same night and the third victim all go missing on a Friday and a Saturday. And you had pointed out it's
the weekend, right? That's that is the time where it's like more likely that people would be out hitchhiking. There's
people moving around. And when we first had that discussion, I was quickly looking at it from the victim standpoint
where the the girls happened to be at the ice rink. And the next victim, she hitchhiked to and from work every
day that she worked. And so that for her, it wasn't out of necessity that it's the weekend that she needs a a
ride. It's more out of necessity that she needs a ride because she's going to from work. You're looking at it from a
smarter perspective of the perpetrator's perspective, saying, "Well, if you know,
if I only have limited time to go out and try to find a victim, I'm going to do it when when there's more victims,
potential victims out there, >> right?" >> And so, it would stand a reason that it
would you would think that it would be more common, more people out there with their thumb in the air on a Friday,
Saturday, and easier to find a victim. No different than a hunter going out to a field or or a large property to see if
there's animal activity there prior to going out and actually setting up camp and and and and commencing the hunt.
When we >> dig everybody has bills, so it's more likely that the killer would be working
during the week as opposed to the weekend. And if I'm correct and this killer needed some time because we do
see torture playing out with some of these victims, obvious torture with some of these victims. So that requires a
certain level of time. It also requires a certain level of privacy. And if that is in fact what he is doing and maybe he
did it in every case, it's obvious in some when it when would he likely have more privacy and more time, like you
said, when he's not required to be somewhere, when he's not required to work. to take that a little further down
the road. It gets difficult gets dicey with some of these victims because we don't have a great confirmation on when
the last day they were seen. We get with some of the victims it's simply a month.
With some of the victims, it's it's within this week. So, we couldn't really pinpoint. I wanted to dig through these
victims and look to see was there any kind of consistency on what days the victims were getting picked up and there
wasn't. But that doesn't mean that your analysis doesn't still hold significance
here. It absolutely does. And it's almost the flip of that where it may be suggestive that this ind individual has
is not bound to the typical work week. Maybe this individual I is is in control of their time, their schedule. Maybe
this individual their job, the nature of their job, their occupation is that they
are driving around, that they are out on the roadways anyway. And and that's interesting to look at because at the
time back in 737475 one thing that they were openly discussing was could this be some kind
of utility worker? A person that has that's stuck in a van or a truck hour after hour, day after day driving around
fixing, repairing, troubleshooting problems that's out on the road. and seeing these people, seeing these young
women frequently out on the road walking, hitchhiking, and has the ability to do this on or off the clock
because there is no supervision for what this individual does. The other thing it
could point to too is, you know, we see some victims that we can confirm last seen on a Tuesday, can confirm last seen
on a Wednesday. This may also be suggestive that we are in fact talking about different killers, multiple
killers that are not working together. Rosa Vasquez was last seen on a Wednesday, May
26, 1973. Her lifeless body was found 3 days later on May 29th at the Golden Gate Park.
This in San Francisco. She was 20 years old at the time of her death. She had been strangled and tossed into some
shrubbery several feet off of the road. A month later on June 10th, the body of 15-year-old Yavon Quillin Tang was found
in a vacant lot in Bay View, California. She was pregnant at the time and she had
been on her way to the grocery store when she was met with foul play. Then we have 16-year-old Angela Thomas of Daily
City, California, was found deceased on July 2nd, 1973. She had been smothered to death and left on the playground of
the Benjamin Franklin Jr. High School. She had last been seen walking away from the Prescidio in San Francisco at
approximately 900 p.m. A locket was discovered near the crime scene. Just a few weeks later, on July 15th, the
lifeless body of radiologist Nancy Gidley, age 24, was found behind the gym of George Washington High School in San
Francisco. The victim, who had previously served in the Air Force, had been strangled. Nancy was nude, and the
only item recovered from the scene was a single gold earring in the shape of a fish. We've seen that movie before,
haven't we, Captain? Witnesses said she'd last been seen alive at a nearby roadway in motel only three days prior
to the discovery of her body. It would later emerge that Nancy, who had traveled to San Francisco from her home
in Idaho, had lied to her family about the reasoning for her trip. The reasons for her trip. She had told her family
members that she was going to San Francisco to be an attendant at a friend's wedding. and this turns out not
to be true. So, she's traveling. She's out on her own and somehow me it met with foul play. It's not difficult to
believe that she was in need of a ride. Just days later on July 22nd, 23-year-old Nancy Fusy of Sacramento,
California disappeared. She was the mother of five children separated from her husband. She vanished after a night
out of dancing at a nightclub called the plumbers's hall. Terrible name. Fishermen discovered her nearly nude
body at 6:30 a.m. alongside Pleasant Grove Road and Steel Head Creek in Reading. Her clothing was recovered at
the scene, which is not something that we've seen at the other crime scenes. Nancy had suffered 29 stab wounds.
Again, not consistent with the other crime scenes. Nancy had last been spotted alive a couple miles from the
nightclub about three and a half hours before the discovery of her body. So very quickly her body is discovered
after she's last seen. There were shoe prints and tire tracks that were found near the body, which of course is
telling the police that this probably is just a dump site and that Nancy was very
likely killed elsewhere. Things fell quiet into the fall when 21-year-old Laura Albbright Odell of San Francisco
was reported missing in November of 73. 3 days later, so she's reported missing November 4th. 3 days later, her remains
were discovered within some bushes behind the Stow Lake Boat House in Golden Gate Park. Bushes in Golden Gate
Park. That's something we've discussed before as well. Laura's hands had been bound behind her back and she had been
strangled to death. In addition, the young woman had sustained serious head injuries. But this Santa Rosa connection
to San Francisco, I mean, it's only there's only 55 miles between them. And what's the best way to go between San
Francisco and Santa Rosa? US 101. So >> yes, we >> we see the 101 mentioned time and time
again with the earlier victims, the 72 to 73 victims. And keep in mind, one of our victims
worked down near that area in Lockur, but was later found up near Santa Rosa. And and what's weird about her case was
she was hitchhiking attempting to get to travel northbound from Locker up back to
the Santa Rosa area. Right. So I mean there's there is things to and reasons to connect these and obviously
this is a statement from law enforcement where they're starting to connect these.
They're not saying 100% they're all connected. They're saying until we can figure out otherwise,
we have to look at these all all of these cases because of the similarities that they could be possibly connected.
What I think I'm seeing here, Captain, is I think not not to spoil the show here, but
I do think that some of these are connected. I just don't know that all of them. It seems like a lot of activity,
almost too much activity for them all to be 100% connected. >> Yeah. But we've seen with other
investigations where they just lump a bunch of crimes together and then if they solve one or two, they go,
"Well, it was most likely committed by the same person, but we don't have evidence of that." It's almost a way
that they can clear the books faster than they should. Well, and here they've not done a good job of closing any of
the books because we're sitting here, right? Books are piling up. >> They're not focused on on busting nuts
and sucking butts. >> That's how that's how you get things done. >> Jensen would tell you that. So,
>> yeah, Jen Jensen, >> let me throw one out to you that they included in this report that I think is
very dissimilar from all of the cases that we've talked about. So it's all it's so dissimilar that I wonder why
they even included it in the report. Okay, so this goes from January 31st, 1974. So it falls into the timeline into
the time frame and the location also falls into the general area where we're talking about. So I get why you why you
would bring it up, but listen to the report on this. Brenda K. merchant, age 19. Victimology age is very similar. She
had dinner at the apartment that she shared with her boyfriend. His name is George Stewart. They together have a
young son, a baby, an infant son. After dinner, as the report goes, George left the apartment around 6:00 p.m. He comes
home the following morning. George returned to the apartment to find his girlfriend. She's still in her night
gown, lying in a pool of blood in the living room. She's dead. Had been stabbed over 30 times. The
baby, thank God, is okay. Was fine, untouched, sleeping in his crib. Despite all of these stab wounds, Brenda had
actually died of exfixiation. She suffocated, choking to death on her own blood.
There was a bloody handprint that was found at the scene. what we don't ever hear. I I wanted to find Could you
please somebody, God and Moses, somebody show me and tell me that that bloody handprint, that partial print, that you
were able to determine that it did not belong to the husband because we know the murder took place in the apartment.
We do understand that he has a alibi for the time in question, but this to me screams
of a domestic situation. We have the neighbors all reporting that they had heard yelling, screaming, arguments
going on between 900 p.m. and midnight. And then George returns the next morning
to find his poor wife killed, baby untouched. I want to know, nowhere in this report does it say that he was
ruled out. But wouldn't that be the implication here if you're choosing to include this in your batch of
victims that died at the hand of an unknown, unidentified perpetrator? >> Right. I I don't This one to me smells
of a bad alibi. Unless you can tell me that that's not his handprint. Nowhere did they ever that's that would
seal the deal that it's not that it's not him. But nowhere ever in 50 years of reporting has anybody said that. So that
one I that one I would push to the side. My apologies to Brenda Kay and her family, but push that one to the side
for the sake of what we're discussing here today, the Santa Rosa cases. 1974 July also saw the finding of the remains
of 14-year-old Donna Braun. The teen's nude, strangled body was found floating in the Selena's River.
Her remains were discovered by a crop duster plane pilot at around 700 p.m. on September 29th,
1974. So, she went missing July 29th. Remains found several months later in September
of 74. She had last been seen leaving home at 2 a.m. by her mother. Investigators have not ruled out the
notion that Donna, who they thought to be a runaway, had actually known her killers, but also considered the
possibility that she had been a victim of a serial killer. So, that is also one that you might be able to push aside
with their pointing out that she may have known her killers. Okay, so let's Doc Brown our way ahead to 1978.
This would be more than three years after the press conference and the release of the FBI report. And again,
police were no closer to solving the mystery of the murdered and missing women. After 1975, the killings had
seemingly stopped and gradually fear began to fade from the public consciousness.
But residents would again become panicstricken when two more teens, this is Carrie Anne Graham and Francine Marie
Trimble, went missing from their Santa from the Santa Rosa area. On December 16th, 1978, Carrie, age 15, and
Francine, a 14, vanished after leaving home to go shopping at a Santa Rosa mall. They lived in Forestville,
California. Their decomposed bodies would be discovered the following July about 80 miles north of Forestville.
Their remains were discovered together at the bottom of an embankment in a heavily overgrown wooded area beside a
remote section off of Highway 20, a dozen miles outside of the city of Willlets.
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Santa Rosa Murders ////// Suspects

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The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders is a series of unsolved homicides of young women that took place in the early 1970s. Many of the victims were confirmed or believed to have been hitchhiking in or around the Santa Rosa, California area. High School girls and College students were not safe. Often times the women and girls were not found until several days later. Many discovered in rural areas. If you have any information regarding these cases please submit a tip at sheriff-coldcase@sonoma-county.org or please call the Sonoma County Sheriff’s cold case unit at 1-707-565-2727

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved Santa Rosa murders of young hitchhikers in the 1970s and the challenges faced by investigators.

Key points

The Santa Rosa Murders. In the early 1970s, young women in Sonoma County were found dead, victims of an unidentified killer.
Hitchhiker Murders. Victims were often last seen hitchhiking, leading to a chilling pattern of disappearances.
The Investigation Ramp-Up. As bodies piled up, investigators focused on the hitchhiker murders, seeking connections between cases.
The Mind of a Killer. Exploring the psychological aspects of a killer's fantasy and control over their victims.
Hitchhiking Dangers. The 1970s was a golden era for hitchhiking, but it came with deadly risks.
Zodiac Killer's Influence. Discussion on the Zodiac Killer's ideology and its impact on other killers.

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