The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders | Morbid | Podcast | Forensic Files

Hey weirdos. I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid. This is morbid. This is how we morbid.
Boom. [laughter] We'll get sued if we go on for too long. Yeah. I just wanted to do that quick
little thing. But I don't know because I feel like Montel Jordan might be uh my friend now.
Oh yeah. I got a cameo from him for John and he told John to have a powerful new year.
A powerful new year. That's what it was. It was one of the honestly one of the coolest cameos. I know this is very
random and very off [laughter] topic. you know us. But Montel Jordan does a cameo
and also he is handsome. He is so handsome and he he was so genuine and kind in the cameo.
It made him handsomemer. It really did. So he was a great one. So if you're ever looking for a cameo for
someone, Montel Jordan. And he'll say he'll give you a little this is how we do it and the voice is
still there and he goes right into the voice like singing from talking and you're just
like people that can do that like we were saying it the other day. Sheena she Yeah,
she just she can just be like, "Yeah, and then [laughter] but it doesn't it doesn't sound like how
I just sounded. It sounds like a [ __ ] goddess from above." Sheena can literally be talking to you
and in the middle of the sentence we'll just belt out a note and you're like and you just stand there and stare at
her. Stupid that skill that you have. Stop that. It's stupid. Sheena, [laughter]
remember when we like first like hung out with her and she sang for us and it was like the most insane thing.
I think she made us cry. She No, literally. Yeah, like Sheena Malwani for the win. Also,
go check out her music on Spotify. Go find it anywhere really to her and Trid's podcast together
called Sheena Interrupted [laughter] cuz she is. It's funny. Uh but yeah, so those pluggy plug plugs
for all the cool Montel Jordan if you know [laughter] our friends Montel say our friend Montel Jordan and our friend
Sheena Milwani. I'm just I'm counting him among friends at this point. Um but yeah. uh excite a
couple of exciting things. So, one exciting thing for my for my ghosties out there, my ghouls, my goulettes, my
goulets. Um I know you saw that announcement. I know you saw that ghost announcement.
I walked into the room and Alina just held up her phone at me and I was like, "What does that mean?
It's something's happening." And she told me everything in the world that it could possibly mean.
Something's happening. I saw somebody theorize cuz I if in case you didn't see it, which like go look. If you live
under a [laughter] [ __ ] rock. No, I'm just kidding. Ghost, they posted that because we've
all been waiting. We've all been waiting for anybody that doesn't know at this point. Yeah, it's a band.
It's a the band Ghost. I'd be shocked if you didn't know at this point because of like who Elena is
as a just joined now. Maybe uh the band Ghost posted this thing cuz we've all been
waiting to find out what happens to Papa there. [clears throat] Uh we're all worried. And so it's been
quiet and then we get this little video of him twirling around on stage which like
just being and in the middle of that video you see a little boop. You see sister in there
just a little flash. It is sister and we said huh what's that? And then I of course I looked cuz I know ghost fans
will always immediately start putting those pieces together for me which is I appreciate. So I looked and it is very
much a reference to the dream that the priest has in the exorcist um that kind of foreshadows his death, his demise.
Oh [ __ ] Yeah. So something's happening, guys. Something's happening. We got movement. We got He came up for air for
a minute. So like I don't know. You're just all in it with me. I know this. I was going to say I'm I just got the
lore from you. I'm not like a die hard by any stretch, but you tell me what I need to know.
Sitting here flipping and Mikey just went when it start when he he saw it first actually. Mikey was in the room
and you just went and then he I heard the music and I was like, "What is that?" I was like, "Show me that now."
And we both just sat on the couch and watched it and we're like, "Yeah, I don't know what I was doing."
So, something's happening. I think a you know, it says coming to cinemas. So, I'm
assuming it's like the Los Angeles tour. They did two nights in Los Angeles. I think it was. And they it was like very
secret, very very cool. So, I think that's probably going to be part of it. But I'm excited. So, what you're saying
is you're going to be dragging me to the movie soon. Hell yeah. Hell yeah. I'm going to be dragging all
y'all to the movies. [laughter] Everybody's coming to the movies. Coming. We're all going together.
Everybody out here coming to the movies. And a funny little side note coming off
of that is um one of my twins was sick recently and we had to bring her to like you know the the pediatric like urgent
care or whatever. Little muffin and it was funny. It was just like a chesty kind of cold so we wanted to make
sure it wasn't like you know anything pneumonia. Yeah. It sounded foul. Yeah. Just suddenly, you know,
everything's going around. So, we were bringing her to the pediatric emer um urgent care and John brought her while I
stayed with the other ones and he said on the way there and on the way back cuz she was like a little she just wasn't
feeling good and she didn't want to go to the doctors you know little kid things and she asked he was like what
can I put on for you like in the car make you feel better on the way there and on the way back all
she wanted to listen to was ghost that's all she wanted to listen to and then it made her happy he was like she
was like giggling by the end of by the time I got there she was asking about certain lyrics. Like she was like
totally into it. See, that's the fun thing about like having kids is like you can show them
music and hope that they like it. Like and when they genuinely like it, that's when it like really hits, right? Cuz you
can show them it might not like it. I love this. I hope you do. You know what I mean? Like you don't want to like
them in that way. You want to just kind of show them and open it up to them. Be like,
and they've always heard me listening to it. And she is she loves it. My kid doesn't like
Harry Styles, Lady Gaga, and Mac Miller. I'd like a refund. [laughter] Like a return on investment, please.
It's fun. It's fun to see their like little personalities. Yeah. But that was fun. And
I think the only other thing that I've got to say before we start this case is um go to the butcherame.com and
[laughter] buy that bitch's book, the sequel to The Butcher and the Run. So go get it. Go pre-order it. It's
coming out September 17th. There's going to be all kinds of fun things up until September 17th. So, keep an eye out.
Keep an eye out after, you know, all of it. Oh, especially after, but even leading up. So, go
pre-order that [ __ ] because pre-orders are great and I love a pre-order and pre-order is a little hard to say. Um,
so I'm tripping over it a little bit, but you know, here last time. Yeah, it's hard. I said you should just
say pre-order, which is actually even harder to say. So, pre-order. Um, but also the people that
are that like got it right away and are getting the posters. I got to see the poster yesterday.
[ __ ] sick. They're really cool. You You have to sign all those. Yeah, I'm going to sign all those.
She just will just be like chilling in the day and she just is like signing stacks and stacks of [laughter]
different things from like so much signing, but happy to do it. All the books, all the random books.
But yeah, go to the butcherame.com and it will lead you to all the places that you can get it. Barnes & Noble, you
know, all the places. Uh, so go do that cuz that would be sick. And pre-orders really help me
the author. So, um, I hope you guys dig it. It's much more gnarly. Like I said, it's longer. So, you'll dig it. I think
I hope can't wait for it. So, do that, guys. You guys have been great. And I think that's really all the
the stuff we wanted to tap into. Montel, Ghost, Sheena, books, ghost, the importance.
Yeah. You know. All right. Now, on to the show. I today am going to be talking about the Santa
Rosa hitchhiker murders, which I will tell you off of the top is a very, very tragic tale.
Oh, no. And it is unsolved. Oh, no. But there was some uh like activity as recently as actually as recently as like
this past year really, but I don't know if it's going to go anywhere. And then there was before that
as recent as 2022. So, oh shoot there. And I'll tell you right up off of the I don't know at the at the
top here. Right up right right uh you know right here. Right on the side there. Right over here. I'll tell you that
there was DNA found on some of these bodies. So hopefully they might be able to do
something with it. I don't know if like I don't know. It's all it's all crazy. Who can be sure?
It all starts on the evening of February 4th, 1972 when middle school friends Moren Sterling and Ivonne Weber left
their homes. They were dropped off at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa, California, and they ended up
leaving the Ice Arena at some point in time. And there, it's believed that they tried to hitch a ride somewhere else.
Unfortunately, it was the last time that either girl would be seen alive. Oh, and they were middle schoolers.
Middle schoolers. Yeah. Nearly one year later, the bodies of Moren and Ivonne were discovered at the
foot of a steep embankment in a very rural part of Santa Rosa. and they were identifiable only by the jewelry that
Moren had been wearing the night that she left the house. By the time the remains of both of those
girls were found, actually three other young women from the Santa Rosa area had gone missing or been found murdered. And
all of those women were seen hitchhiking just prior to their disappearance. So, in time, law enforcement officials would
link Sterling and Weber's murders to three other women discovered in 1972 and then three others that occurred in
the year that followed. All believed probably to have been killed by the same man or men. They're not quite certain if
it was one person who did this or if it was multiple. Oh, that's even scarier. Yeah. So, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker
murders, as they're informally known, they're one of California's most perplexing cold cases in the state's
history. In addition to the eight women who are believed to be victims of this same killer or killers, there are also
several others who disappeared under very similar circumstances and actually could be potential victims. There's been
many, many theories that we'll get into as we go through this, but let's start a
little bit backwards now and go to the afternoon of March 4th, 1972. This was when 19-year-old Kim Allen had
finished her shift at I think it's Larks Natural Foods. It's like a small grocery
store about three miles outside of San Raphael. That night, Kim, after she finished her uh shift there, was going
to be heading to class at the Santa Rosa Junior College. And that was about 45 minutes away. And because of the 70s of
it all, her plan was to hitchhike to get to class. Very It was something she did a lot,
like it was pretty normal. Yeah. So, a little after 5:00 p.m., she caught a ride with two men headed in the
direction of Santa Rosa, but they were actually only going a few miles down the road. They were like, "We can give you
we can get you a little bit of time off your commute here, but like we're not going super far."
Later, those two men would tell investigators that they dropped Kim off at the San Raphael exit from Highway uh
101, where they saw her continue hitchhiking as they made their way into town. The next day, unfortunately, two
high school students were taking a shortcut through the woods near Bennett Valley Road, not far from where Kim was
last seen, and they stumbled upon the nude dead body of a young woman at the bottom of a steep embankment. A lot of
these women are found at the bottom of an embankment. Yeah. So, these two students ran to get help,
and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department got to the scene just a few minutes later. They responded really
quickly. There, like I said, were no clothes. There was no other items found near the body. All they really had found
at the scene was a wire around the woman's neck that appeared to be the cause of death. Oh jeez.
So based on his cursory examination of the scene, Sonoma County Coroner Andrew Johnson concluded the young woman was
quote apparently tortured to death as the marks on her neck indicated that the cord had been slowly tightened over
time. That's awful. Yeah. He told reporters, and this is horrible, this is a quote. It took her
at least half an hour to die. [gasps] Oh, that is horrific to think about. Whoever did this did it slowly and
methodically. This one specific murder. Slowly and methodically. And you have to think about how long 30
minutes is. Oh my god. 30 minutes is a long time. That is a long time. Think about driving somewhere 30 minutes
away and like how much you like how many things you pass and and how long that feels like it takes.
But when you are fighting to live. Yeah. And the other thing was in addition to the wire around this woman's neck, there
were also wire or rope burns around her wrist and ankles and she had sustained a
minor injury to her collar bone. So the fact that she was like slowly choked was
not the only thing she had gone through. Oh my gosh. The coroner also found evidence of sexual assault indicated by
semen found on the body as well as an oily substance that would later be identified as a kind of lubricant common
in machine shops. This is awful. You would think that would be something to go off of, like the fact that they
found semen, but it just gets crazier. The only other evidence collected at the scene was a single gold earring, the
match for which was never recovered. Ah, now that's going to be a running theme in this case.
Really? Yes. But near the top of the embankment, investigators discovered an impression
in the soil about a foot long and 14 in deep. And they actually believed it could have been caused by the killer
when he slipped and fell while dumping the body. Oh. Mhm. Oh, that's so chilling.
It really is like picturing that in your head. Given the size of the hole and the
angle at which the killer would have fallen, they had reason to believe he quote may have broken his leg or
sustained an injury serious enough to require medical treatment. Wow. So, investigators released a description of
the woman to the press, which prompted a flurry of activity at the sheriff's office. There were tons of people with
missing loved ones showing up fearing that this woman might be their person and looking for answers,
which really tells you like what was going on in California at this time. It's just the fact that there were so
many people with missing loved ones. Seriously. And they were all thinking this could be theirs.
Yeah. But finally on March 9th, Kim's roommates made a tentative identification. And then that
identification was confirmed a few hours later by Kim's own sister, who had to go
identify her body. That's awful. In talking with friends and family, sheriff's detectives learned that Kim
was last seen leaving work on the evening of March 4th wearing a 3/4length coat and an aluminum frame backpack. Um,
she was also carrying a medium-sized wooden soy barrel with Chinese characters on it, but none of those
things were discovered with her body or ever found. Interesting, right? So, with very few clues or
evidence to work from, detectives on the case quickly reached a dead end after exhausting just the few leads that
they'd been given from her friends and family. So, the sheriff's department actually reached out to University of
California criminologist Peter Barnett for assistance. But unfortunately, while Barnett was able to provide some insight
into the type of person who would commit this kind of crime, his assistance didn't really bring them any closer to
identifying a suspect. He was like, "I can tell you who who your suspect would be like, but I can't
name any like I don't have grab you someone." Yeah. Right. So, after about a month,
investigators had run down every single lead they had, and the case looked as though it had gone cold. In late April,
Lieutenant Charles Kinsba told reporters that the investigation quote had become
a matter of routine as detectives began scanning any new case for similarities. He said it may turn out to be a lifelong
process, essentially indicating that the killer might never be caught. Oh, that's
awful. And especially after, you know, like these aren't these are like torture long periods of time. like this isn't,
you know, quick or, you know, crime of passion kind of things, you know what I mean? Like this is this person or these
people are taking like time with these victims and for them to just and and I understand they had nothing to go on,
but to just think of them saying like, "We're probably never going to catch this person or these people." Yeah.
Is like what? Like how can they get away with that? How can they get away with like spending that much time hurting
someone and then dumping them in like a place where they can be found? And we'll
see like people saw a couple weird things, but you're like, how did more people not see
Yeah. something going on. You know what I mean? There's definitely a few weird spotting. So, I don't think if this was
one person or if I tend to believe that it was multiple, at least two people. And I there are theories and I I wonder
if you'll agree with me who it possibly could have been. Okay. Um possibly. I'm not positive, but
you just wonder how more people didn't see stuff cuz I don't think these people were as careful as they
thought they were, but then obviously they were or they were. Yeah. Right. That's what's so interesting is like
you're like is it one person or is it multiple people? I think too. Really? I do think too.
I'll be interested to see what you think. Yeah. So, although they struggled to find evidence in the case, evidence
actually did seem to find its way to investigators. And this is weird. About 3 weeks after her body was discovered in
San Raphael, someone dropped Kim's checkbook into a mailbox in Kentfield, about 50 mi away. Huh. Then, at the end
of March, there did appear to be a break in the case when police arrested 38-year-old mechanic
Robert uh Bushan, I believe it is, for kidnapping and assaulting a hitchhiker. Interesting. He had picked up a
hitchhiker and held her at knife point while he bound her wrists and took her back to his apartment where he forced
her to spend the night. The young woman was actually able to escape the next morning and she called police at which
time Buchanan was arrested. But although he was eventually tried and convicting convicted, excuse me, of that particular
kidnapping, investigators actually determined he was not responsible for Kim's murder. Really?
I couldn't find the key piece that that got him away from like that got him off of it,
but they deemed him like they cleared him. Interesting. Yeah. H And I don't think it was him who did
this because as we'll see, bodies keep showing up in similar circumstances. Okay.
So, while they struggled to make any progress on the case, Kim's story obviously shined a light on growing
concerns around hitchhiking in the US. This was kind of the point where people were like, I don't think this is as safe
as we thought it was. Oh, no. Now, interestingly, sort of, hitchhiking really started during the depression of
the 20s and 30s. People were just doing it out of necessity. But by the mid 20th
century, people it actually like fell out of popularity once things stabilized after World War II. People just weren't
really doing it. Okay. But then for some reason by the 1960s this new generation of young
people had kind of revived the practice. I think they were looking for adventure
and freedom. Yeah. And obviously they didn't realize the inherent danger in getting into a car
with a stranger. Yeah. When you're young, you think you're invincible. We've all been there.
Kim's parents and teachers had actually warned her over and over like they really didn't want her hitchhiking, but
she insisted it was safe and she had evidence that it was safe. She had done it. so many times. So, of course, in her
mind, she felt Why would she think it's going to change? I've done this a million times. Why
would it be any different the next time? So sad. One of her teachers told reporters, "I
do believe she loved everyone and believed everyone to be good. I think that for my part, and in order to make
Kim's memory meaningful, I shall set about finding some way at our school to re-educate those to the fact that the
practice of hitchhiking can be deadly." So, just like a really sweet teacher that
Yeah. wanted to keep Kim's memory alive and protect other kids. Oh, that's so sad, though.
But despite the growing public concerns around hitchhiking, obviously people kept doing it. People People do it
today, even. I was going to say they still do it, you know. But unfortunately, it created
a very easy, unsuspecting pipeline for countless violent predators. So, the issue did come up again in April when
another Santa Rosa Junior College student went missing less than 2 months after Kim. On April 25th, a little after
9:00 a.m., Janette Kamahily left her home in Kotati, California, telling her roommate she was just headed for class,
but she never showed up to class and she never came back home. Her roommate later
told reporters this was completely out of character for Janette. She always communicated where she was going and she
just was not the kind of girl to just run away and go somewhere else and never. It wasn't one of those where they're
like, "Oh, she could have just took off." Exactly. Not at all. So, when Janette still hadn't returned by midnight, her
roommate did call the sheriff's office to report her missing. And a few days later, after the news of Janette's
disappearance had begun to circulate, one of her friends called the sheriff's department with some information. The
friend claimed that on the day Janette disappeared, he actually saw her hitchhiking on the off-ramp from Highway
101, not far from where Kim Allen was last seen. Huh. The friend was about to pull up and
offer Janette a ride, but before he could, the vehicle in front of him, which he described as a 1950s pickup
fitted with a homemade wooden camper, pulled over and Janette got in the passenger side. The friend described the
driver as a white man in his 20s or 30s, but he was unable to make out any other
distinct features. And unfortunately, Janette's remains were never found. And it's possible that she's still alive
somewhere, but she is generally considered a victim of the hitchhiker killer. Oh, that's awful.
Because of that last sighting of her and the proximity of where she was last seen
and where Kim Allen was last seen and as we know. But to not have any concrete answer to
that is like to I always that always kills me when it's like cuz cuz it could go either way.
It's like that family is sitting there holding out hope obviously but it's and you want you know like they
say in you know Sha Shank Redemption it's like hope is one of the best things. Yeah.
But you also think of like the the dark side of that of like but they don't have
the answer you know and it's like and what if it's what if it's a bad answer? And I think just knowing who Kim was,
they they assumed the worst. Like she wasn't just going to run away like I had said, you know,
that's the thing. So I think it's probably one of those things where they just want to know
and because then your mind fills in all the countless nightmarish possibilities.
Of course, I can't imagine. And I should have said this in the beginning, it is a bummer. There's not a
ton of personal information, like details about these women's lives. I tried my best to find anything I could,
but there's just not a ton about them. Yeah. So, I I put in what I could. Yeah. But like the Allen case, investigators
searching for Janette had nothing to go on. And again, the case quickly went cold. As months passed and there were no
new attacks on hitchhikers, law enforcement in Santa Rosa actually started to feel relieved, and they were
thinking that the Allen and Kamahil cases were possibly just random crimes. H. But then on December 14th, 1972, a
couple walking their dog found the nude body of a teenage girl at the bottom of a steep embankment on a road on the edge
of Santa Rosa. Like the Kim Allen case, there was no clothing, no personal effects at the scene, and the only
distinguishing feature was the girl's chipped red nail polish, which I think we said it in the Willie
Pton case. There was one victim who had her toenails painted red. And you just think of somebody taking the time to do
that in life. Yeah. Not knowing that it's going to be that's the last time they're going to
the last time. I used to think that during um autopsies a lot. If somebody had their nails painted, I
was always like, "Did you know that that was the color the last color you were going to wear?" Like
it's just one of those things like, you know, I used to think that with like hairstyles, too, or like
you know, a piece of jewelry that you put on. And I'm like, did you know that was the last time that you would put
that on? Like it's just it like makes you like gh. And for a lot of people, I'm sure no
like we didn't know that was going to be the last thing. So sad. It's haunting. But due to the cold weather, this body
was also frozen when it was discovered, making the exact time of death pretty impossible to determine. But the coroner
estimated she had been there for about a week or two. Okay. Within a few days, investigators
were able to use dental records to positively identify the body as that of 13-year-old
Oh, stop. 13-year-old Lorie Aursa, a Loc Junior High student who had run away from home
on November 11th. Just like the other victims, Lorie was last seen hitchhiking in the Santa Rosa
area on November 20th or 21st. After completing the autopsy, the pathologist estimated that Lori had died sometime
between December 1st and December 8th. So, she was out there hitchhiking for a while. Wow.
Which, like 13year-old girl, like that's a baby. Just out there like on the [ __ ] mean
streets by herself. It's breaks your heart. And this is really, really graphic and
intense. Just so everybody knows, the cause of death was listed as dislocation of the last and second cervical
vertebrae with compression and hemorrhage of the spinal cord due to trauma. Holy [ __ ]
So this young girl was brutalized. Truly brutalized. Brutalized. Like that second and last
and second vertebrae is like you were saying like up in your neck. Oh my gosh. And they were
they were dislocated. So you can only imagine what happened. A lot of trauma. Yeah. Like severely severely.
I can't get over the 13. I mean Oh jeez. It's horrible. Now unlike Kim Allen, there was no sign
of sexual assault and nothing to specifically indicate actually that Lorie had been murdered. In fact, at the
time of the discovery, detectives theorized that she might have actually sustained that fatal spine injury by
jumping or falling over the embankment. Wow. Yeah. Okay. And there is some that that's going to
come back. We're going to talk about that a little bit more. There's a theory. Interesting.
So, according to those who knew her, Lorie had a very quote unquote chaotic home life and she hitchhiked very
frequently while running away from home. This was not the first time she'd run away. Unfortunately, other than those
statements from her friends, there was little evidence or leads to guide the investigation. So, as a result, the
sheriff's office turned to the public for help, and a local newspaper offered a $500 reward for information leading to
an arrest. The request actually prompted a flurry of tips from the public that turned a case of suspicious
circumstances to one of murder because one caller claimed to have seen a quote white van with an offco door sometime
between December 3rd and December 9th near the area where Lorie's body was found. And the man said he was on his
way home from work and noticed the van at the side of the road with a white man behind the wheel. He this man said as he
turned the corner he looked in his rearview mirror and saw quote two other men walking on either side of a young
girl apparently holding her up and leading her. Oh. According to the caller, the men seemed to be hurrying
the girl. And when they reached the back door of the van, they pushed her inside.
And I was like, "Uh, sir, is this the first time you were telling authorities about this?
Did you just watch this?" Like, like come on. I don't know if he called in and reported it and for some reason
it was never recorded. Oh boy. But he called back and was like, "Just so he called and said, just so you know,
I saw this." That's awful. But a short time later, other witnesses came forward with similar tips. And
several callers claimed to have seen Lorie with a quote bushy-haired Caucasian man sitting in a truck parked
near the area where her body was found. So, based on these tips, investigators theorized that Lorie had been out
walking and was approached by the men in the van, who then pushed her into the back of the van and unfortunately
stripped her clothes off. And in an attempt to escape, investigators believe she likely jumped from the moving
vehicle, landing at the bottom of the embankment and injuring her neck in the fall, which caused her death. And they
felt like this would account for the fact that she had been discovered nude but had not been sexually assaulted and
suffered no other signs of physical trauma. That kind that makes sense. It does make sense cuz at first I was
like you thought she just fell down an embankment like nude. Like that doesn't make any sense.
That was the part that got me. I was like I was like yeah I'm sure she could have fallen but like nude like why
wasn't she wearing but that then you hear the whole theory and it's like she got away but that's awful then
fell down an embankment possibly and that's why there was no other or was like pushed down there to
incapacitate her. Exactly. Holy [ __ ] This is gnarly. It's really gnarly. Like that's awful.
That is awful. Yeah, it's awful. And and again, that makes sense. I can see why they put that
together. Exactly. So on December 26th, 1972, just one day after the press announced a
reward for information leading to an arrest in the Hitchhiker murders, two Santa Rosa teenagers discovered two sets
of skeletal remains at the foot of an embankment about 60 ft from the road. The remains were those of two teenage
girls. However, significant decomposition decomposition, excuse me, made identifying them next to
impossible. Neither appeared to have been wearing any clothes or carrying any personal items. And the only evidence at
the scene was one earring. Always one earring. If there's earrings, it's just one.
Yeah, there's something to that, I think. So, a set of orange beads and a gold cross necklace. H.
A few days later, investigators used dental records to identify the remains as those of 12year-old Moren Sterling
and her friend 12 years old. 12year-old Moren Sterling and her 13-year-old friend Ivonne Weber. And I
mentioned them at the beginning. Holy [ __ ] 11 months earlier. They had been missing
almost a year at this point. On February 4th, the girls mothers had dropped them
off around 7:30 at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. But neither girl was there when their moms returned to pick them up
around 11 p.m. Oh, and they're so little. So, the girl's disappearance was reported to the Santa Rosa police and
the sheriff's office who they they didn't really treat this the best. They treated the disappearance like these two
girls were just runaways. And they were not. Even though Ivonne Weber's stepfather
told reporters it was obvious that these girls were not runaways. But because the
ma the remains when they were found had been reduced to bones, the coroner wasn't able to determine the cause of
death. Oh, that's awful. I know. Especially like these are little girls. The literal girls.
It's children. Gut-wrenching. But although they couldn't say with certainty that either
girl had been murdered, the state in which the remains had been found was definitely suspicious. And the deaths
were investigated as homicides. Also, both girls were known to have hitchhiked from time to time, and a friend reported
seeing them get into a car at the side of the road near the ice arena the last night they were seen around 9:00 p.m. So
now there was a presumed link between the deaths of Moren, Ivonne, Kim Allen, and Lorie Corsa. So the district
attorney told reporters, although there is no direct evidence of a homicide, we're going to make a total and complete
investigation and it will be handled as if it were a homicide case. Good. So they didn't handle it fantastic
from the beginning when they did go missing, but at least they came around to the conclusion.
It was the It was so of the time, too. That kind of attitude in the place. So of the time. So of the place. A lot
of at that time. And again in that place. Mhm. When kids went missing, it just wasn't treated the same. No. It
was automatically assumed that they they'll come back. which luckily in most places it's different now.
Yeah. But investigators started combing through leads and information collected by a juvenile officer at uh both at the
time that both girls went missing and also started talking with Moren and Ivon's friends and family. In time they
would sift through every lead and talk to every witness they could find. They actually even did polygraph tests on
four teenagers, but they passed them. And after a few months, they were no closer to finding Moren and Ivon's
killers, or those responsible for the other deaths than they were when the bodies were discovered.
Jeez. Over the course of a year now, someone had murdered at least four young female
hitchhikers with one missing and presumed dead. And somehow they had left zero evidence. None.
That's what's baffling. Literally nothing. In the cases of Kim, Janette, Lorie, Moren, and Avon, there
was a very frustrating lack of clues. And again, almost nothing seemed certain. But there was one thing Santa
Rosa detectives had come to believe strongly. There was a serial killer or two operating in Soma County, and he'd
already killed five girls in brutal, horrible ways. Brutal, brutal murders. Like the other
investigations, detectives on the Sterling and Weber case quickly exhausted the few leads like that that
they had. And the most promising lead was provided by one of the girls school friends that involved uh Moren and
Ivonne having met a man from Russian River about an hour away. The friend believed that they had hitched a ride to
go meet this guy, but police were unable to confirm that such a man even existed.
So, there wasn't a lot to go off of here. And while the rewards offered for information had prompted a surprising
number of calls and tips, pretty much all of them were nothing calls and not much more than rumors that were just
circulating among the junior high and high school students. It was all just infuriating.
And I can't imagine being one of the family members being like, "Do you have anything solid to tell me about my young
child's death and them just having nothing?" Yeah. Like nothing. Damn. By March, leads had
started to dry up, and the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office and local law enforcement had begun to direct their
attention elsewhere. Someone had been killing college girls in Northern California, putting everyone on high
alert and distracting from these missing hitchhikers. In April 1973, law enforcement officials
arrested one Edmund Keer for the murders of several Anyone Anyone remember that name?
Anyone remember that? But it [ __ ] with our case that we're talking about right
now because for a time the Keer case dominated the news and all the resources of Northern California investigators.
I didn't even think about the time period there. Yep. It was going on like simultaneously.
Damn. And those who weren't occupied with the Keer case were consumed with the growing
number of drug arrests and busts involving the farms and manufacturing operations that would eventually become
a prominent part of the Northern California landscape. And with the growing problems of drugs and violent
crime in Northern California, the last thing Santa Rosa detectives wanted was another murdered hitchhiker.
Yeah. But in late July, that is exactly what they got. On July 31st, the nude body of
an unidentified young woman was discovered by a dirt bike rider down an embankment.
Huh. On France Valley Road about 4 feet actually from where the remains of Marine Sterling and Ivonne Weber were
discovered several months earlier. So this is Yeah. This is pretty clear. Yeah. In his statement to the press, Sheriff
Don, I think it's Stripe Strip Peak speculated that the the killer was quote unquote playing games and taunting
officials to catch him by disposing of the body in the same spot where his earlier victims were found. But just
like most of the other cases, there was virtually no evidence discovered at the scene and sadly no clues as to the
girl's identity. And also the brush and soil leading down to the embankment didn't appear to have been disturbed,
leading investigators to assume that the girl had actually been thrown over the embankment. Quote, either by a very
large man or by two men because it cleared tall brush. I think we have two men working here.
I am I am I think you're right. Just the fact that bodies now are found near next to undisturbed brush. Yeah.
You know what I mean? I'm inclined to to be on your side here. And I think you and I have the same.
Yeah. We looked at each other during one specific thing about a bushyhaired man.
And we'll get there. We will get there. All right. Good. So, upon completing the autopsy, the
coroner determined that the girl had been laying in the brush for about 10 to 12 days, placing her time of death
around mid July. Because of her exposure to the elements and the effects of decomposition, the examiner wasn't able
to determine whether or not she'd been sexually assaulted. But the only physical trauma on the body, and this is
[ __ ] weird, was a small wound on her right ear, as though somebody had tried to pierce her ear.
What? And that sticks out to me because three of the seven bodies found in connection with this case were found
with one earring beside them that was theirs, but the match was missing. Collecting one.
It's Yeah, they're like collecting one of the earrings. And it's like, had she recently tried to pierce her
ears and given up? Maybe. Like I've we've all been at sleepovers, I think, where we decided we were going to pierce
our ears. But still strange. And the fact that it's fresh, you know, like enough where
the coroner notices it. And the fact that earrings seem to play a role somewhat in this case.
That's what's like throwing me off a little. I'm like, what are the earrings thing?
The There's something about the earrings to me. Definitely. For sure. I don't think it's just a
coincidence that they're only finding one. I don't think so either. But perhaps more bewildering though was the cause of
death with this woman, which was identified as strict uh strict ne poisoning. Strick nine. Yeah. Is it strick nine or
strick nine? Strick nine. I thought it was strick nine, too, but when I looked it up, it said
nein. Yeah. But isn't that weird? Yeah. All of a sudden now we're like switching
what? Yeah. The the MMO here. It's almost It's like they're they're like trying different things or they're
Mhm. you know, which itself to my theory. Yeah. Again, we'll get there. But it took almost 2 weeks and eventually the
body was identified as that of a 15year-old girl, Carolyn Davis. She was a runaway from Anderson, a small town
about 200 miles north of Santa Rosa. In early February, Caroline had left for school in the morning, as she always
did, but she never actually arrived to school. When they searched her room, her parents found a note that read, "Dear
mom, don't worry too much about me. The only thing I'm going to be doing is keeping myself alive. Love, Caroline."
So, she had run away. This is so sad. She actually stayed with her sister for a while before moving on to live with
her grandmother in Garberville, just outside of Anderson. But around mid July, Caroline told her grandmother that
she planned to hitchhike down south to visit some friends in Modesto. So her grandmother actually gave her
granddaughter a ride to downtown uh Garberville where she was going to catch a ride. And that was the last time she
was seen hitchhiking a ride at the Highway 101 on-ramp. How awful. where many of these other
girls were seen clearly clearly related. The discovery of yet another murdered hitchhiker all but confirmed the
presence of a serial killer. So Soma County under Sheriff Robert Hayes told reporters, "There's a common
denominator, it seems. They were all fairly young, probably all hitchhiking. They weren't shot or stabbed. They were
all nude. And there were drugs found in at least four of the five victims." H interesting. right now. Unfortunately,
despite their best efforts, no further evidence surfaced and leads were sparse. Investigators thought that they'd caught
a break in the case in October when we Cordona, a 22-year-old Santa Rosa bartender, was arrested for a similar
sexual assault and made statements linking himself to the Hitchhiker murder. But the following day, he was
given a polygraph exam to determine his guilt, and he passed, which effectively ruled him out as a suspect at that point
in time. But we all know hot dog trench coat. You can't just go off of that. I have to assume that there was probably
a little bit more. I was gonna say there has to be something. But then again, it's like but
it was the time. Yeah. And it's like that could polygraphs can be interesting. Definitely
when used in conjunction with lots of other massive pieces of evidence or a full-blown confession.
That's exactly it. It has to be in hand in hand with a couple even like a couple
other things in my opinion. You know, it's a it's got to be a part of several pieces. It can't just be the only thing.
An amalgamation, if you will. Exactly. But after 6 months with no leads, investigators became even more
frustrated when in late December, another body of a young woman was discovered in the France Valley on
December 28th. The nude hog tied body of the young woman was discovered half submerged under a log by two teenagers
boating down the creek and the coroner estimated she'd been dead about a week. Unlike the previous bodies which were
left in a fairly accessible location, this location was very difficult to reach obviously and it took detectives
about 2 hours to make their way to where the body was discovered. Given that she'd been found half submerged, there
was no way to know whether her killer had actually put her in this location where she was found or if she had been
put in the creek and drifted down to where she was found. Okay. A preliminary autopsy showed that she
had been strangled. Strangled. Interesting. Okay. Interesting and horrible, but awful.
Interesting because of what we think what our what both of I believe both of our theories might lead to. I think so,
too. And this one, these are all so so sad, but this one is also, it just hits you in a different way. It took about
two weeks, but eventually the body was identified from fingerprints as Teresa Walsh, a 23-year-old single mother from
Humboldt, and she was hitching back home for Christmas to be with her two, I think,
her 2-year-old son. Oh, goodness. The identification was confirmed by a missing person's report filed by
Teresa's mother on New Year's Eve. According to her family, Teresa had left her home in Northern California a week
or so before Christmas, and she was just hitchhiking to Malibu to see some friends. She was last seen on December
22nd when she left her friends, saying she was planning to hitchhike back to her family's home in Garberville.
Interestingly enough, hoping to make it there by Christmas. The last time she spoke with her mother, Goldie, she told
her, "I'm coming home for Christmas." Oh, and just like the fact that she's a mother is so sad. And her baby was only
two, I believe. Two years old, never going to know their their mother. And that the fact that that family had
to spend Christmas without their daughter, without their mother, their sister, like
it's like right before too. I always think of that when these things happen like right before a major holiday.
Like how do you like a family holiday, you know, right? Like how do you ever celebrate that
holiday again? You have to you have to wake up Christmas morning for that baby and and be present for that baby and
make it the best. But are very impressive these like you know victims families that have to go through
that and then have to pull it together for like kids in the family or someone else in the family.
It's remarkable. I can't even fathom it. No, I can't either. I don't know that I'd be able to. And it's it's wild that
there's just like such I mean we always talk about what what [ __ ] monsters in the world, but it's like that they
choose like the holidays to take someone away from their family. Like not that it's ever a good time to take somebody
away from their family, but it's like that extra it's an extra horrible layer on top of it to do it
during like Christmas, you know? It's it's an added way to [ __ ] with people because these people are like you
just said, monsters. Yeah. You got to be deeply. You just go sit with your family knowing that you
just took someone away from theirs. Like that's heinous. So gross. Now, once again, investigators found
themselves at a loss for leads or evidence. But this time, they called the FBI for assistance.
Thank goodness. Hoping the organization could analyze the rope that was used to bind Teresa
and point them in a direction. Interesting. Now, unfortunately, the analysis of the
rope proved useless because according to the FBI, the rope was too common to be able to trace it.
I really thought I I know you said it was unsolved, but I was like, but you hope that they're going to like
there's something inside of me that's like, "No, tell me who it is." Because this isn't even one of those
cases like obviously we cover cases sometimes that are unsolved, but it's like clearly this person did it.
They don't have anybody in that. And we have a lot of theories realistically. Yeah.
But and I personally think that our shared one that I think we're sharing currently is the strongest. I think it's
a very interesting one and I think it's strong and obviously when we post I like I want
to hear your guys' theories like what do you think yeah because like we said this one is
wide open wide open so it would it would be interesting to hear what anybody else
thinks and who knows maybe you'll have a theory that I didn't cover here so by January 1974 the reward for
information leading to an arrest had actually reached about $6,500 which in 2024 would be $41,000
but it did little to encourage new leads or information. Weeks turned into months
and the story slipped from the front pages to the back. And eventually it just stopped appearing in the press
altogether. Wow. And by the end of the year, investigators had no new information.
They were no closer to catching the killer. But with no new bodies discovered, it appeared as though the
hitchhiker murders had finally come to a very sudden end. Huh. Because no one has
ever been arrested for the murders and there's never been a strong suspect, it's obviously impossible to say who is
and isn't a victim of the Santa Rosa hitchhiker killer or whether the seven previously identified young women were
even killed by the same person or people. Wow. Interesting. And what what year was
this last one? It was right at the end of 1973. It was like the last couple weeks of 1973.
Okay. Interesting. Mhm. Now, other cases like that of Ed Keer illustrated how killers and violent
predators frequently victimized hitchhikers since they were typically willing to get into a stranger's car
without hesitation. And really, that's exactly why it's entirely possible that there are other victims to the Santa
Rosa hitchhiker murders who because of lack of evidence or just the passage of time can't officially be linked to the
case. Yeah. In July 1979, hikers in I think it's Rinken Valley discovered the sk the
skeletal remains of a young woman in a duffel bag about 100 yards from where Lorie Kursa's body was discovered in
late 1972. The victim was described as being somewhere between the ages of 16 and 21
and uh 5' 3 in tall with red hair and wearing hard contact lenses. She'd been also hog tied. both of her
arms were fractured and she's actually believed to have died sometime between 1973 and 1975
and they arrived at that based actually on the fact that she wore those hard contact lenses. They had recently been
pushed out of favor and um phased out, excuse me, in favor of soft plastic lenses.
Okay. But other than the contact lenses, the clothes line uses bindings and the remnants of the bag itself, there was no
evidence at the scene, and she still remains unidentified to this day. Wow. Initially, investigators suspected that
the remains could have been those of Janette Kamahily, who's one of the only victims who was believed to be linked to
the Hitchhiker murders that has actually never been found. But once the race of this body was established to be white,
Janette was ruled out because she was Polynesian. Oh, okay. Now, because of the victim profile,
younger woman, and the circumstances and location in which the body was discovered, this specific Jane Doe is
assumed to be connected to the other victims. It was just that they found her much later. Then in December of 1978,
15-year-old Carrie Graham and 14-year-old Francine uh Trimble, two teenagers from Forestville, California,
they told friends that they were planning to hitchhike to Santa Rosa to attend a party, and they were last seen
hitchhiking a ride at a gas station in Forestville. Francine told her mom that they were just going to go Christmas
shopping, but when they didn't return, her mom became very concerned and filed a missing person's report. It took 6
months to find them, but 6 months later, the badly decomposed remains of the two
teenage girls were discovered in a wooded area of Willlets, which is a rural town about 80 miles uh north of
Santa Rosa. Interesting. The only evidence found at the scene was one earring shaped like a bird.
What the [ __ ] The earrings have something to do with this. If these girls had earrings in,
one was taken as a trophy always. So this whoever this is has earrings 100% or has or had
Yeah. In 2015 the remains were identified actually using modern methods and were
were confirmed to be the remains of Graham and Trimble and the earring was identified uh by Francine's sister as
jewelry that she herself had given Francine, but the match was never discovered.
Unfortunately, given how little evidence was collected in these cases and the already tenuous connection between the
victims, the list of other potential victims is very long and could reasonably include any young women who
disappeared while hitchhiking in the Santa Rosa and Sonoma County area between approximately 1970 and 1975,
they think. Yeah, I think potentially go beyond that. Yeah. Now, let's talk about suspects.
Although there have always been serial killers operating across the United States, obviously that's we're here
talking about them all the time. Unfortunately, the concept Yeah. Unfortunately, the
concept of the serial killer didn't enter the public consciousness until the 1970s. So, this was a very new concept
while this was all happening. And that was when law enforcement agencies started working with mental health
professionals to better understand the profiles of these psychotic killers. Mhm.
But Americans went from being pretty unaware of dangerous predators to then being thrust into a world where they
were seemingly surrounded by these deranged killers. And especially in California, this was a period of time
where some of the nation's most notorious serial killers were caught. Yeah. Bundy, Ed Keer, Charles Mansion,
Manson, excuse me. This is all to say when it came to who could be responsible for the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders,
Bay Area and Northern California residents had serial killers on the brain which may have heavily influenced
their theories, but I do still think serial killer. Yeah, I think so, too. I mean, there's
too many too many similarities. I feel like it's very similar. And of course, it's like a lot of these
unfortunate [ __ ] had similar had similar victim, you know, profiles that they went after,
a certain demographic that they went after. Like, absolutely, you could say 100% it could really go either way, but
I don't think it's crazy to look at serial killer here. No. And I think the way that some of these bodies were
found, where some of these bodies were found, the earrings, and the earrings, I can't get past the
earrings. It's so strange cuz it's too strange. It is. And you don't just lose one
earring. No. And like like over and over like that many people just losing an earring in the
and being found with one. Yeah. It it's too coincidental. I don't know what the like what the odds would be for that,
but it's got to be astronomical. Somebody do it. Yeah. But officially I could definitely not. But
officially there had never been a strong suspect for the killings. And like I was
just saying, investigators can't even conclusively say that all these victims were even killed by the same person. So,
of course, that has led to a great deal of speculation, mostly from amateur sleuths like ourselves, and included
various high-profile serial killers known to have been operating in the vicinity at the time. Among these are
the Zodiac Killer, Arthur Lee Allen, who was actually also one of the prime Zodiac suspects. Yep.
Ted Bundy, Kenneth Bianke, and Angelo Buono are my top suspects for this. I fully It's so funny when you brought
that up because I thought it almost immediately. I was like, "Huh, the ages are what make me think this was their
beginning." Absolutely. Because I think they started it around like they quote unquote
started around 1979. Mhm. Or actually um 77. 77. Okay. So, could this It might have been even earlier than
that. I know 77 they were in the midst they were first identified victim happening at least. So, who's to say
that it didn't start earlier and they just didn't ever admit to these ones again because a lot of these are younger
girls. Well, what's interesting is they have a very wide birth of age like between
their v their victims go from like 12 to about 28. Our biggest here is 12 is 12 like um I two of the victims were
friends. One of them was 12-year-old um Dolores Dolly Sepita. She was 12. And then her friend was
Sonia Johnson. She was 14. And look at that. Moren and Ivonne 12 and 13 friends hitchhiking together.
Yep. It's very similar. The fact that many of these girls were strangled and obviously some of them it
was hard to say, but we can assume they may have been strangled, the ones that were not positive. And as we know about
the Hillside Stranglers, they were called that, but they did a lot of [ __ ] up [ __ ] to their victims. They
and they experimented a lot. They did a lot of like they were messy. They were unorganized. I mean, [clears throat]
the fact that they experimented a lot is interesting. And it feels like they were
kind of going after if this is if this theory did ever prove to be true, which obviously we're just speculating,
theorizing and speculating, of course. It it would it would seem like maybe they were going after younger victims
first to, you know, to see what works essentially, right? Like thinking it may have been
easier. Yeah. I think and then also think they drove around in a van, didn't they? So,
I think they I know they drove a car. I know that was generally it. I don't remember if there was a truck involved
or anything. And most of these women were spotted in vans. And but as we as we speak of this,
uh I don't think Kenneth I don't think Kenneth Bianke left Rochester, New York to come to Los
Angeles until like mid70s, like 7576. So, now that I'm thinking about it, I'm like, I don't think
he's not it's not as strong. Yeah, I don't I don't think it's as strong as we thought this whole way
through. But yeah, cuz I think they started out like now that I'm thinking of the timeline. I
was so sure at first, but I thought of the timeline. I was like, wait a second, that doesn't
Well, and then did they get their DNA at some point? Because DNA was found on some of these bodies. So, then you have
to think that if they were in the system, it would have been compared. Uh Kenneth Bianke is like still hanging out
in prison right now. So it's like they they got his DNA. They'd be able to have his DNA. Yeah.
So well live theorizing that doesn't [ __ ] Yeah. That was that was like live in real time. We were like wait through.
We're like well we what we went through the steps. We had a theory and we asked ourselves questions and said [ __ ] no.
We put it against the realities and it doesn't match up. Well, and the other thing is too, you you would assume that
when their [ __ ] was like gone through that they would have found these earrings because whoever
That's what I would imagine. Whoever this was kept those [ __ ] earrings, took those earrings.
And I agree like that was the thing that was sticking with me too was I was like,
"Where are those earrings?" Mhm. I don't. And that they didn't that wasn't part of their their exploits, you
know, like that they didn't take an earring. Like that was never something that was found at
their crime scenes. And so I was like, would they have stopped that? We were really going for that one. And
then all of a sudden, we were like, actually, no. When we when we weren't thinking of the
years, it made a lot of sense. But then thinking of the years and going through it, it's like the fact that he didn't
line up. Yeah. All right. Well, we'll go to our next one. Yeah. And I don't personally feel uh strongly
about this one, but the theory that the Zodiac Killer might be responsible for the murders was
first put forth by Sonoma County Sheriff Don. Again, I think it's Trapique Stiki
in 1975. He put this theory forward a few months after after the discovery of Theresa Walsh's body. He told reporters,
"The last messages we got from the Zodiac indicated he was going to continue his killings, but bury them."
and he bragged about collecting, and this is a quote, slaves for his use in the next world, which is heinous.
Ew. Yeah, he is a horrible human. The sheriff's statement about the Zodiac immediately received a great deal of
attention from the press, and the sheriff's office was flooded with phone calls and requests for comment, which
the sheriff happily provided. And during a subsequent press conference, he told reporters, "This evil is a lone killer,
perhaps a believer in witchcraft, claiming victims who will serve him." And again, he says, "As slaves in the
afterlife." Huh. However, while the press may have been excited for new information on the
Zodiac and the Santa Rosa killings, few other law enforcement officials agreed with the sheriff's assertion and
eventually he just abandoned that theory altogether. Yeah, that that one didn't hit.
That one Yeah, there was really nothing to it. It was just strange and [ __ ] up.
Didn't hit. Yeah. When it came to identifying a suspect or even putting together a
profile, things were incredibly complicated, though. The killer or killers as we know left very little
evidence at the scene. While some of the victims were seen getting into cars with
men, no one ever managed to get a good like a really good look at the drivers. And further complicating matters was
that as far as they could tell, investigators never found the murder sites. These were just where the bodies
were found. I was going to say and it and it's pretty clear that it wasn't happening where they were found. So
where the [ __ ] did this happen? Where were they killed? That's even more chilling.
Mhm. When they can't find the murder sites and they don't know where it happened
that for some reason that just gets me. No, that's very scary. Having no idea. Such an incomplete piece
of the puzzle that and a massive piece and I was just like the piece that you really need to finish or start start
putting other parts together, you know. Yeah. In total, sheriff's detectives and
investigators with the Santa Rosa police investigated over 300 possible suspects,
but none were ever very seriously considered to be viable. Damn. By the late 1990s and early 2000s,
investigation techniques had obviously changed considerably, offering new hopes to victim's family that the killer might
finally be caught. Killer or killers. Among those was Lorie Kursa's brother, Larry, who had come to believe that his
sister could have been a victim of the notorious serial killer Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing obviously, as we
know, at least 27 women and girls and was known to have spent time in the Santa Rosa area in the early 1970s.
Robert Keell, one of the detectives who helped capture and interview Bundy in the 70s, said, "Bundy's definitely a
good suspect. The killings in Santa Rosa would fit his methods. He spent time in
the area and I'm sure he started killing well before. But local law enforcement on the other hand felt like the focus on
Bundy was misplaced. Lieutenant Steve Brown from the Desoma County Sheriff's Office said the feeling was that one
person committed the killings and Bundy was looked at, but I always thought it must have been a utility worker or a
postal worker, someone familiar with the area. Huh. Eventually, he was completely
ruled out because according to a spokesperson from the sheriff's office, and this is a quote, "All of Bundy's
girls heads were crushed. We didn't have anything like that," which is somewhat true. He was a blunt
force kind of guy. Yeah. Not necessarily a strangler, but it's like I don't know if you can abandon it
altogether cuz this would have been his very early days of operation. As we know, Bundy is capable of
anything really. And he's capable of killing someone as young as 12. 100%. Cuz he has a 12-year-old victim. So,
I don't know if that I don't know if I would discount. Yeah. I don't I'm not sold, but I'm not
I'm not not taking it seriously. That's where I sit pretty much. Yeah. Ted Bundy's one of his first
victims in Idaho was a hitchhiker. And then there are several because there's a lot of people who from that time period.
Obviously can't believe everybody, but no, of course not. A lot of people have stories about
coming in contact with Ted Bundy. Oh, yeah. Tons. And many of them line up with the right
time frame. They line up with the right space. You know, I'm sure a lot of people are telling the truth because
that he was everywhere. Yeah. But he was pretty much everywhere. Yeah. And a lot of people have
stories about like a couple of people have had stories about being picked up by him
like hitchhiking. So I mean it's not out of the realm of possibility and it is at that point it was the
easiest route for them to take. Yeah. You know it just it's like kind of a a convenience thing at that time.
Yeah, that does make sense. So I wouldn't I'm not I'm not totally out on that. We're not not sold on that one.
Yeah. Now, while theories about high-profile killers are most likely the result of their temporary spotlight in
the public eye, there have been at least two uh suspects who were decidedly more
compelling. In the mid1 1980s, Sonoma County coroner Tom Seb gave an interview with the Press Democrat in which he
indicated the most likely suspect to have already passed away. He didn't give the reporter a name, this is
interesting, but he described the individual as a quote middle-aged married man who died in a car accident
in the mid 1970s. He was referring to 41-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College creative writing
teacher Frederick Manali, I believe it is, who died in a head-on car crash in the summer of 1976,
right around the time that the killings completely stopped very abruptly. Okay? And remember, two of our victims were
students at the Santa Rosa Junior College. Okay? Following his death, several alarming
things were found among his possessions, including, and this is heinous, a stom masochistic drawing of his former
student, Kim Allen, our first victim. Okay. I Hello. Mhm. Now, as a result of this discovery and
his interest in very violent pornography and relationship with at least one victim, many have considered him a song
a strong suspect, including myself. [snorts] That's that's the guy as far as I'm
concerned. Like that just sold me. Like the fact that there's too much connection there.
That's a lot of connection. The drawing about a victim. Very, very interesting. Working at the place where some of the
victim victims went to school. I would be interested. Being into violent pornography, dying
the year that it all stopped. It's It's a lot. Go f Who the [ __ ] is related to this
guy? Go find those earrings. I know. Go find somewhere. Find familial DNA and find where this
dude lived. I want to This is the guy. That is my main thing and I've said it 4500 times throughout this.
It's the earrings. You will find those earrings and boom, it'll all come together.
They've got to be somewhere. Now, in 2022, I agree that's a I think that's the strongest one so far. But in 2022, it
seemed like there may have been some movement in the case when police were able to use DNA to link the 1996
unsolved murder of Michelle Marie V to a man named Jack Alexander Bokeen. Uh, unfortunately, Michelle was raped. She
suffered multiple skull fractures due to blunt force trauma and a broken neck. Oh jeez.
Her body was found alongside Stony Point Road near Kotati by construction workers.
Wow. During her attack though, she fought incredibly hard and actually that's how they were able to identify
her killer. There was one sample of scraping with his DNA inside of it. That's how they got him. He had a long,
very violent history that included, according to the Press Democrat, kidnapping, kidnap, kidnapping with the
intent to commit rape, rape of a victim incapable of consent, rape by force or fear, mayhem, aggravated mayhem, two
counts of oral culation with a person under 14 years of age, false imprisonment, and attempted murder.
Holy [ __ ] So, this [ __ ] is fully capable of all the evils that we just spoke
about. And a spokesperson for the Sonoma County Sheriff's Office said they were looking into him in connection with the
hitchhiker murders because of his violent history and the fact that his parents owned a home near Santa Rosa
during the time of the killings. Okay, that's interesting, too. But aside from that announcement in 2022
that he was being looked into, I haven't seen any update. And unfortunately, we won't be getting a confession because he
died in prison in December of 22. See, and I'm still kind of stuck on the the coincidental
death of the uh the last guy. Um the the death happening the year that that everything stopped.
Yeah. I'm still That's always interesting to me when somebody who's been suspected dies the
year that everything stops. That's they highly suspect. They got put in prison or something that
year like for something else unrelated and it all stops. It's like, and it's [ __ ] absolutely bonkers.
Like, that would have to be very very wildly coincidental that he had a heinous drawing of one of the one of the
victims. That's the thing that's that's hard to get past. I can't get past that.
It's very hard to get again, someone do the odds for that. Like, that is I think that's the guy.
And you have to wonder like Kim Allen was holding a um it's called a soy barrel. I'm like, would you find that in
his belongings? And all of these women's clothing where where did all of these women's clothing end up? These women and
girls. Here's the thing. I'm like, where did this guy live at the time? Like, and you
may not know this. I just mean like someone figure out where this guy lived. I mean, he had to have lived in the area
if he's a teacher at the Santa Rosa Junior College. So, it's like where the hell did it did
he live? Has this thing been searched thoroughly? Are we looking for false floorboards? Are we listen Are we
looking for basement? Are we looking for attics? Are we looking for crawl spaces
in the walls where are you digging around that house trying to find something [ __ ] is there I'm telling you
if he did it. I think that's the problem. I think like these people are a little bit halfass
looking looked into. You know what I mean? Yeah. But our last suspect, finally, in
2024, documentary filmmaker Sky Borgman released a four-part series in which Sierra Barter, a young woman from
Northern California, comes to believe that her deceased stepgrandfather, Jim Morai, was the Santa Rosa hitchhiker
killer. According to the documentary, he had uh or she excuse me, she had heard many stories from family members about
her stepgrandfather being a violent predator who would physically, psychologically, and sexually abuse the
young women in the family. Oh. And was accused by other young women of similar assault and abuse. And moreover,
after speaking to many of the women in her family and going through some of his remaining affects, Barter comes to
suspect that he may have also been the Zodiac Killer, citing a sheriff's earlier theory to support her belief.
Sheriff Strip Key there. You might be losing me, but I'm but I'm still here. As soon as we get to the like, I think
he's also the Zodiac Killer, it gets a little murky. She claims to have turned the
information over to investigators with the sheriff's office, and nothing has come of her involvement as of yet.
Okay. But we have been fixated on those earrings. She says in his possession was
a jewelry box full of earrings, like mix matched earrings that nobody in the family could account for, but
unfortunately they gave them away. What? Where did they give them? I think like to a Goodwill or something.
Go back to that Goodwill. You got to find out what the [ __ ] going on. I literally have a microphone, but I'm
speaking into my water bottle right now. Go to the Goodwill and find those [ __ ] earrings.
She specifically sites one of the earrings. The um there was like an orange pair that was a single orange one
that was found and she specifically cites it. Come on, everybody. Like, please, I need those earrings.
I totally get it. I give [ __ ] to Goodwill all the time. Absolutely. You find something that sus, hold on to
that. Just hold on to that. Just for just for future reference, I'm not mad. Yeah. No, of course. It happens, you
know. H interesting. Interesting. Until I see those earrings until I need the earrings. I'm still on Frederick.
There is that Frederick. Yeah, I think Frederick is I think he's the strongest of the of the
[ __ ] the suspects listed. Definitely. But I need to see the earrings in his possession. Interesting. Now, despite
the many high-profile and no-name individuals that were connected to the case at one time or another, the murders
of Kim Allen, Lorie Kursa, Ivonne Weber, Carolyn Davis, Terresa Walsh, and potentially Janette Kamahily still
remain unsolved to this day. That's awful. According to the Sonoma County Sheriff's
Office, all cases are still active and under investigation. So, there's still some hope that the person or people
responsible for these brutal, brutal killings will be captured and prosecuted. I'm glad that it's still
actively under investigation cuz I feel like we can figure something out here. I totally think so. Like I said, many of
these bodies were found with DNA. I mean, one of them, they have semen that was found on the body.
It's like we can do something with this. That's huge. We have so much going on with familial DNA and like the genealogy
stuff. There's got to be some way to find some relative who who knows who this was or use their DNA in some way
or at least start like, you know, weeding through the potential suspects. Start start thinning that pile out a
little bit more than that. And look at Frederick. Look at like look at one of his
relatives. Take a look just to see the odds. Just take a look because he had some
stuff going on. I need to see this case solved. Just the amount of people that were killed, the
ages of the people killed. the fact that somebody was killed. Teresa was killed right before Christmas just on her way
back to see her baby and her mom. Brutal. I need to see this case solved and I think we could.
I think we could and I'm glad that we covered it because maybe it will stir up, you know. Yeah.
But in the meantime, we hope you keep listening and we hope you keep it weird, but not so weird that
when you find a bad series, you give it to Goodwill because that's totally sus. That's sus. Just keep them. I'm not bad.

On the evening of February 4, 1972, middle school friends Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber left their homes with a plan to hitchhike to the Redwood Empire Ice Arena in Santa Rosa, California—it was the last time either girl would be seen alive. Nearly one year later, the bodies of Maureen and Yvonne were discovered at the foot of a steep embankment in a rural part of Santa Rosa, identifiable only by the jewelry Maureen had been wearing the night she left the house.

By the time the remains of Sterling and Weber were discovered, three other young women from the Santa Rosa area had gone missing or been found murdered, all of whom had been seen hitchhiking just prior to their disappearance. In time, law enforcement officials would link Sterling and Weber’s murders to the other three woman discovered in 1972, and three others that occurred in the year that followed, all believed to have been killed by the same man or men.

The Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders, as they’re informally known, are one California’s most perplexing cold cases in the state’s history. In addition to the eight women believed to be victims of the same killer, there are several others who disappeared under similar circumstances and could potentially be additional victims. Although there have been several theories as to who was responsible for the deaths, including Ted Bundy and the Zodiac Killer, there has never been any evidence to positively identify the killer.

Thank you to the brilliant David White, of the Bring Me the Axe podcast, for research!

References

Cook, Stephen. 1975. "Death census--young women, hitchhikers, strangulation." San Francisco Examiner, April 25: 24.

Dowd, Katie. 2022. "Search continues for Bay Area serial killer who murdered at least 7 women and girls." San Francisco Chronicle, March 13.

Fagan, Kevin. 2011. "Ted Bundy a suspect in Sonoma County cold cases." San Francisco Chronicle, July 7.

Johnson, Julie, and Randi Rossmann. 2011. "40-year-old mystery." Press Democrat, July 29: 1.

LaFever, Matt. 2022. 49 years ago, a southern Humboldt woman was killed on her way home for Christmas. July 21. Accessed March 13, 2024. https://mendofever.com/2022/07/21/49-years-ago-a-southern-humboldt-woman-was-killed-on-her-way-home-for-christmas-by-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murderer/.

Press Democrat. 1974. "FBI says nylon rope little help in slaying investigation ." Press Democrat, January 10: 3.

—. 1972. "Female hitchhikers and the pain of Kim's mother." Press Democrat, April 27: 1.

—. 1972. "Femnale hitchhikers and the pain of Kim's mother." Press Democrat, April 27: 1.

—. 1972. "Hitchhiking SRJC coed is missing." Press Democrat, April 27: 1.

—. 1972. "Lawmen say woman's killer could be injured." Press Democrat, March 9.

—. 1972. "Slain woman was tortured; no identity yet." Press Democrat, March 8.

Reid, James. 1973. "$2,000 offered in death of girls." Press Democrat, January 3: 1.

—. 1973. "Another slain girl found east of SR." Press Democrat, August 1: 1.

—. 1973. "Who is the slain girl found off county road?" Press Democrat, August 2: 1.

—. 1975. "Zodiac theory doubted." Press Democrat, April 24: 1.

Rossmann, Randi. 1989. "Police don't like to give up on slayings." Press Democrat, March 5: 1.

Saludes, Bony. 1973. "Bodies identified as two missing SR girls." Press Democrat, Janaury 1: 1.

Sonoma County Sheriff's Office. 1972. Female Homicide Victims Report (Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders). Law enforcement, Santa Rosa, CA: Sonoma County Sheriff's Office.

United Press International. 1973. "Officers seek link in deaths of 5 girls." Los Angeles Times, August 17: 3.

Volkerts, Art. 1972. "Secret witness--can you help solve a crime?" Press Democrat, December 27: 1.

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Brief Summary

The episode discusses the unsolved Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders, detailing victims, suspects, and chilling case details.

Key points

Montel Jordan's Cameo. Ash shares a heartfelt cameo from Montel Jordan, wishing a powerful new year.
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders. A tragic tale of unsolved murders involving young women hitchhiking in California.
The Dangers of Hitchhiking. Kim's story highlighted the growing concerns around hitchhiking safety in the US.
The Disappearance of Janette Kamahily. Janette went missing shortly after Kim, raising fears of a serial killer.
The Discovery of Lorie Aursa. Lorie's body was found, leading to a chilling investigation into hitchhiker murders.
The Growing Fear of a Serial Killer. Detectives believed a serial killer was operating in Sonoma County, targeting hitchhikers.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

Oh, that's even scarier.

Discussion about the possibility of multiple killers.

10:07WatchApr 18, 2024

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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