Hallie Ann Seaman.

Introduction: Hallie Ann Seaman was born on July 2, 1949 in Michigan to Francis ‘Frank’ and Mary (nee Jefferson) Seaman. Frank was born on June 3, 1919 in Chicago, and after his mother died when he was young, he was adopted by Anna R. Seaman and moved to Pontiac, MI; he changed his surname to Seaman in 1937. Mary Alice Jefferson was born on September 27, 1923 in Ypsilanti, Michigan and was married to a man named Neil Wood Hathaway before she got married to Hallie’s father: the two were married on October 4, 1941 (she was only eighteen!) and divorced not even two years later on July 30, 1943 on the grounds of ‘extreme cruelty.’ Mary Alice graduated from Eastern Michigan University and joined the ‘US Cadet Nurse Corps’ during WWII in October 1944; she got married to Francis Seaman on January 11, 1947 and the couple had three children together: Hallie, Thomas, and Jill (b. 1952).

Francis earned his seaman’s papers and worked on ships in the New York City harbor, and was later employed on the assembly line at the Ford Motor Company. He earned a BS in chemistry, a master’s degree in Sociology, and a PhD in philosophy from the University of Michigan, and in 1949 got a winter teaching position at the University of Idaho; he worked as a lookout on Bald Mountain and pulled lumber on the green chain for Potlatch Forest Inc. (now Potlatch Corporation) during summers. He eventually became the head of UI’s philosophy department, and helped create the school’s general studies program.

Background: Hallie Ann Seaman attended Moscow High School in Idaho, where she was very active in extra-circular activities: she was inducted into National Honor Society and participated in Orchestra, the Future Scientists of America Club, Drama Club, and Debate Club. After graduating in 1966 she earned her undergraduate degree from Reed College in Portland, Oregon, and after graduating went on to attend the University of Washington. At the time of her death in the spring of 1975 Seaman was twenty-five years old and an honor student, and was only two terms away from earning a master’s degree in architecture; specifically, she was interested in learning how to design high-quality, low-income housing for people in need. Both of the Seaman sisters had relocated to Seattle from Moscow, and were both brilliant students with great scientific minds. Described by those that knew her as an ‘intelligent, strong-willed and athletic,’ Hallie was studying how to design quality low-income housing, and according to her missing person’s report, she had green eyes, stood at 5’9″, and weighed around 148 pounds.

April 29, 1975: According to Hallie’s father, she had recently broken up with her boyfriend (who was a dentist from Pioneer Square), but according to the bf, she was upset with him for working so much and the fact that they didn’t spend a lot of time together. Per the missing person’s report that was filed on May 2, 1975 by Mr. Seaman with the King County Sheriff’s, Hallie left the apartment she shared with a friend located at 2946 Eastlake Avenue East and headed for work, where she was employed as a researcher at a real estate firm. After the murder a fellow architecture student named David Keyes-Nations came forward and told investigators that he saw her on April 29, 1975 sometime between 9:30 and 9:45 PM* talking on the phone while sitting at her drafting table in her studio in the basement of the architecture building; he said that Seaman had been wearing her raincoat and when he walked by again ten minutes later she was gone; her studio showed no sign of a struggle. *A newspaper article lists the time as 8 PM.

To get to her car after leaving her studio, Hallie had to walk down a dimly lit path that was lined by overgrown evergreen shrubs, and all her killer would have had to do was sit and wait. Despite this, Sergeant Mike Mudgett with the University of Washington Campus Police Department doubted that the man that killed her would have done that, because as they exited the parking lot they would have had to pass by a security guard booth.

Hallie’s apartment was only 1.7 miles north of the University of Washington campus, and after leaving school that evening she had plans to stop by her boyfriend’s then was supposed to go see her sister, but they both said she never showed up. After she never showed up, Jill went over to her apartment to check it out, and she told investigators that she didn’t think her sister had ever come home that night: ‘she told her boyfriend she was coming over to see me that night. He talked to her at 7:30 and she said she had a class that evening, and then she was coming by my place, but I never heard from her.’ They also went looking for her vehicle in its usual spots (school, work, her apartment) and never found it. Seaman’s boyfriend told investigators that ‘she picked up hitchhikers, but only a certain type: one that was clean cut and looked like an average student. She was independent and confident and not likely to be talked into any type of potentially dangerous situations. There weren’t many situations Hallie couldn’t handle.’ Because of this, police strongly suspected that she may have picked up the wrong person (or people).

On May 1, 1975 at 2 PM investigators received a call from an anonymous woman that was too afraid to give her real name: she told them that roughly forty minutes after Seaman was last seen at approximately 10:30 PM she was driving with a friend in the Lake Union area close to the U of W when they saw two males (the driver had long curly blonde hair and the passenger had shorter dark hair) placing a young woman in the back of a white Chevrolet (that very well could have been Hallie’s car) that appeared to be unconscious (or even dead). The caller said that she didn’t get a good look at the woman’s face, but she did ‘see her underpants,’ and she had on ‘red panties and a light-colored olive coat,’ and she would have been able to ID those. She told police that she was disturbed by what she saw and fear made her flee, but immediately after she had second thoughts and went back, but by the time she had gotten back they were gone.

According to Detective Wayne Dorman, who took the woman’s report, she said: ‘I was driving home when I saw something very, very disturbing. It was near the University at the corner of NE 40th and 8th NE. I saw an older white station wagon. It might have been a Ford—I don’t know cars that well. There were two men in it. The passenger had dark hair and the driver had long, curly blond hair. But before they drove away. I saw the driver outside the car. He was loading this girl into the back seat, and, ah . . . she looked like she was unconscious or maybe even dead.’

When Detective Dorman asked her ‘what makes you think that?’ she replied, ‘well, her legs were spread wide, so wide I could see her panties. They were multicolored and she had on black sandals with two- or three-inch stacked heels. I wanted to stop and try to help her, but the people with me said we could be in danger if we tried to get involved. At least, I talked them into driving around the block to get another look, but by the time we circled back, the white wagon was gone.’ Dorman asked, ‘could you identify the men you saw?,’ to which she replied, ‘I don’t know. Maybe the blond one. They were under the streetlight.’ However, when the detective tried to persuade her to at the very least give him her phone number, the caller hung up.

Investigators were never able to confirm if the woman’s story was true, but they thought the chances were pretty good; according to Detective Norton, ‘whether or not that was Hallie, I don’t know to this day.’

Fire: Around 2:40 AM on May 2, 1975 detectives received a phone call from the Seattle Fire Department in regards to a white 1965 Ford Fairlane 500 station wagon that was on fire in the Sodo neighborhood; it was found in a shipping container storage lot owned by the Sea-Land Corporation that was located only three miles south of where Seaman’s body was recovered, and local investigators didn’t connect the dots between the burnt car and the deceased young woman until after she had been identified; they strongly suspect that Seaman was killed in her vehicle. Even though the Burlington Northern Railroad Line kept a switch engine with a 24-hour crew in the area where Seaman’s car had been recovered, no one had seen who had left there.

Jack Hickam was the responding firefighter from the ‘Marshal 5’ fire district that processed Hallie’s car, and he determined that the fire didn’t start in the engine but rather in one of the seat cushions; he also got a ‘probable’ reading for flammable liquid when he used a hydrocarbon indicator. Despite criminalist Ann Beaman from the Western Washington State Crime Lab literally sifting through the vehicle’s ashes, no helpful evidence was recovered from Hallie’s car, but she was able to find her missing shoe, which had part of a nylon melted into it along with a charred coin purse and part of a key chain. The driver’s side door handle (which was thrown clear from the scene when the gas tank exploded) was also tested for fingerprints but nothing useful was found.

Keys: In a Seattle Police memo dated May 8, 1975, a patrolman in Burlington named Floyd L. Lane was walking along some railroad tracks two days prior checking out boxcars when he came across ‘a set of keys on a brass hook.’ He was west of where Seaman’s car was found and after he examined them he realized they were partially scorched and decided to reach out to the detectives investigating the burnt Ford.

Discovery: Only fourteen hours after she was last seen alive at roughly 12:15 PM on April 30, 1975 Seaman’s remains were found in South Lake Union only a couple of miles south of her apartment by a man named Raymond Bobbie Tillery. Tillery was on his lunch break exercising in a parking lot near his POE when he discovered her body: it had been hidden by an overgrown thicket of blackberry bushes beneath the I-5 freeway in front of 1303 Roy Street. He immediately called 911.

Mr. Tillery told police that he first noticed the victims legs from about thirty feet away, and when he got closer, he realized what he was looking at and ran back to his office to call 911. Detectives strongly speculated that Seaman’s body was transported to the scene from another unknown location and was left in the bushes. Dr. Besant Mathews, from the KCME’s office examined the body at the scene, and it was in his professional opinion that the victim was brought there sometime during the early morning hours of April 30, 1975.

In the days immediately following Seaman’s disappearance, a University of Washington professor from the School of Architecture called the King County Sheriff’s and shared with them some concerns about his missing graduate student: ‘she hasn’t been to class for two days, and her description would be pretty close to the ‘Jane Doe’ in the papers and on television. Her name is Hallie Ann Seaman. She’s 25 years old.’ As it turned out, his hint was legit, and on May 2, 1975 Hallie’s sister and her boyfriend went to the King County Morgue and identified her body.

Seaman had been dressed in a grey, yellow, a pink striped dress and a light-colored olive coat (some reports said it was tan), and was not wearing any panties. She had been found lying face up and the nylon on her left leg was found down by her ankle and her left shoe was off of her foot and was tangled up in the stocking; there was no nylon or shoe on her right foot. Responding officers found three cuts in her coat as well as a small amount of blood on the upper part of her left foot. Also found on the scene were pieces of green glass, an empty Rainer beer bottle, a Michelob can, two broken beer bottles (that were all tested for prints), and a blue towel.

The young woman had no purse or ID on her and she wore no jewelry, and investigators presume she had been dead for roughly ‘a dozen hours’ when her remains were found and by then rigor mortis had frozen her body completely. Based on the way she was discovered, the victim most likely had been laying face down somewhere for a few hours after her death before she was eventually repositioned and left on her back, as she was found. It was clear to the detectives that she had been left in the parking lot but had been killed someplace else, and she had been found immaculately clean, right down to her unpolished fingernails and had worn little to no makeup.

Autopsy: She had obviously put up quite a fight, as her arms bore a great number of defense wounds. The King County medical examiner, Dr. Patrick Besant-Matthews said that she had been stabbed eleven times (one report said it was twelve) and had wounds in her liver, stomach, lungs, and aorta. The knife that the killer had used was between two and a half to three inches long and detectives said he must have been in a frenzy because it was the kind of violence only seen after an attack by a sexual sadist, or someone that deeply hated his victim.

During her autopsy the ME located two stab wounds located on the left side of her abdomen, and determined she was somewhere between five to six months pregnant. Detectives found no blood underneath or around her body aside than a few droplets on some leaves that were found below her; she had two cuts approximately 1.5 inches long on the lower part of her right leg and had numerous bruises on both of her legs. 

Hallie’s fatal wounds were located on her right side, when the killer’s blade pierced her kidney and severed her aorta. Even though the documents released to me from King County said that it was determined by the ME she had not been sexually assaulted, other sources say she was (I’m more likely to go with the Sheriff’s Department over a podcaster, no shade to them). King County Detective Wayne Dorman said that this fact surprised him and it made investigators wonder if Seaman’s assailant ‘may have panicked before he had a chance to rape her.’ He also said they wondered if perhaps she was killed by a hitchhiker she picked up that perhaps she ‘was a college student. In all probability she would do so.’

The ME working the case took twelve polaroid photos, six of which were left behind at the King County Medical Examiners office; the victims fingerprints were taken to the FBI, but she didn’t come up in any police databases (as she had no criminal record). Clothing and articles that were found with the body were examined and put in the property room at the King County Sheriff’s department: her green coat and dress had no labels and appeared to have been handmade and the nylons that was found with her shoe appeared to have been part of some panty hose that were cut at the top by something incredibly sharp, possibly a knife or a razor; the other leg that had the attached ‘panty section’ of the hosiery had been pulled down over her left leg and was found inside out so that her stacked-heel black sandal was caught inside. 

On 5:50 PM on April 30, 1975 King County 911 Operator #75 received a call from an anonymous caller that stated a man (whose name was completely blacked out in the police file) had killed the victim, and it was then that a second operator came on the line and said that the call came from a redacted address, that was actually Farwest Service Corporation, or Farwest Taxi (they blacked out the address but not the name of the business?). Investigators checked into the suspect in the ‘R/B information’ (which may or may not stand for ‘running book’), and discovered he worked as a cook, had blond hair, and weighed 210 pounds; he also had a history of assault, robbery, and auto theft along with multiple arrests and convictions on his record. He was eventually cleared.

On May 6, 1975 Hallie’s boyfriend reached out to investigators (he was also from Idaho and was home visiting) and told them he was upset over the story that was printed about her in the newspapers, to which they said they have ‘no control over the press.’ From there, the detective told him that the polygraph exam he agreed to was scheduled for Friday, May 9, 1975 at 1:30 PM and that he should arrive fifteen minutes beforehand. During the interview with detectives, he said that his girlfriend typically wore white underwear and at the time she was killed the wallet that she was using was a man’s, and there was no metal on it except the snap on the leather band to help keep it closed. Seaman’s boyfriend said that the last time he had intercourse with her on Saturday, April 26th and she did wear nylons most of the time but didn’t cut them at the top in the way that the victims was found.

Ted Bundy: At the time of Hallie’s murder in the spring of 1975 Ted Bundy was still out and about living the good life, and wasn’t arrested until later that August. He was still living in his first Utah apartment on First Avenue in SLC and was attending law school at the University of Utah; he was also towards the end of his multi-year, long-distance romance with Elizabeth Kloepfer (who he was not even remotely faithful to, as he was dating multiple other women). However, one thing jumped out at me about Hallie possibly being a Bundy victim: the last time he was active in Washington was July 1974: although not completely unheard of, that’s quite a bit of time in between victims.

I can see why Hallie would initially be thought to possibly be a Bundy victim, as she (very obviously) fit very neatly into his typical victim type: she was an academic, and was slim, young, and beautiful, with thick, beautiful chestnut hair that she wore (VERY) long and braided down her back. She was also by herself and in a public place, and just the year prior he had abducted two other students on the University of Washington’s campus: Lynda Ann Healy and Georgann Hawkins (and attacked Karen Sparks).

Hallie’s Killer: In 2002 detectives submitted forensic evidence that had been collected and preserved from Seaman’s autopsy in 1975 to the Washington state crime lab, who in turn generated a DNA profile of the suspected killer; sadly there were no hits in CODIS (the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System that was created in 1998 to share genetic profiles of certain felons in all fifty states). The case was reopened in 2017 and in an attempt to find new leads, Seattle police Detective Rolf Norton tried to utilize the field of genetic genealogy, which tested unknown DNA samples taken from crime scenes and tested it against publicly available genetic profiles in an attempt to identify possible suspects (like Ancestry or 23andme.com). Unfortunately for the detective, the lab had utilized the entire genetic sample when generating the suspected killer’s genetic profile in 2002 (which sometimes happens), so that wasn’t possible. In 2019, lawmakers in Washington passed new legislation as a continuation of their 2015 Sexual Assault Kit Initiative, which made all state policing agencies to submit all untested rape kits to the crime lab for testing, thus expanding the criteria for whose DNA could be included in CODIS.

In 2023, DNA tests posthumously linked a Washington killer named Charles Rodman Campbell to the murder of Hallie Ann Seaman. In a 2023 article with The Seattle Times, Detective Norton said: ‘really, the craziness about this story is who ended up being the suspect:’ In August of 2023, he received an email from William Stubbs, a forensic scientist at the Washington State Patrol Crime Lab about the case, who told him a lab report would soon be on its way: ‘he’s like, ‘well, I think it’s going to surprise you, what the result is,’ and I’m like, ‘Pfft. OK, surprise me. And so he sent me a copy of the reports … and I was blown away.’ In the initial stages of the investigation, detectives painstakingly logged over 120 names of possible suspects that came up during the investigation, and Campbell wasn’t one of them.

Shortly after his birth in Hawaii on October 21, 1954 Campbell’s family relocated to Washington, and according to his parents he was an angry child that loved to bully other children and when he was twelve his behavioral problems began to escalate: he began drinking and smoking, and at thirteen began using amphetamines. The following year used heroin for the first time and when he was fifteen he had several run-ins with police: he stole a car, and he along with a friend were caught pushing over headstones in a cemetery. In October 1969 at the age of sixteen he was caught breaking into an elementary school, and in 1971 after his father had him arrested for stealing the family car he called a friend on three separate occasions and asked him to shoot his dad; later that July, he was sentenced to a year in jail for burglarizing a house.

On December 11, 1974 Campbell forced 23-year-old Renae Wicklund to perform oral sex on while he held a knife to her eight-month-old daughter Shanana** then threatened her life and her baby. The young mother was outside washing the windows of her home while Shanana was playing on the lawn when suddenly she noticed a young man running towards her: instincts kicked in and she immediately grabbed her daughter and ran into the house, but the intruder still managed to force his way inside. After the assault Wicklund’s neighbor and friend Barbara Hendrickson came over, and upon realizing what happened called the police. ** I’ve seen her name spelled Shannah and Shannon.

After the violent assault Campbell remained a fugitive for thirteen months until he was arrested on a burglary charge in Okanogan County; he was then brought back to Snohomish County, and after Wicklund picked him out of a police line-up he was charged with first-degree assault and sodomy. The young mother, along with Hendrickson, testified against Campbell at his trial and he was given a maximum sentence of thirty years in prison; unfortunately, he was granted ‘work release’ only six years into his bid on May 1, 1981 (one report said it was seven), which allowed him to leave prison grounds and go out into the community and get a job. Renae tried her best to move on with life after the assault but struggled: she ended up divorcing her husband in 1978, and shortly after he died in a car accident. 

While incarcerated, Campbell had a hard time conforming to prison life and staying in line: while there he got into several physical altercations with other inmates, and earned the nickname ‘one punch’ because that’s all it took him to win a fight. He also raped at least two of his cellmates, one of which was a childhood friend and according to the CO’s he was also dealing drugs.

While on work release, Campbell was allowed to leave the facility during the day but had to return in the evening, and Wicklund lived about fifty miles away from the facility (she never moved out of the home she was assaulted in). In the spring of 1982 the 31-year old was working for a local Beauty School, and after staying home sick on April 14th Campbell returned to Renae’s residence and cut her throat: she was found naked on the floor of her bedroom and had been strangled and severely beaten with a blunt object.

When her (then) eight-year-old daughter arrived home from school later that same afternoon he ambushed her and brought her into the room where her mother’s dead body was; he then strangled her and slid her throat nearly to the point of decapitation. Almost immediately after he killed Renae and Shanana, 51-year-old Barbara stopped over to make her sick friend some Jell-O as a snack; he took her life as well. It’s strongly speculated that Campbell’s motive for returning to Wicklund’s home to further victimize her was revenge due to her and Hendrickson having testified against him during his trial for Wicklund’s rape.

While Campbell was out on work release he got his girlfriend pregnant and his son Jacob was born on October 18th, 1982. During his November 1982 trial the prosecution presented a great deal of evidence against him, including the fact that one of Shanana’s earrings were found in his car, his fingerprints were found on a glass at the crime scene, and another neighbor saw him leaving Wicklund’s home the day of the murders. The trial lasted fifteen days and the jury only needed four hours to find him guilty of all three murder counts and recommended he be sentenced to death; the judge agreed with this decision and on December 17, 1982 he sentenced Campbell to death.

Campbell fought his death sentence to the very end and filed appeal after appeal with no success, and after twelve years of sitting on death row at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla he was put to death on May 27, 1994. The day before his execution he was due to be moved to a different cell that was closer to the gallows, but he refused to cooperate with correction officers and laid down on the floor; in turn, they used pepper spray to get him to comply. Campbell’s last meal consisted of fish sticks, a tossed green salad, scalloped potatoes, and a cherry tart; he didn’t eat a single bite. 

When it came time for his execution to be carried out Campbell also refused to walk to the gallows, and he needed to be strapped to a board and carried to the trap door; while on it, he kept moving his head which prevented prison staff from putting the hood and noose on him. He didn’t have any final words, and at 12:12 AM he dropped through the trap door and was pronounced dead two minutes later. He was the last death row inmate to be executed by hanging.

Noting Campbells’ notoriety, a (now retired) Tacoma Detective that was working for the state Attorney General’s Office named Lindsey Wade decided to submit Campbell’s DNA profile into CODIS (despite his crimes in Snohomish County predating the creation of the database). Then came the news that DNA had connected him to the murder of Hallie Seaman, and according to Detective Norton: ‘serendipity came together with some great investigative work from ’75 and Lindsey Wade thinking out of the box and making some really, really great decisions.’

Upon the realization that Campbell was out of jail for a little over a year between his attack on Wicklund in 1974 and his capture in early 1976, Detective Norton encouraged other Washington police jurisdictions to look at their own unsolved cases from that time frame to see if it’s possible he committed additional homicides. Additionally, after his conviction laws in the state were changed so that victims of violent crimes and people that testify against offenders need to be notified upon their release.

After Hallie’s murder was solved Detective Norton said that he had been in touch with her sister and brother but declined to discuss their conversation as they requested privacy. When asked if solving an almost fifty-year-old homicide can bring closure to a family, he said it’s tough to say: ‘is it harder now, that the bandage gets ripped open again after all these years? I don’t know. You’re cognizant of that when you’re reaching out to families and having these discussions. My guess is that most would like to know, rather than not knowing. However, you’re bringing up the worst thing that ever happened to a family and laying it on the table again.’

Dr. Jill Seaman MD: Hallie’s sister has led quite an impressive life: after graduating from Moscow High School in 1970 she relocated to Vermont where she attended Middleburg College and got a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1974; from there she returned to the Pacific Northwest and in 1979 earned her MD from the University of Washington Medical School. She is a board-certified family practice Doctor and in 1988 advanced her education even further and attended the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

After graduating from medical school, Dr. Seaman moved to Alaska, where she worked as the Chief Medical Officer at a 50-bed hospital in Bethel treating Yupik Native American Indians. In 1984, she went to Sudan, where she served as a physician for the International Refugee Committee in a makeshift hospital and the following year she worked at a therapeutic feeding center catering to Ethiopian refugees.

While in the South Sudan between 1989 and 1997, Dr. Seaman battled an epidemic of kala-azar (or visceral leishmaniasis), and in 2000 her and a colleague developed a successful program in Lanken (a village east of the Nile River) against tuberculosis. In 2009 she was named a MacArthur Fellow (or a ‘genius grant’) winner and has written and co-authored numerous articles that were published in various medical journals. In 1997 she was featured in Time Magazine’s special on ‘Heroes of Medicine’ and has won numerous awards for medical and humanitarian services. In recent years Dr. Seaman splits her time between Africa and Alaska, where she provides public-health services to Yup’ik Eskimos. She also has her own Wikipedia page and is married to another MacArthur Fellow winner.

Jacob Campbell: According to his website, Charles Campbell’s son was raised knowing what he did and some of his earliest memories include sitting in a courtroom in Snohomish County with his father. Despite not knowing his dad outside of a prison environment, Jacob claimed the two had a good relationship, which he credits to weekly visits with his mother along with frequent letters. In 1994, when Jacob was in sixth grade he petitioned the Governor of Washington state in an attempt to save his father’s life, but was unsuccessful.

After the death of his father Jacobs’ life began to spiral out of control: when he started High School he got deeply involved with the party scene and began to drink heavily and abuse any substance he could get his hands on. While spending some time in the Benton County Correctional Facility as a juvenile he learned about a program called Jubilee that helped him turn his life around, and now he is a husband, father, and a Doctoral Student in Transformative Studies (PhD) at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Conclusion: In the days that immediately followed her murder a friend of Hallie’s recalled what a great loss her death was to so many people: ‘she was a bright, dynamic girl. She was the most dynamic creature I’ve ever seen. Suggest something and it would be done. She had tremendous drive.’ One of her professors said that she ‘was one of the most brilliant students we’ve had. We’ll never know how much she could have done to help low-income families have decent housing.’

Mr. Seaman was born with a circulatory brain malformation, and after a run in 1991 it burst and left him unable to walk or talk. With his wife’s encouragement, he learned to walk again, and according to his obituary, he enjoyed running, gardening, and always maintained a positive attitude and sense of humor. In 1964 he was named the University of Idaho’s outstanding faculty member and worked with Moscow schools helping with the moral development of children, and even served on the school board during the 1980’s and 1990’s. He was also a charter member of the Unitarian Universalist Church of the Palouse, a member Phi Beta Kappa, and was a founding member of the Outer Circle (a multidisciplinary university discussion group). He died at home at the age of seventy-nine on September 6, 1998. Hallie’s mother Mary died at the age of seventy-five on November 5, 1998 in Moscow, Idaho.

According to her obituary, Mrs. Seaman was the youngest of eight children and attended the State Normal School in Ypsilanti and later studied nursing at Cook County Hospital at Chicago. During World War II, she learned drafting for the Willow Run Bomber Plant in Michigan and when she was done serving her country continued her education at the University of Idaho in Moscow. During her working years she held several different jobs, with positions ranging from assembly work to dress designing until she became a mother and left the workforce so she could devote all of her time and energy into raising her three children. Mrs. Seaman was involved in Moscow city planning in an attempt to help save its downtown, however after Hallie’s murder she retreated from outside activities and concentrated on writing, architecture, and landscaping (especially her own home and garden). She was a member of the University Arboretum Associates and the League of Women Voters as well as multiple women’s rights groups and literary and environmental organizations. After her husband’s cerebral hemorrhage in 1990, she dedicated all her time and energy to his care. Tom Seaman still resides in Moscow, and according to his father’s obituary he was an ‘avid traveler.’ At the time of her father’s death Jill was practicing medicine in Nairobi.

Works Cited:
Banner, Patti (May 13, 2024). ‘DNA Links Killer to University of Washington Student’s Death.’
Green, Sara (Jean December 23. 2023). ‘A UW student was murdered in 1975. Her killer was never known, until now.
jacobrcampbell.com/testimony/
LA Times (no author listed). ‘Killer Struggles with Guards Before Hanging.’ (May 28, 1994).
Rule, Ann (December 2004). ‘Kiss Me, Kill Me: Ann Rule’s Crime Files Volume 9.’
lmtribune.com/northwest/frank-seaman-79-retired-ui-professor-75773

Hallie Seaman from the 1964 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman in a group photo for orchestra taken from the 1964 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman in a group photo for orchestra taken from the 1964 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Seaman from the 1965 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman junior year picture from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
A picture of Hallie from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman in a group photo for National Honor Society taken from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman in a group photo for Drama Club taken from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman in a group photo for Debate Club taken from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman in a group photo for orchestra taken from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman in a group photo for the Future Scientists of America Club taken from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie in a picture for Pep Band from the 1966 Moscow High School yearbook.
Hallie Ann Seaman.
Raymond Tillery’s statement ion relation to the murder of Hallie Seaman, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Notes related to Seaman’s investigation, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Notes related to the Seaman investigation, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A drawing of the crime scene from Seaman’s case file, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A vehicle report related to the Seaman investigation, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
What looks like a BOLO for Seaman’s vehicle, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
The hand-written notes related to the BOLO for Seaman’s vehicle, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Seaman’s missing persons report, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A police document related to Seaman’s vehicle, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A drawign of a key chain taken from Seaman’s case file, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A police memo in relation to Seaman’s car keys, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A police report in relation to Seaman’s car keys, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A drawing of where Seaman’s keys were recovered, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
The clothing that was collected from the scene of Seaman’s murder, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A letter to Seattle police chief Herb Swindler about Hallie’s murder written by a colleague of Dr. Seaman at the University of Idaho, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Some notes related to the murder of Hallie Ann Seaman, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A layout of the events surrounding Seaman’s murder.
A possible route from the prison Campbell was residing in to Clearwater, WA where Renae Wicklund lived.
In high school, Hallie was in orchestra, National Honor Society, drama club, debate club,
A white 1965 Ford Fairlane 500.
Where 1303 Roy Street in Seattle looks like today.
Whatthe intersection of Holgate St Bridge & 8th Ave South looks like today, which is where Hallie’s car was found.
This is where Hallie’s apartment building once stood, located at 2946 Eastlake Ave East in
Seattle, WA 98102. The Ruby Condos were built in 2009.
An undated article about Hallie Seaman courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s department.
An undated article about Hallie Ann Seaman, courtest of the KIng County Sheriff’s Department..
An article about the murder of Hallie Ann Seaman published in The Daily Herald on May 3, 1975.
On of the few newspaper articles about Hallie that actually happens to mention ‘Ted,’ published in The Kitsap Sun on May 7, 1975.
A recent newspaper article about the murder of Hallie Seaman published in The Olympian on January 2, 2024.
Bundy’s whereabout in late April/early May 1975 according to the ‘TB 1992 FBI Mutiagency Report.’
A possible route from Bundy’s apartment in SLC to the University of Washington’s School of Architecture.
Charles Rodman Campbell.
Charles Campbell.
Charles Campbell.
An article about Campbell’s murder trial published in The Olympian on November 9, 1982.
An article about Campbell’s trial published in The Tri-City Herald on November 21, 1982.
An article about Campbell’s murder trial published in The Daily Herald on November 26, 1982.
An article about Campbell’s murder conviction published in The Daily Herald on November 27, 1982.
An article about Charles Campbell’s execution published in The News Tribune on May 27, 1994.
A newspaper article about Charles Rodman Campbell’s execution published by The Daily Herald
on June 4, 1994.
An article about Campbell’s execution and final moments.
The announcement in the local newspaper that Hallie’s mother applied for a marriage license with her first husband (notice the ten year age gap), published in The Ypsilanti Daily Press on September 29, 1941.
A picture of Mary Jefferson from the 1940 Eastern Michigan University yearbook.
The wedding announcement for Hallie’s mother’s first marriage published in The Ypsilanti Daily Press on October 6, 1941.
Hallie’s mother’s first record of marriage.
Hallie’s mother’s first marriage license.
The divorce record from Hallie’s mother’s first marriage.
Mary Alice Seaman’s WWII card for the ‘US Cadet Nurse Corps,’ dated October 1944.
Mr. Seaman’s WWII draft card. According to said Kathleen Kearney, a retired professor of family and consumer sciences at the University of Idaho: ‘we overlapped one or two years (on the school board in the late 1970s). Frank was a very honest man and concerned that the school funding was used correctly and accounting was accurate. I didn’t always agree with him, maybe half the time, but he was a nice man E I liked him as a friend. He probably did the best homework as anyone on the board, and he was always interested in excellent education at the fairest price.’
Frank Seaman’s junior year picture from the 1949 University of Idaho yearbook. Marvin Henberg, a former philosophy professor at the University of Idaho that worked with Dr. Seaman, said about his colleague: ’One of my fondest memories of Frank was that he used to keep an open box on his desk containing an enticing contraption made of wood doweling and string. People, myself included, could not resist pulling it out of the box to have a look at it. We would then try to get it back in the box, only to find that we could not do so. Turn and twist it as we might, the contraption would not go back in. Frank would, face beaming, have to return it for us.’
Jill Seaman from the 1968 Moscow High School yearbook.
A picture of Tom Seaman from the 1974 Moscow High School yearbook.
Dr. Jill Seaman.
A newspaper article that mentions Jill Seaman published in The Spokane Chronicle on December 24, 1974.
A picture of Jill Seaman in The Coeur d’Alene Press on December 26, 1974.
A newspaper clipping about some criminal activity Raymond Tillery was involved in published in The Danville News on March 10, 1947. According to Ancestry, Mr. Tillery was born on Christmas in 1925 in Kansas City and he passed away on September 4, 2001.
Renae Wicklund, top, was murdered by Charles Rodman Campbell in 1982. (Seattle Times Archives).
Renae Wicklund.
Shannah Wicklund was killed by Charles Rodman Campbell in 1982 when she was 8 years old. Photo courtesy of The Seattle Times Archives.
Barbara Hendrickson.
Jacob Campbell.

Cathy Carter-Gonzales.

A missing persons flier for a young woman named Cathy Carter was included in an article about the missing women in Seattle published by Evergreen State College’s newspaper (which is where Donna Gail Manson went to school). I inquired with the Thurston County Sheriff’s department about Cathy in November 2024, and they said they had no information on her. After some minor investigating I learned that she wasn’t gone for very long, and returned home, got married, and lives near Vancouver, WA.

The front page of an article that features Cathy’s missing persons flyer, published in The Cooper Point Journal on August 11, 1974. Also featured is Katherine Merry Devine (who was actually a victim of William Cosden Jr.) and Donna Manson.
The first part of an article published by The Cooper Point Journal on August 11, 1974. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.
The second part of an article published by The Cooper Point Journal on August 11, 1974. Photo courtesy of the Evergreen State College Archives.
An article about the disappearance of Cathy Carter published in The Olympian on July 5, 1974.
An article about the recovery of Cathy Carter published in The Olympian on July 10, 1974.
Cathy’s mother’s obituary published in The Olympian on May 1, 2007.
A recent picture of Cathy Carter-Gonzales, courtesy of Facebook.

Marjorie ‘Margie’ Sue Fithian.

Background: Marjorie ‘Margie’ Sue Fithian was born on June 4, 1952 to Robert and Elizabeth ‘Betty’ (nee Talkington) Fithian in Greeley, Colorado. Robert Warren Fithian was born on November 23, 1920 in Bayard, Nebraska and after graduating from high school he joined the Army and served in WWII; when he returned home from the war he enrolled at Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts and graduated in 1946. He was employed as an ‘Assistant County Agent.’ Elizabeth May Talkington was born on May 4, 1923 in Belfield, ND, and according to her Ancestry page, after graduating from Fryberg High School in 1941 she attended North Dakota State University in Fargo, where she earned a BS with a focus in Home Economics in 1945; she went on to get a job as a home service director at a gas and electric company. The couple were married on September 19, 1948 and had four children together: Christine (b. 1949), Virginia (b. 1957), David (b. 1960), and Marjorie. They divorced on June 3, 1970 and Mr. Fithian got remarried to a woman named Erma on July 15, 1977 in Reno, NV. After separating from Robert, Betty went back to school at UNC and earned her education degree, and began her career at a local HeadStart Program; she later taught elementary school in district six in Greeley (primarily focusing on Kindergarten). 

A petite woman, Margie stood at a mere 5’0” tall and weighed only 108 pounds; she had auburn hair, green eyes, andwas described as a ‘free spirit’ and a ‘hippie chick’ by her loved ones. She was very trusting almost to a fault and no one could think of any reason why anyone would ever want to hurt her. At the time of her death in June 1975 she was enrolled at Aims Community College in Greeley, and according to the local newspaper she was employed there as well. At some point after graduating from high school Fithian married Vietnam War veteran James Patrick Reese, who was born on June 24, 1945, but the couple divorced on April 5, 1971. After separating from her husband she moved into a trailer in her hometown of Greeley with her 18-month-old son, Dylan Sage (who eventually dropped Dylan from his name), and where no source ever came right out and said that her ex-husband was his father some articles gave the child the last name of ‘Reese;’ Sage’s Dad wasn’t ‘in the picture,’ and lived outside of Colorado.

June 1975: On Friday, June 20, 1975 Marjorie and Sage, along with a single suitcase, made their way to the bus station in Greeley; the twenty-three-year-old single mom had a fun, family-oriented weekend in Denver planned with her aunt and uncle and had intentions of returning early Monday morning. Mother and son arrived safely at their destination and enjoyed some quality time with family, and when their visit was over at around 7 AM on Sunday, June 23rd*, her uncle dropped them at a bus station in Denver to return home on a bus that departed at 7:30 AM (one report specifically says they parted ways at 7:20 AM); the two never boarded. The Greyhound bus driver was later tracked down and interviewed by detectives, and he said that Marjorie and Sage had not been on his bus that morning. *I did see it incorrectly reported that Fithian was dropped off at the bus stop on June 23 but wasn’t found until the 24th, but that doesn’t seem to be accurate, as they went for a weekend and the 24th was a Tuesday (and every other report says that she was found later the same morning).

Marjorie’s cousins, who were with her the weekend before she was killed, were also interviewed by investigators, and they said that nothing unusual had occurred during their brief visit and they had no idea what could have happened to her. When he returned home after dropping the two off at the bus station, Fithian’s Uncle realized that she had dropped some change and had left it behind at his residence, so there is a chance that she may have not had enough money to have been able to purchase the tickets (remember, this is well before the time of cell phones, and a bunch of quarters was a decent amount of currency in the 1970’s). Because of this, some people wonder if maybe she had been forced to hitchhike due to lack of other options.

Discovery: At around 9 AM roughly two hours after Fithian’s uncle dropped her off at the bus stop a twenty-four-year-old ranch hand named Terry Furnish was making his way from the eastern part of ‘The Painter Ranch’ to the west side on Weld County Road 386, located between Interstate’s 76 and 35, about four miles north of Roggen. As he was making his way down the gravel road he noticed a car barreling towards him that was moving at a high rate of speed, which was unusual due to the lack of activity in the area: the driver had been in an early 1960’s model two door car (possibly a Ford or Chevrolet) that may have had a broken window and a yellowish/brown body with a black roof that was possibly ripped in one spot. As Furnish got closer to the entrance of the I-76 he came across a ghastly site: a woman lying in the middle of the road covered in blood; sitting with her was a little blond-haired boy, calmly holding her hand. Responding investigators strongly felt that Terry stumbled upon them only moments after they were left there.

Furnish moved the child out of the glass, got back in his truck and flew down the road to a company vehicle that contained a CB Radio. After sending a message out with his location and a description of what happened he raced back to Sage, where he picked up him up and tried to soothe him the best that he could before help arrived. A Colorado state Trooper was the first to arrive on the scene, and after determining that Marjorie had a faint pulse he called for a medic; unfortunately she died on the way to the hospital. According to Weld County Sheriff Don Bower, the child wasn’t harmed and that Fithian was found ‘within a matter of minutes’ after the shooting took place.

Terry’s family had managed The Painter Ranch in Roggen since 1955, and he had only been there visiting from South Dakota, where he was working as a field man (in a newspaper I also saw it called ‘The Two-Bar Ranch’). The stretch of road where Fithian was found was desolate and surrounded by empty fields ‘as far as the eye could see,’ as there were only two ranches in the area at the time and the road wasn’t heavily traveled.

Unsure of what to do with Sage, the officer put him in the back of his patrol car, and it wasn’t long before more state troopers, Weld County Sheriff’s deputies, and a handful of ranch hands that heard the announcement arrived. Looking back at what happened so long ago, Furnish said: ‘I didn’t know what to do. I didn’t know whether to put him in the pickup, but I set him just out of the glass. You just don’t know what would have happened to the little guy, and his mom, too. It’s just so unfortunate, it was so remote then, the ambulance took a long time, over an hour if I remember right.’  

Investigation: First responders immediately secured the scene and began canvassing the area, and even though the roadway had very little traffic LE still shut it down. Tire tracks close to Marjorie and Sage showed the suspect drove their vehicle to the scene from the Interstate-76, pulled a U-turn, then went back towards the highway. As the hours ticked by the investigators had no choice but to take Sage back to the police station while they tried to find someone to claim him. Close to where her body was found, investigators found her coat and a blanket (both of which were placed over her) and up the road they found her suitcase: in it were clothes for mother and son as well as a slip of paper with a phone number scrawled on it that belonged to her Betty Fithian, her mother. This was incredibly helpful, as Marjorie was not carrying any identification with her. Jack Van Arsdale, who was the only detective with the Weld County Sheriff’s Department at the time of the murder in June 1975, said that she told him that her daughter and grandson had traveled by bus to Denver to visit with family.

Elizabeth was able to identify the young victim as her daughter, and told detectives that the young child that was with her was her grandson. Detectives told her to come to the police station to pick up Sage and upon learning the news about Marjorie’s death was ‘absolutely devastated.’ Because the body was still at the morgue being autopsied, investigators were unable to show her the remains when she arrived but decided not to wait for its findings to start investigating the case as a homicide.

Before Betty left with Sage she sat down and spoke with investigators about what may have happened to her daughter: she told them that she had known that the two had gone to Denver to visit with family and were due to return home later that morning because she had classes the next day. At the time she expressed concern regarding the fact that so much was still unknown and what happened and that she was afraid for her grandson, and wasn’t sure if he would be safe.

After speaking with Betty, investigators contacted Denver police, who immediately sent detectives to interview Marjorie’s Uncle. He said the usual things: that they had a nice visit and that nothing out of the ordinary had happened, however he did share that while in Denver his niece had gone on a date with a man that she had been casually seeing. He had taken Margie and her son to the zoo and said that it ‘seemed as if they all had a really good time.’ After learning this the Denver detectives knew they had to track this mystery date down…. But according to Ashley Flowers they had no luck, and there’s no mention that they ever found him in Fithian’s case file (more on this later). However, they did manage to track down Sage’s father, and he had an alibi and was nowhere near Colorado at the time of his ex’s murder.

Marjorie was shot twice in the face execution style, and a spent .25 caliber casing was found near her body that investigators felt was most likely discharged from an automatic pistol. She had been wearing jeans, a blouse, and brown leather sandals, one of which had been kicked off to the side of the roadway; her auburn hair had been cut into a classic 70’s shag, and her feathered bangs were saturated in blood from what appeared to be a gunshot wound to her forehead.

Investigators took samples of the broken pieces of glass that were found at the scene and determined that it most likely came from a car headlight or window, which made them suspect that a struggle had taken place before Kithian was shot; additionally, according to her autopsy she had not been sexually assaulted. Notably missing from the scene was any sort of weapon, and as of July 2025 one was never recovered in relation to the murder. Responding officers asked Furnish if the woman had said anything in the moments before they arrived on the scene, but he told them she had been unconscious and actually had thought she had been deceased.

Clues point to the idea that Fithian had been shot elsewhere and had been brought to the dirt road where she was recovered. In an interview with ‘The Deck’ podcast creator Ashley Flowers, Detective Van Arsdale said that as he was making his way to the crime scene he passed the ambulance, and when the EMT briefly stopped he asked if he could hop in and sit with the victim just in case she woke up so he could take a statement, but the paramedic told him that she had just expired. About the incident, Van Arsdale said: ‘I proceeded on down to the crime scene, it was a pretty confusing mess. State patrol cars, a couple farmers, couple of ranchers… a couple of our guys. There was a lot of stuff going on, on the dirt road.’ Afterwards, instead of taking her to the hospital EMT’s took her to the local mortuary, which at the time was owned and operated by the Weld County Coroner’s Office.

Almost right after the murder, Weld County Sheriff’s brought Terry Furnish in for an ‘official’ sit down interview to get the specific details of what happened down in print while they were still fresh in his mind. He told them that he still couldn’t’ recall any specific details about the driver of the yellowish sedan, one thing that did stand out to him was that the cloth on the top part of the vehicle was ripped, that he was ‘100% certain of.’ After learning this, Detective Van Arsdale immediately radioed dispatch and put out a BOLO on the vehicle. Investigators used every single possible option that they had at the time to locate the oddly specific car with the very particular visual flaw, and according to Van Arsdale, ‘they did a lot of work on finding vehicles like that through the Colorado Department of Motor Vehicles. They got a long list of license plates for vehicles that matched that description and looked into who these vehicles were registered to. But ultimately it didn’t come up with any leads, but not for a lack of trying.’  

After he arrived on the scene, Detective Van Arsdale realized that if the crime had taken place shortly after they arrived then they had to act quickly, as it meant the assailant was still somewhere nearby. One of the ranch workers told investigators there were some ‘unusual tire tracks nearby,’ which they determined ‘looked fresh’ and were very close in proximity to the shooting. The Weld County Sheriff’s also reached out to the public and asked for their assistance and requested if anyone had seen anything suspicious the morning of June 23, 1975 to please reach out to them immediately. According to (current) Sheriff Steve Reams, ‘where this crime occurred, is not easily accessible off the highway. You don’t just take an exit ramp and turn, you kinda hafta go out of your way to get where they ended up at.’

On June 25, 1975 Detective Van Arsdale and the Weld County Sheriff returned to the scene of Marjorie’s murder, this time on horseback: the two law enforcement officers rode up and down Weld County Road 386 looking for more evidence that may have missed immediately after the murder… but all they found was more broken glass. Later that same day investigators also searched Marjorie’s residence in Greeley, but they didn’t find anything helpful. It’s also worth mentioning that at her residence detectives found only a small amount of marijuana residue, and there was no indication at all that pointed towards heavy substance use.

On June 26th news of Fithian’s murder hit the local newspaper, and in addition to publishing her obituary The Greeley Daily Tribune also announced the establishment of a memorial fund for Sage. A handful of locals contacted police and reported that they had seen mother and son at a nearby cafe eating breakfast earlier in the morning before she was killed; another tip claimed that several men had witnessed someone picking them up from the parking lot of ‘The Picadilly Restaurant’ in Denver. In the weeks following the murder detectives across multiple police jurisdictions in Colorado investigated hundreds of Fithians friends/family/acquaintances/and classmates, but didn’t learn much useful information. 

Police also began getting tips about some seemingly low-level criminals, specifically four men named Robert Davis, Vern Hudson, Jerry Walker, and Larry Hernandez, who were all investigated for Fithian’s murder. They were already aware of the four men after having multiple run-ins with all of them, and from the beginning didn’t think that any of them had anything to do with the case.

Around mid-July investigators were notified that two of the men, Jerry and Robbie, had been arrested in a neighboring town for burning down Vern’s garage, which made them even more suspicious in their eyes. This also hinted that there had been a sort of falling out with the members of the friend group, and wondered if it had possibly had anything to do with Fithian’s murder.

An Arrest: Just a little over two months after Fithian was murdered an arrest was finally made: on August 27, 1975 the Weld County Sheriff’s Department arrested thirty-four year old Jerry Eugene Walker on first degree murder charges based on information provided to the office from a CI. According to Greeley Police Officer Chris Clinton, a local confidential informant reached out to him and shared that Walker told him that he ‘shot the bitch in the face,’ and bragged about killing the young mother; he had also shown him one black and white photo and two color ones of a wounded Marjorie that had ‘gunshot sounds to her face’ and was ‘suffering from wounds.’ After he was taken into custody detectives went to his house armed with a search warrant with hopes of finding the murder weapon, ammo, or any photos of Fithian; they didn’t find anything.

When Walker was arrested a story ran in the local newspaper, which included a picture of him being led away by detectives in handcuffs. The day after Mrs. Fithian called the Weld County Sheriff’s Department and told them that ‘something weird had happened,’ and according to Detective Van Arsdale: ‘she called me and said that the strangest thing just happened: Sage just looked at the picture and said, ‘oh, that’s Jerry.’ It’s the only person that he’s ever identified, or said anything about.’ It was the first thing that Sage ever said about his mother’s death, and it gave the investigating officer chills, and he wondered if maybe the boy recognized Walker because she had a relationship of some kind with him. Until then, the detective had been unsure of Walkers involvement with Fithian, but that made him question things. 

Walker told investigators that he picked up Fithian and her son from the Denver bus station because she was supposed to be transporting drugs for him, but when she failed to produce the substances or money he killed her. On September 30, 1975 the murder charge against him was dismissed due to a ‘lack of evidence,’ however because he was being still being charged with the misdemeanor crimes of arson, criminal mischief, and assault he was released on $5,000 bond; the charges were ‘dismissed without prejudice’ indicating that they could be refiled again in the future if sufficient evidence was found. According to The Greeley Daily Tribune, Walker and a co-defendant were accused of the burglary and theft charges of entering the apartment, assaulting, and menacing Karen Logan and stealing money in an amount over $100 belonging to Randy Mitchell. Additionally, he is charged with causing intentional bodily harm to that of Ms. Logan and of damaging real and personal property of the woman in the amount of $100 or more.

Two weeks after his release, Walker died of an accidental drug overdose while sitting at home in a living room couch: Weld County Coroner Ross Adamson said that Walker died of an ‘unintentional overdose of barbiturates,’ and put his estimated time of death at around 6 AM on Sunday, October 12, 1975. When police and paramedics arrived on the scene they found ‘lots’ of empty pill bottles, and the coroner ultimately ruled the death as an accidental overdose. A Captain with the Greeley PD told the local newspaper that letters found in Walkers house brought up suicide, however according to those that knew him he hadn’t brought it up recently. Captain Richard McNamara of the Greeley PD said that investigators were also looking into a rumor that two of the deceased friends had recently died of unnatural causes in Colorado Springs, and another had passed in Greeley earlier in the year but nothing ever came of it. According to Ashley Flowers, some informants told police that Walkers death wasn’t accidental and was actually ‘tied to Marjorie’s death.’

The investigating detectives got word of a ‘drug party’ that some of the suspects would be attending on October 1, 1975 and they were able to secure a search warrant and raided the event; they arrested everyone present. Jack spoke to Robbie later that night, who said that he ‘was in the car with Vern and Larry when Vern shot her in the face.’ It was at this moment that investigators realized they didn’t know who was telling the truth, as they all seemed to have a problem with one another. Detective Van Arsdale said that at the end of the day he didn’t really believe any of the men’s stories, because every last detail they talked about was public knowledge and was published in the local newspaper: they didn’t give any information that only the killer would have been privy to.

After Jerry died Fithian’s case completely stalled and a year went by with little movement: Weld County didn’t have concrete evidence that linked Walker or Vern Hudson to the murder, and the men kept changing their stories and going back and forth on what happened. In early 1977 the Sheriff’s Department brought Larry Hernandez in for a lie detector test, and before talking with detectives, he allowed himself to be administered sodium pentothal (or truth serum). During the interview he told them that he had made the entire story up about Marjorie’s murder and knew nothing about her death, but he did admit that he sold her weed a few times and the two had gone to the local community college together.

As it turned out, he barely knew her: when he was initially interviewed about the murder in 1975 he was briefly left alone with her case file, and he took it upon himself to read through it and learn intimate details surrounding her murder. Hernandez also volunteered that he fabricated the entire thing because he was angry at the man he previously claimed was Fithian’s killer for ‘ratting on him.’ According to Byron Kastilahn, an investigator with the Weld County Sheriff’s Department: ‘he said he did this because he was mad at the other drug dealer who he’d named as Fithian’s killer. They had a criminal history between them and they’d been narking each other out to the police.’

After that, investigators tracked down Vern, who by that time was in prison in Wyoming state and was facing drug trafficking charges. He spoke with them, but like Hernandez he denied having anything to do with Fithians murder. They even gave him a chance to rat on his former friends, but he admitted that the entire thing had been a lie and none of them had anything to do with her death. Hudson died in 2006. In 2020, Kastilahn tracked down Hernandez, who maintained the exact same story that he told in 1977.

After talking to Hernandez, detectives were aghast at the thought that the entire year and a half they spent investigating had been for nothing, and started looking into other possibilities, including the idea that Fithian had been killed by a random person and the murder was a crime of opportunity and not one with motive. They also wondered if perhaps her killer had tried to ‘put the moves on her,’ and when she turned him down he got angry and attacked her. Additionally, they were almost certain that robbery wasn’t the reason for the homicide, as she didn’t have any money and all of her possessions were found at the scene. According to Detective Van Arsdale, ‘I think somebody picked her up… her dad said that she was a pretty friendly gal, I think somebody realized at the bus station that she didn’t have any money and offered her a ride.’

But, Sheriff Reams said that two gunshot wounds to the face execution style didn’t sound like a random crime: ‘to me, it always seemed like it was a very personal thing, I guess the circumstances surrounding Marjorie’s death. Someone knew that she was going to be traveling with her kid… now, could they have just picked them up at a bus stop? Yes, but to kill her and leave her son behind. That’s almost as if there’s a personal relationship that was formed there, with anger involved… that’s what it came across as to me. But, we just don’t know. Obviously, it doesn’t really take that many shots to kill someone, typically we would call that an overkill. It’s not necessary, and again, just taking her out to a remote location, and she trusted whoever enough to at least travel with them.’   

But if Marjorie and Sage did take a stranger up on an offer for a ride home to Greeley, how did they wind up in Roggen? After a certain amount of driving in the wrong direction wouldn’t she have said something (or maybe she did, we’ll never know)? According to Sheriff Reams, ‘she was trusting enough of someone to not even try to get out of the car at a stop sign or anything like that, which tells me that there was some kind of relationship that was probably there. And then the two shots then the dragging her out of a car and leaving her on the side of the road with her kid with her kid, then driving off. That speaks to me as a stranger killing, but I can’t rule that out.’ There is a slight chance that when Margie and Sage were left on the dirt road that she was already fatally wounded, however detectives strongly feel that it was the location where she was shot, as there is no other way to explain the glass found on the ground. According to Detective Van  Arsdale, ‘I think she was shot inside the car. He went around, he took her out, then shot her a second time on the ground.’

To Detective Van Arsdale, it all came back to timing: there was only a two-hour window in which Fithian could have been killed, and it took roughly an hour and a half to get to Denver from Greeley; from there, it was (almost) another hours drive to Roggen, which means it would have been highly unlikely that she would have called Walker (or one of the other three men) for a ride, and they wouldn’t have been able to pull it off unless they were already in the area. According to Detective Van Arsdale, ‘I don’t believe any of them. I keep coming back to: 7:30, she got on the bus, or the bus was there. And she didn’t get on it but her uncle dropped her off there at 7:30, and then at 9:30 she’s on a dirt road out in Roggen. I don’t think she could have called Jerry Walker to come and pick her up and give her a ride home, or Vern Hudson. And I don’t know if they would have been at the bus station. And I don’t think anybody knew because she was just coming home from her uncles from spending the weekend there.’ 

Drugs?: With no real leads in the investigation, theories began to swirl about what may have happened to Marjorie. One that detectives considered was that she may have been transporting drugs from Greeley to Denver, given she had what the Weld County Sheriff’s Department called a ‘history of marijuana use,’ and according to Detective Kastilahn: ‘they thought (Fithian) might have acted as a drug mule, transporting drugs from Denver somewhere else.’ Other theories included that she may have been hitchhiking or had been purposefully ‘targeted by an unknown assailant,’ which Detective Van Arsdale called ‘unlikely.’

Ottis Toole: Months then years went by with almost no movement on Marjorie’s case. In 1982 a serial killer came onto investigators radar after he admitted to committing some murders in the state of Colorado in the 1970’s: Ottis Toole. According to a 1984 article published in The Daily Sentinel (which is a newspaper based out of Grand Junction), Toole confessed to a 1974 murder in Colorado Springs, which he later recanted. Despite this, investigators were able to find evidence that helped prove that he was in fact in the state of Colorado in the summer of 1975, so they went to talk to him while he was in prison, but he wasn’t very helpful. There is no actual evidence that Fithian was killed by Ottis Toole, and as we all know he would often confess to murders that he didn’t commit. He died at the age of forty-nine while in prison.

Detective Kastilahn suspects that because Toole knew he was going to die in prison he had nothing to lose, and that is probably why he confessed to so many homicides that he had nothing to do with: ‘he claimed to have killed people in Colorado, but he was so vague in his statements that to my knowledge, he wasn’t really linked to anything in Colorado. He claimed to have been in Colorado, and claimed to have killed people in Colorado, but that wasn’t verified.’ … ‘He said, you know, he really couldn’t remember… um, the detective was trying to describe where the murder happened, north of Denver, northeast of Denver. He was just, non-committal. Like, ‘yeah, I’m not sure if I was there. I might of killed her,’ is what he basically said.’  

Ted Bundy: At the time Marjorie was killed in late June 1975 Ted Bundy was still out in the community living the good life and wasn’t arrested until later that August. He was residing in his first Utah apartment located on First Avenue in SLC and was attending law school at the University of Utah; he was towards the end of his multi-year, long-distance romance with Elizabeth Kloepfer, who he was not even remotely faithful to.

In a Reddit group called ‘r/CrimeJunkiePodcast,’ a user going by the handle ‘Awakeningosiri’  posted about Fithian’s murder and whether or not Bundy could have been responsible for it, and she brought up a lot of good points: ‘Bundy was in the right region, at the right time, with a known victim type and vehicle match. This case has more circumstantial alignment than many others tied to him. His geographic range and risk profile by 1975 make him a strong person of interest.’

Roggen is only about an hour and a half away from Vail, where Bundy abducted 26-year-old ski instructor Julie Cunningham on March 15, 1975, and as we know he was known to drive long distances when stalking his prey and often did it in public places (like a bus station). For example, he drove over 262 miles to Sackett Hall at Oregon State College to abduct Kathy Parks while he was living at the Roger’s Rooming House on 12th Avenue in Seattle. However, Fithian was killed with a gun, and where it isn’t confirmed that Ted used such a weapon Carol DaRonch said that when he tried to kidnap her on November 8, 1974 he pulled out ‘a small pistol’ (its also worth mentioning that most of his victims weren’t recovered so we’ll never really know how he killed them). Additionally, it was reported that the suspicious vehicle fleeing the scene was a 1960’s yellow/brownish car with ripped black roof, and as we all know Bundy drove a solid-colored beige 1968 VW Beetle.

This is also fairly obvious, and if you’re a seasoned reader you don’t need me to point out that Marjorie also fit very neatly into Bundy’s typical victim type: she was slim, young, and beautiful, and had light brown hair that she wore long and parted down the middle. She was also traveling alone and was in a public place, however I’ve never heard of him going after a woman that had a child with them. Like Toole, there is no evidence linking Ted to Fithian’s murder.

Recent Years: In the early 2000’s Fithian’s case was reopened, and detectives hoped that a fresh set of eyes on the investigation (as well as modern day forensic techniques) would help them, however that wasn’t exactly what happened. According to Sheriff Reams, who was a detective at the time, ‘in 1975 in Weld County the resources just probably were not as available to work a case like this. And the manpower that would have been necessary to track down those leads and find people in Denver and various other areas and it seems simple now, I wish we could go back and try again. And every year that goes by you realize it’s just that much farther from probably having that likelihood. I worry about all that stuff, and to be honest with you when I went back and looked for this case file I was able to find a certain amount of information that was stored on-site. And then once I got back from the FBI Academy I went out to a place where we used to store archives and I found another box of documents or evidence related to this case: photo and what not that were in a place where those items should have never been. And so, yeah I worry about  what steps were done and not properly documented or not or were properly retained. I hate the idea of potentially saying, ‘hey, basics steps weren’t taken, and if they were they certainly weren’t done in a way that was documented that we would have expected by today’s standards.’’

Even Detective Van Arsdale said that looking back, if he could do it all over again, he would have handled the case completely differently and would have done a much better job at documenting what happened: ‘We didn’t have our act together very well. We had not gotten our crime scene techs trained yet, they weren’t in place. So we had those patrol officers trying to do their job but they didn’t really know what they were doing.’

Sage: Marjorie’s son is now in his fifties and agreed to speak with Ashley Flowers and her team of investigators for a podcast about his mother: ‘my first name is Dylan, and I’m named after Bob Dylan. And then Sage I think after Sage Brush. So, you know, that’s definitely from that era of time, I think. She was a painter, she wrote poetry and I have a couple scrapbooks of some of her work. And we all have pictures or paintings as well.’ He went on to tell Flowers that he has some of his mom’s vinyl albums and where none of his kids got her red hair he wonders if perhaps they got some of her talents. He also said that his aunt and grandma did a good job of protecting him from the brutal details surrounding her death when he was a kid, and about it he said, ‘you know, I think about my children at that age, and to tell them… yeah, that would be difficult for them. I had a good support system around me.’ He also said that over the years he’s tried not to obsess about the investigation or why his life was spared, but he would still like to know who did it, if only for his family: ‘I don’t think you can lose a daughter or a sister or a mother and not be traumatized by it., especially when it’s the way that it happened. So, you know, kind of putting the pieces together, again, just to bring closure for everybody.’

In March 2020 Detective Kastilahn began working on Weld County cold cases full time, and he knew there was a lot of pressure to get this murder in particular solved. So, he immediately got to work reading through all the case notes and began reinterviewing everyone that was still alive from the original investigation. The following month he tracked down Robbie, who was the only one of the four original men that were investigated for Fithian’s murder: he admitted that he lied about everything and had completely made up the story about Vern shooting Fithian because he was mad at him about something at the time, and said that was why they had burned down his garage.

In the spring of 2020, Detective Kastilahn was able to track down the young man that Marjorie had gone on a date with on the day before her murder, who told him that he was in fact interviewed by police back when the crime took place in 1975 despite there being no record of it anywhere in the case file (even though he was never considered a suspect). The detective did admit that one thing stuck out to him about the man that made absolutely no sense to him: he said that he was the one that dropped Marjorie and Sage off at the bus station in Denver the morning she was killed, which completely contradicts what police thought was the truth. Fithian’s uncle has since passed away so there’s no way to confirm this, however Kastilahn suspects it’s a simple memory mix-up and that he was confused. Ashley Flowers asked the detective what kind of car he drove at the time and if it matched the sedan that was seen speeding away from the scene on the morning of the murder, but he said he has no idea.

Detective Kastilahn also tracked down the cousins that Fithian had visited with in the days prior to her death, and they all maintained that they don’t remember anything out of the ordinary about the visit: ‘It’s an unfortunate case as far as leads go. Nobody had threatened her and her family and friends didn’t know of anyone that had a problem with her.’

The last significant event in relation to the case happened in the fall of 2020 when Weld County Sheriff’s received a phone call from a woman who had a strange encounter in June 1975 around the same time that Marjorie was killed: according to Detective Kastilahn, ‘she said that she was walking north of UNC, maybe on 13th Avenue on 12th Avenue or someplace around there. Back around this time in June 1975 there was this guy in a van slowly following her, and she’s walking down the road. And she’s looking back and he’s just staring at her. And she looks super creepy. And she’s not liking this at all. So the van finally goes ahead and turns right, so she keeps walking and then as she’s walking she sees the van is parked on that cross street, like it was waiting for her. And so she starts walking up to this house, like maybe he’ll think that I live here and he’ll leave me alone. Well, the van starts up and comes over and parks in front of the house so she goes into the house and she’s freaking out now and she thinking ‘thank God the door was unlocked. So she goes into the house and closes the door. And then there’s this old couple in their sixties that were sitting in their chairs reading the newspapers going, ‘what is this lady doing?’’

‘And she locks the door and hides behind the door, and the guy comes up and starts banging on the door and he tries to open the door. Like, thank God she locked it. So, that’s a crazy story. She didn’t get a license plate or anything but she wanted to give this information to us.’ The detective said that he couldn’t help but wonder if perhaps there was a man stalking young women in June 1975 in Colorado and wishes there was some DNA to work with, but none was collected at the scene and that ‘it’s going to take either a confession or somebody to get implicated. A confession is probably the best thing that’s going to get complete closure and a conviction.’

Sheriff Reams told Flowers that he has worked some nasty cases, but never one quite like this one: ‘It’s only by the grace of God that kid is still alive, and his life was spared. I can’t imagine what went through someone’s head or how they could sleep from that day forward, knowing what they’d done. Even if we never solve it, I hope that they burn in hell for the rest of their lives for what they did.’

Conclusion: Thankfully about his mother’s murder Sage doesn’t remember anything, and only knows stories about her secondhand through her family and friends memories. He now resides outside of Colorado with his wife and children.

PFC James Reese died at the age of 71 in Phoenix, CA and according to his meager obituary, he ‘passed away on June 29, 2016 and if you have any information regarding this person, please call Legacy Funeral Home.’

Marjorie’s father died at the age of eighty-four on February 27, 2005 in Greeley and he is laid to rest at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver; his wife Erma passed away on November 2, 2001. Her mother passed away at the age of eighty-six on December 12, 2009 in Greeley, and according to her obituary she retired from teaching in 1987 and afterwards became a Peer Counselor for North Range Behavioral Health for five years; Betty was a life long student, reader, artist, and strong Christian woman. As of July 2025, Marjorie’s sister Virginia Lynn is 68 years old and lives in Elizabeth, Colorado, and her other sister Christine is still residing in their hometown of Greeley; David Warren Fithian also currently resides in Greeley with his wife.

About the murder, in 2002 Terry Furnish said: ‘as long as it’s been, it’s hard to say. I wish I knew more, I really do. I’ve thought about it a thousand times. Had I come up on it right when it happened and the people would have been there you wonder what you would have done then because there’s probably a good chance you would have been shot at, also. It’s a sad thing and you’d like to see closure but with it being so long ago it’s a hard thing, but they do that every once in a while.’ As of July 2025 it is unknown if Marjorie’s DNA was ever tested with modern forensic techniques, however it is known that no sample was collected at the crime scene back in June 1975.

Works Cited:
‘Cat Leigh.’ ‘Toddler Found Holding His Dying Mother’s Hand On The Side Of A Road.’ (August 5, 2023). Taken July 8, 2025 from medium.com
Ashley Flowers, The Deck Podcast: ‘Marjorie Sue Fithian – Wild Card, Colorado.’ Taken July 10, 2025 from thedeckpodcast.com
Gabel, Rachel. ‘Rural Colorado murder from 1975 sparks national attention.’ (August 19, 2022). Taken July 7, 29025 from thefencepost.com
Hudson, Edward. ‘City Detective Held As a Slayer for Hire.’ (February 15, 1976). Taken July 11, 2025 from theNewYorkTimes.com
Moylan, Joe. ‘A look at more of Weld’s most heinous crimes.’ (May 28, 2020). Taken July 10, 2025 from GreeleyTribune.com
‘Segura, Daniella. ‘Toddler found holding dead mom’s hand in 1975, CO cops say. Now, push for answers.’ (June 25, 2025).
‘TaraCalicosBike’ on Reddit, post titled: ‘In June of 1975, twenty three year old Marjorie Fithian was found dead on a desolate gravel road in Colorado. She had gunshot wound to her face, and her 18 month old son was sitting beside her, holding her hand. Who killed Marjorie?’ in the hub, ‘UnsolvedMysteries.’
Worrell, Georgia. ‘Greeley woman killed for unknown reasons.’ (April 22, 2022). Taken on July 8, 2025 from http://www.longmontleader.com

A picture of a little Marjorie published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on February 22, 1958.
A horrible quality picture including Marjorie from her time at Cameron Elementary School published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on January 21, 1964.
Marjorie from the 1968 Greeley Central High School yearbook.
The only picture of Marjorie from the 1970 Greeley High School yearbook (she didn’t get her senior portrait done).
A picture of Marjorie after she won an art contest published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on March 26, 1970.
Marjorie’s name is listed in an article published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on March 26, 1970. It’s about an art contest that was judged by Greeley’s ‘Junior Women’s Club,’ and she won in the ‘fine arts’ category.
Marjorie’s name is listed among the graduates of Central High School published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 2, 1970.
Marjorie and her son.
Marjorie and a friend.
Marjorie’s residence at the time of her death located at 405 21st Street in Greeley, Colorado.
Marjorie’s final resting place.
Marjorie was found on the side of Weld County Road 386, a dirt road in Roggen, Colorado along with her eighteen-month-old son Sage in June 1975; photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
The stretch of road where Marjorie and Sage were found in June of 1975, photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
A spent .25 casing, one of Fithian’s sandals, a jacket and blanket used to cover Fithian by first responders, and a suitcase were found at the scene, photo courtesy Weld County Sheriff’s Office.
Marjorie’s sandal, which was found near her body; photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
Upon arriving on the scene, investigators from multiple police jurisdictions found a spent bullet casing near Marjorie and Sage, which was most likely from a .25 automatic pistol. Photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
A farmer found these tire tracks close to the crime scene; photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
A farmer found these tire tracks close to the crime scene; photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
What the road where Marjorie and Sage were found looks like today; photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
What the road where Marjorie and Sage were found looks like today; photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
Where Roggen, Colorado is located when compared to Denver and Greeley.
This is the picture of Jerry Walker that Sage saw and identified, photo courtesy of the Weld County Sheriff’s Department.
A picture of Weld County Deputies along with members of the Greeley PF arresting Jerry Walker, published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on August 28, 1975.
Where Jerry Walker was living at the time of Fithian’s murder, located at 1510 3rd Avenue in
Greeley, Colorado. Technically, it’s where he died as well.
A picture of Sheriff Bower and Sergeant Harold Andrews investigating the scene of Marjorie Fithian’s murder, courtesy of The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 25 1975.
A picture of investigators at the scene of Marjorie’s murder published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 30, 1975.
An article about the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 25, 1975.
An article about the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 26, 1975.
Marjorie’s obituary published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 26, 1975.
An article about the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 30, 1975.
An article about Marjorie Fithian being honored post-humorously for some volunteer work she was involved with published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 30, 1975.
An article about the investigation of the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on July 14, 1975.
An article about the a suspect being arrested for the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on August 27, 1975.
Part one of an article about the arrest of Jerry Walker for the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily on August 28, 1975.
Part two of an article about the arrest of Jerry Walker for the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily on August 28, 1975.
An article about the arrest of Jerry Walker for the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on September 10, 1975.
An article about the arrest of Jerry Walker for the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on September 26, 1975.
An article about charges being dismissed against Jerry Walker for the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on September 30, 1975.
An article about the death of Jerry Walker published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on October 13, 1975.
An article about the arrest of Jerry Walker for the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on October 15, 1975.
An article about the murder of Marjorie Fithian published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 14, 1976.
An article about new technology helping solve cold cases in Colorado that mentions Marjorie Fithian published in The Fort Collins Coloradoan on July 5, 2009.
A newspaper clipping about Marjorie’s sister petitioning for custody of her son published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on August 11, 1975.
Marjorie’s father, Robert Warren Fithian.
A picture of Robert Fithian from the 1946 Colorado State College of Agriculture and Mechanic Arts yearbook.
Robert Warren Fithian WWII draft card.
A clipping about Robert Fithian recommending that the public make sure to ‘cut their alfalfa crops’ so they don’t get infested with weevils, published in The Windsor Beacon on June 17, 1948.
‘Well it’s weevil season, but we were prepared.’
Robert and Elizabeth’s wedding announcement published in The Fort Collins Coloradoan on September 5, 1948.
The wedding announcement of Robert and Berry Fithian published in The Fort Collins Coloradoan on September 22, 1948; it’s interesting to me that the bride’s sister was also named Marjorie.
A clipping announcing the birth of Marjorie’s little sister published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on January 26, 1957.
An announcement that Marjorie’s aunt got married that mentions she was a flower girl that was published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on July 22, 1957.
A newspaper article about Marjorie’s father published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on January 22, 1965.
Christine Fithian’s picture from the 1967 Greeley Central High School yearbook.
Christine Fithian’s wedding announcement that mentions Marjorie published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on June 9, 1970.
A newspaper article about Marjorie’s brother getting injured in a bicycle accident published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on May 29, 1974.
Virginia Fithian’s picture from the 1974 Greeley Central High School yearbook.
David Fithian’s picture from the 1977 Greeley Central High School yearbook.
An article mentioning Marjorie’s brother David getting into a drunk driving accident published in The Desert Dispatch on November 9, 1981.
Robert Fithian’s final resting place, located at Fort Logan National Cemetery in Denver, CO; he is located in section 15, site 139.
The picture from Marjorie’s sister Christine’s LinkedIn page. She is a graduate of University of Northern Colorado and is a sales rep at Atmos Energy.
Mrs. Betty Fithian, photo courtesy of her Legacy page.
James Reese in the 1960 Fort Collins High School yearbook.
Marjorie’s ex-husband, James Patrick Reese.
A newspaper clipping mentioning Marjorie’s ex-husband being sentenced to prison for a year published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on on January 9, 1970.
James P. Reese’s gravestone.
The very short obituary of James Reese published in The Arizona Republic on July 25, 2016.
An article about Vern Hudson being charged with drug trafficking published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on October 27, 1975.
A newspaper article about two men being charged with the assault of Vern Hudson published in The Windsor Beacon on November 26, 1975.
An article about Vern Hudson being charged with drug trafficking published in The Windsor Beacon on February 19, 1976.
A newspaper blurb mentioning Vern Hudson being sentenced to prison published in The Windsor Beacon on March 25, 1976.
An article about Vern Hudson being charged with possession of drugs while already in prison published in The Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph on June 28, 1977.
A clipping about Larry Hernandez being arrested for failure to appear in court The Greeley Daily Tribune on April 12, 1974.
An article about Larry Hernandez and his wife Barbara being arrest for the possession of drugs published in The Greeley Daily Tribune on April 27, 1976.
Bundy’s whereabouts in June 1975 according to the 1992 TB FBI Multiagency Team Report.
The possible route Bundy could have taken from his residence at 565 E 1st Avenue in Salt Lake City to Weld County Road 386 north of Roggen, Colorado.
Ted’s VW; as you can see, it’s yellowish in color however the top isn’t black, and it the same color as the rest of the car.
Terry Furnish, photo courtesy of Facebook.
A comment on a Reddit post about Marjorie’s murder, created by user ‘nehemiahsucks.’
A comment on a Reddit post about Marjorie’s murder, created by user ‘quant1000.’
A comment on a Reddit post about Marjorie’s murder, created by user ‘toothpasteandcocaine.’

Unconfirmed Victims: Information from the King County Archives.

Nancy Winslow, a young woman from Whatcom County in Washington that was killed in late July 1970.
Suzanne Justis.

Pamela Lorraine Darlington.

Background: Pamela Lorraine Darlington was born on October 21, 1954 to Frank and Rosella Shirley (nee Hilleren) Darlington in British Columbia, Canada. Frank Thomas Darlington was born on July 4, 1926 in Vancouver, and Rosella was born on June 11, 1928 in Calder, Saskatchewan. The couple were wed on November 8, 1952 at St. Michael’s Church in Vancouver, and had three children together: Pamela, Joseph, and Tara. Sadly, Mrs. Darlington passed away at the age of thirty-three on June 14, 1961; Frank remarried a woman named Arlene Ilvi Moisio and the couple had a son together named Thomas. At the time of her murder, Pamela wore her blonde hair at her shoulders and according to an article published in a British Columbia based newspaper, she weighed 120 pounds and stood at 5’5″ tall; she had been employed as an operator at BC Telephone for roughly one year.

According to an (unidentified) newspaper article published in November 1973, Ms. Darlington was last seen hitchhiking towards Kamloops on Tranquille Road in front of the Village Hotel at around 10:30 PM on Tuesday, November 6, 1973. While investigating, I learned that there is a bit of uncertainty surrounding her final few hours of life: according to her sister Laurel, when she realized her car wouldn’t start she decided to hitchhike into town to meet up with some friends, as it was common back thing to do at that time and everyone did it. However, in an interview with true crime blogger ‘Eve Lazarus,’ Pam’s cousin Sharon said that friends told the Darlington family that she was at The David Thompson Pub sometime in the evening in the company of an attractive (but unknown) gentleman with ‘shaggy hair.’ She added that hercousin Joe (Pam’s brother) always thought it was someone who Pam knew, who was infatuated with her, who committed suicide a year after she died.’

Murder: at roughly 3:30 in the afternoon on Wednesday, November 7th, 1973 Darlington’s remains were discovered in shallow water on the south bank of the Thompson River by seventeen-year-old Frank Almond, who had been out walking with his dog at a nearby park when the animal veered off towards the river that flowed nearby: ‘The dog kinda ran up to something and it looked like a body, so I kinda got a little nervous.’ Almond immediately returned home and told his father what he had seen, and together they went back to where the young woman was lying face down in the riverbed: ‘he came back, he was kinda white as a ghost and he said, ‘Yup that’s a body.’ So we went back and called the police.’ Investigators said that the young woman had been brutally beaten and had been sexually assaulted, and according to an article published in The Times on October 15, 1974, she had been hit in the head with rocks but ultimately died of drowning, and was found with bite marks on her breasts.

About her cousin, Sharon Darlington said that she was an outgoing person that loved her friends and family and was always laughing: ‘it was many years ago, but I remember it like yesterday.’ … ‘When we were little, I was shy and reserved. Pam wasn’t scared of anything,’ In the initial years following the murder Ms. Darlington said that her family were told by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police that they suspected that none other than Ted Bundy had murdered Pamela, and they were ‘relieved when he was put to death;’ it wasn’t until years later that they learned her case was a small part of an investigation being conducted by the RCMP’ E-Pana Task Force that was set up to look into the eighteen murders and disappearances of female victims along the ‘Highway of Tears,’ a stretch of highway in BC that is notorious for disappearances and murders of women (particularly Indigenous ones) beginning in 1969. Darlington met all three of the task force’s criteria for a victim: she was hitchhiking (which they considered to be ‘high risk activity’), was found near Highway 16/97/5, and was most likely killed by a stranger.

Retired RCMP Constable David Sabean said that Pam’s case remains a priority among unsolved cases, and that ‘there was a big list of suspects, never anyone who came out of it, though.’ At approximately 4:30 AM on the morning that her remains were found a late 1950’s, off-white, four-door sedan in poor working condition was seen leaving the boat launch area near to where her remains were discovered; the male driver was described as having long brown or blond hair and he may have been passengers with him. The vehicle nor its driver have ever been identified and as of April 2025 remain of interest.

Gale Ann Weys: Less than three weeks before Pam Darlington’s murder, on October 19, 1973 the body of nineteen-year-old Gale Weys was recovered after she disappeared while hitchhiking to her parents’ house in Kamloops from her residence in Clearwater after she finished her shift as an attendant at a local gas station; her remains were discovered six months later in a ditch along Highway 5.

On the evening Weys disappeared a local banker named Ron Hagerman told investigators that he ate a meal at The Thompson Hotel where she worked, and she shared with him her plans to hitchhike the more than 75 miles to her parents house in Kamloops. He also reported that he observed she had been asking around the bar if anyone would have been able to give her a ride: ‘I know that night she was asking around for someone to drive her to Kamloops because her parents lived there. No one was going to Kamloops, and so she just walked outside and stuck out her thumb.’ It is strongly speculated that she may have instead went north of Quesnel after some reports claimed that she had been trying to hook up with the staffing agency ‘Canada Manpower Centre,’ but nothing ever came of this. Her remains were discovered in a water-filled ditch on April 6, 1974 off Highway 5, roughly seventy-eight miles north of Kamloops; according to law enforcement, her clothing was never recovered.

The second of nine brothers and sisters, Gale’s siblings recall her as being an independent, funny, and protective big sister that spent her time spare time working as a lifeguard and Girl Guide leader. She had recently moved to Clearwater and was working two jobs at the time of her murder to help save for college, and volunteered at a local school helping care for special-needs children. According to her mother Rowena, she was also a swimming instructor and often took trips with the scout group that she helped lead, and at the time of her death was saving for a vacation to Mexico. Mrs. Weys recalled that her daughter was a wonderful and upbeat young woman, and her Uncle Ted said that she was kindhearted, and: ‘was a hell of a nice girl, very outgoing and friendly.’ He also commented that his niece and Colleen MacMillen looked so similar that they could have been mistaken for sisters (more on Colleen in a bit).

Both the Weys’ family as well as the Darlington’s felt that their daughters’ murders were not ‘personal,’ and were more ‘crimes of opportunities’ versus passion; they also felt that there could have been some connection in the murders due to some striking similarities in the girls’ appearance as well as the circumstances surrounding their deaths. Shortly after Pam’s death Frank Darlington said he strongly believed they were more than just murders in a city by a lone psychopath, and ‘for all we know, this could be a Manson-type murder,’ and that the slayings were most likely committed by ‘a psychopath.’

Colleen MacMillen: On September 4, 1974 the remains of sixteen year old Colleen Rae MacMillen were discovered roughly thirteen miles south of 100 Mile House, a district municipality located in the South Cariboo region of central British Columbia. MacMillen was born on April 11, 1958 in Kamloops, BC and had left home on August 9 with plan to hitchhike to a friend’s house a few miles away; she was reported missing by a member of her family two days later when they realized she never made it to her destination. Although newspapers said MacMillen was going to see a girlfriend, ‘The 100 Mile Press’ reported that she was on her way to meet up with her boyfriend when she disappeared.

MacMillen’s clothes were discovered at Mile 102 on Highway 97 on August 25, 1974 by a tourist even though her nude body wasn’t discovered until early September (she was completely naked except for her socks). One of seven brothers and sisters, her father knew that she would never run away because she ‘wasn’t that type of girl:’ ‘She was a quiet sort of girl, not what you would call a bubbly effervescent type of girl but very friendly.’ Retired Staff Sergeant Fred Bodnaruk with the North Vancouver RCMP said that hair samples were taken from a suspicious 1966 Meteor Montcalm that was found abandoned near 100 Mile that did not match MacMillen’s, and the vehicle had a crumpled right fender that may have been the result of an accident that took place after it was stolen. Although no cause of death could be determined, (retired) RCMP Constable Mel Weisgerber said that there was blood in MacMillen’s inner ear which is ‘indicative of a drowning victim.’ 

At the time of her death, MacMillen had a twenty-one year old boyfriend named Ron Musfelt, who came out in recent years and said that he ‘lived under a cloud of suspicion for many years:’ ‘I was going out with Colleen, and one night I phoned her, and I was talking to her, and she said ‘meet me down Lac Le Hache.’ So I went down the highway to wait by K&D General Store. I went back up to the house, and phoned her house and they said she had already left. And I waited and waited and waited and waited, and she never showed up.’ For years after Colleen’s death Musfelt was a key suspect in her murder, and he ‘was taken into town and they interrogated me, and they did everything to me. Lie detector tests, everything like you wouldn’t believe, and to this day it’s always bothered me, never knowing who did it. I remember back then there were probably people who thought I had something to do with it.’ … ‘The thing that really bothers me is knowing I was standing on the highway, waiting for her to come through town, and she probably came past me in this vehicle, with this guy, wanting to get out of his vehicle.’

About the death of his sister, Shawn MacMillen said that Colleen was ‘a lovely, sweet, innocent sixteen-year-old kid and there are no words to express how terribly she was wronged.’ Regarding Colleen, Pam, and Gale’s death, Frank Darlington said he believed that it was more than just a murder in a city by a lone psychopath, and that ‘for all we know, this could be a Manson-type murder,’ and he feels sure the killings were done by a psychopath. On September 25, 2012, it was announced by the RCMP that DNA taken from MacMillen’s clothes matched with a man named Bobby Jack Fowler, who managed to fly under the radar until his arrest in 1995.

Barbara Joan Statt: A name that only came up once during my research is Barbara Joan Statt, who was only seventeen when she was last seen hitchhiking in Vancouver on July 26, 1973. Her remains were discovered three days later on the side of a mountain in Northern Vancouver; she had been sexually assaulted and had been hit on the head with a rock (that was found nearby). Friends told law enforcement that right before she was killed, Statt told them that she’d met a new male friend, but they referred to him as the ‘creepy man that lives in a car.’

Statt’s homicide was investigated in relation to the three others (Darlington/Weys/MacMillen) that took place along Highway 5 in BC in 1973/74. Sergeant Bodnaruk described the killer as a ‘murdering psychopath that would hit and run,’ and in the beginning stages of the investigation it made sense that she was included with the other victims: like two of the three others, Barbara was sexually assaulted and was of similar height and build, however I quickly learned that there was a good reason why she wasn’t included more frequently: it was quickly determined that a Toronto resident named Paul Cecil Gillis was responsible for her death, who was apprehended for her murder in 1974. He was also convicted of killing fifteen-year-old Robin Gates of Coquitlam, and thirty-three-year-old Lavern Johnson.

Gloria Moody: Another name I came across is Gloria Moody, who was only twenty-seven when she was killed during a weekend away with her family on October 25, 1969. A member of the Bella Coola Indian Reserve with the Nuxalk Nation in British Columbia, Moody’s body was found a day after she disappeared by hunters on a cattle trail roughly six miles west of Williams Lake. Her autopsy report said that she bled to death after being beaten and was sexually assaulted, and she is the oldest unsolved murder in Project E-Pana.

The ’Trail of Tears:’ Pamela Darlington, Gale Weys, and Colleen MacMillen are just three of (at least) eighteen missing and murdered women that are being investigated by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police ‘E-Pana Task Force’ that focused on the infamous ‘Highway of Tears,’ a 447-mile stretch of Highway 16 between Prince George and Prince Rupert in British Columbia beginning in 1969. On that list is a disproportionately high number of Indigenous women, hence its association with the ‘Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women Movement.’ The exact number of missing and murdered women varies depending on the source: according to RCMP’s E-Pana task force, the count is around eighteen, where Aboriginal organizations estimate the number to be over forty. Wikipedia lists seventy-nine victims, including a family of four so technically that would be eighty-two.

Proposed explanations for the years-long span of disappearances and homicides (along with the limited progress in the case) include poor economic conditions, substance abuse, domestic violence, the foster care system, and Canadian Indian residential school system. Thanks to the high rate of poverty in the area many people were unable to buy a car, and as a result hitchhiking was a common way to travel large distances. There was also a lack of public transportation at one time, and it didn’t help that the area is remote and largely uninhabited; also, it wasn’t until December 2024 that much of the roadway didn’t have cellular telephone signal. Along the highway, soft soil in many areas made discarding a body incredibly easy, and local wildlife only helped.

Bobby Jack Fowler: Convicted serial killer and rapist Bobby Fowler was born on June 12, 1939 to Selva ‘Mutt’ and Oma Lee (nee Hathaway) Fowler, and was active in the US and Canada between 1973 to 1995. On March 6, 1959, he married Theresa Patton and they had five children together: Johnny, Janey, Pam, Loretta and Randell. After he was arrested twice in 1969, Theresa decided that she had enough of his shenanigans and the couple divorced on May 17, 1971, shortly before he moved to British Columbia.

For the most part Fowler was a transient, and worked menial construction jobs all over North America and Canada, and it is confirmed he spent time in Florida, British Columbia, Iowa, Texas, Washington, South Carolina, Arizona, Tennessee Louisiana, and Oregon. An addict in many regards (he was known to abuse a variety of substances, including alcohol, amphetamines, and methamphetamines), Fowler had a criminal record a mile long that included a firearms offense, sexual assault, and attempted murder.

In 1969, Fowler was charged with killing a couple in Texas but was only convicted of ‘discharging a firearm within city limits.’ He did spend some time in a prison in Tennessee for sexual assault and attempted murder because (in the words of the investigating attorney), ‘he tied a woman up, beat the hell out of her with her own belt, covered her with brush and left her to die.’

Bobby was known to drive long distances and enjoyed traveling in ‘beat-up old cars,’ and often picked up transients and hitchhikers along the way. He also spent a lot of time in seedy bars and motels and believed that the young women that he picked up wanted to be hurt, and were somehow asking for it. According to Deputy Commissioner Craig Callens, ‘he believed that the vast majority of women he came in contact with… Women that hitchhike and went to taverns and bars, desired to be sexually assaulted and violently sexually assaulted.’

In addition to Darlington, MacMillen, and Weys, The Royal Canadian Mounted Police also believe that Fowler is either suspected or is considered a ‘person of interest’ in (at least) an additional ten murders (possibly upwards of twenty) between British Columbia and Oregon going as far back as 1969. It’s important to keep in mind that quite a few of the ‘Trail of Tears’ murders took place after he was incarcerated in 1996, and geographic profiler Kim Rossmo said that (in his educated opinion) Fowler is not responsible for any of the deaths along Highway 16 that took place between 1989 and his arrest in 1995. Additionally, it’s worth mentioning that the only thing linking the killer to the area is the fact that he worked for a local roofing company in 1974, called ‘Happy’s Roofing.’

Fowler was arrested on June 28, 1995 after an incident in Newport, Oregon involving a woman jumping out of a second floor window at the Tides Inn Motel with a rope tied to her ankle. Luckily she survived and reported the incident to the local police, and he was arrested and charged. On January 8, 1996 Bobbly Fowler was convicted of kidnapping in the first degree, attempted rape in the first degree, sexual abuse in the first degree, coercion, assault in the fourth degree, and menacing; he was sentenced to 195 months in prison with the possibility of parole.

On September 25, 2012, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police along with Lincoln County DA Rob Bovett named Bobby Jack Fowler as a suspect in the murders of Pam Darlington, Colleen MacMillen, and Gale Weys after it was determined that his DNA was found on MacMillens’ remains. Unfortunately, in May 2006 Fowler died from lung cancer at the age of 66 in Oregon State Penitentiary before he was able to be held accountable for his actions. Colleen’s brother Shawn commented that his family was ‘comforted by the fact he was in prison when he died, and he can’t hurt anyone else.’

In the mid-1970s, newspapers reported that Pams clothes were never found, however Sharon remembers that her dad told her they were discovered folded up near her body. If that’s true, then they are most likely long gone, which is tragic because DNA evidence found on the fabric could have confirmed that Fowler murdered her (or that he didn’t). Despite what the RCMP called ‘similar fact evidence,’ there wasn’t enough direct evidence to conclusively link the killer to the murders of Pam Darlington and Gale Weys, a fact that’s heartbreaking for both families because the cases will most likely remain forever unsolved.

Ted Bundy: In November 1973 when Pam Darlington was killed Theodore Robert Bundy was living in Ernst and Frieda Roger’s rooming house on 12th Avenue NE in Seattle and was in a long-term relationship with Elizabeth Kloepfer. At the time he was in between jobs, and in September he had been the Assistant to the Washington State Republican Chairperson and remained unemployed until May 3 of the following year when he started a position with the Department of Emergency Services in Olympia (he was only there until August 28, most likely because he left for law school in SLC a few days later). At the time he was attending the University of Puget Sounds law school, and according to the ‘TB FBI Multiagency Report 1992′ on November 7 he visited the unemployment office in Seattle.

In her 1981 book ‘The Phantom Prince’ Liz Kloepfer wrote that Vancouver was a ‘favorite playground’ for her one-time beau, and when the two went there in October 1969 he ‘showed her all of his favorite places,’ specifically the saloon ‘Oil Can Harry’s,’ and after spending the night at the former ‘Devonshire Hotel’ they walked through Chinatown as well as a German neighborhood before returning home to Seattle. According to retired RCMP Inspector Bruce Terkelsen, ‘one of the significant pieces of evidence with Darlington was the bite marks on her breasts and other parts of the body.’ As we know, Bundy was known to bite some of his victims, and Terkelsensaid ‘it was a loose piece of evidence at the time. But when we were well into the Highway Murders, the name Ted Bundy came up. It became clear that he was in the habit of crossing the border and coming to Vancouver on numerous occasions.’ He also said that the killer had ‘long ago’ been a suspect in the murders but ‘it became clear that he was in the habit of crossing the border and coming to Vancouver on numerous occasions.’ … ‘At this time Bundy was not a hot suspect, but it was troublesome to us. We spent considerable time trying to track his movements in Canada.‘ Sergeant Bodnaruk also said that King County police placed Ted at several gas stations in the area, which proved he had traveled through Kamloops ‘either a week to ten days before or after Darlington disappeared.’

Living incredibly close to the Canadian border in Buffalo, I immediately wondered about the logistics of Bundy sneaking in and out of Canada to murder young women: I know how strict and regulated things are today (and that’s not even factoring all of this Trump nonsense into the equation), but how hard was it to leave the US in the early 1970’s and go into British Columbia (and return)? After some simple internet sleuthing (and asking my Dad, who was alive and dating my mother in 1973), in the early 1970’s crossing the US-Canada border in Washington state (particularly on the American side going into Canada) was considered relatively easy and straightforward, and there were few (if any) requirements to get over (my dad said he remembers showing them his Erie County Sheriff’s card). Obviously, security has gotten significantly tighter since the days of Ted Bundy, with the introduction of passports/enhanced drivers licenses/real ID’s, enhanced screenings, and stricter identification requirements. 

Clifford Robert Olson Jr.: Another serial killer that was investigated for the murder of Pamela Darlington is Clifford Olson, who operated out of Canada in the early 1980’s and confessed to killing eleven children between the ages of nine and eighteen. He was arrested on August 12, 1981 on suspicion of attempting to kidnap two girls, and was later charged with the murder of Judy Kozma, a fourteen-year-old from New Westminster that he raped then strangled to death. Olson eventually came to an unusual and controversial deal with the RCMP: he agreed to confess to the eleven murders and give investigators the location of his victims that were not yet found, and in return for each one that he confessed to they would put $10,000 into a trust for his (then) wife, Joan Hale (who he was with from 1981 to 1985) and their infant child. As a result, Hale and her child received $100,000, as he gave them the eleventh victim as a ‘freebie.’

In January 1982, Clifford Olson pleaded guilty to eleven counts of murder, and was given as many concurrent life sentences to be served out in the Special Handling Unit of the ‘Regional Reception Centre’ in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec. According to forensic psychiatrist Stanley Semrau, who interviewed the killer at great length in prison, Olsen scored a 38/40 on the Psychopathy Checklist; he died from terminal cancer at the age of seventy-one on September 30, 2011.

Miscellaneous Suspects: Another suspect that was investigated for the murder of Pam Darlington is Jerry Baker, who had a history of sex crimes (including rape) and subsequently spent time in prison. On September 19, 1990 it was reported that he had eight convictions for various sexual assault and weapons offenses, as well as a rape conviction in 1970 (for which he received five years) and two separate convictions in 1990 for assault (which drew suspended sentences). His record also notes that he violated his parole conditions in June 1972. 

After he was released, Baker returned to the Williams Lake area around the same time that Colleen MacMillen was killed. In late June 1989 seventeen-year-old Norma Tashoots had been visiting family in 100 Mile House, British Columbia and shared with them her plans of hitchhiking her way back to Vancouver. She was last seen by relatives on June 25, 1989 and her body was found in a wooded area near 100 Mile House on July 10; she had been shot in the head. 

In October of 1989 an anonymous resident of 100 Mile House came forward and suggested that Baker be investigated for Tashoots’ murder, and law enforcement quickly learned that he had reported his .44 caliber Ruger handgun as stolen the day after she was last seen alive. On February 1, 2002, he was arrested and charged with the first-degree murder of Norma Tashoots, and later that May police recovered the ‘lost’ handgun from 1989 in a sewage lagoon near Forest Grove: it was in excellent condition and was registered to Jerry Baker. On March 2, 2018, a jury in Williams Lake found him guilty of first-degree murder and he was sentenced to life in prison with no chance of parole.

Additionally, In an article published by ‘The Daily News’ on December 19, 2009, it was disclosed that a man named Edwin Henry Foster confessed to detectives that he was responsible for the murder of Pam Darlington while he was serving an eight year prison sentence for a gas station robbery, however this wound up being bogus and he hung himself in a Washington state prison in 1976.

Sharon Darlington is now retired from Canada’s Border Services Agency, and during her long career she worked closely with various law enforcement agencies, and ‘tried hard to find out why Pam’s case remained open, even after they identified Bobby Fowler as her ‘probable murderer.’ I have never understood why DNA would not solve the case. I pursued this for many years, only to hear that the case had many problems with preservation of evidence and I am convinced that evidence was not properly maintained or even kept.’ About her cousin, Sharon said, ‘we were very close. We had plans to move out, get an apartment and start our young lives together. Everyone truly wanted to know the truth about Pam, but my uncle, aunt, father and mother are now all dead.’

Frank Darlington died at the age of seventy-five on May 20, 2002 in Victoria, BC, and Arlene died at the age of 79 on June 17, 2013 in Victoria. Laurel Darlington-Feal still lives in Kamloops with her husband, Gregory. As of March 2025 the RCMP considers Bobby Jack Fowler a ‘strong suspect’ in the murders of Pamela Darlington and Gale Weys despite there being no DNA evidence linking him to their remains, and as a result both homicides are considered unsolved.

Works Cited:
Blackburn, Mark. (September 25, 2012). ‘US serial killer Bobby Jack Fowler linked to 3 Highway of Tears murders.’ Taken April 1, 2025 from aptnnews.ca
Bujold, Dani. ‘Two Cold Cases And A Solved Homicide: Gale Weys, Pamela Darlington and Colleen MacMillen (1973–1974).’ Taken March 20, 2025 from medium.com
Lazarus, Eve. ‘The Pamela Darlington Murder.’ (November 6, 2022). Taken March 20, 2025 from evelazarus.com
LaRosa, Paul. (May 27, 2016). Crime Mystery of missing, murdered women along Highway of Tears.’ Taken April 1, 2025 from cbsnews.com
Martell, Allison. (September 25, 2012). ‘Canadian Mounties solve 1974 murder of 16-year-old girl.’ Retrieved February 17, 2024, from reuters.com

Pam Darlington.
A picture of Pam Darlington, courtesy of Sharon Darlington/Eve Lazarus.
A picture of Darlington’s grave site, photo courtesy of FindAGrave user ‘renegade13.’
A map of where Pamela’s body was in comparison to Gale Weys and Colleen MacMillen, photo courtesy of ‘Eve Lazarus.’
Pictures of Colleen MacMillen, Pam Darlington, and Gale Ann Weys on display during a Royal Canadian Mounted Police news conference that took place in Surrey, BC on September 25, 2012. Photo courtesy of Andy Clark & Reuters.
A memo to the King County Sheriff’s Department from the RCMP, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A statement in relation to the murder of Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A continuation of the statement in relation to the murder of Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Some hand-written notes in relation to the murder of Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Some fingerprints in relation to the murder of Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A police circulation in relation to the murder of Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Police notes in relation to the murder of Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Some case notes in relation to the murder of Gale Weys and Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
Some more case notes in relation to the murder of Pamela Darlington, courtesy of the King County Sheriff’s Department.
A newspaper clipping of a joke by Pamela Darlington published by The Vancouver Sun on June 4, 1963.
An article about the discovery of the remains of Pam Darlington published in The Province on November 9, 1973 .
The obituary of Pam Darlington published in The Vancouver Sun on November 9, 1973.
An article about a reward for any information leading to the arrest of the killer of Pam Darlington published in The Vancouver Sun on November 15, 1973.
An article about some of the murder of Barbara Joan Statt that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Vancouver Sun on November 21, 1973.
An article about similarities between Barbara Statt and Pam Darlington’s murders published in The Times on November 23, 1973.
An article about the discovery of the remains of Pamela Darlington published in The Alberni Valley Times on April 8, 1974.
An article about the murder of Gale Weys that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Quesnel Cariboo Observer on April 17, 1974.
An article about the murder of Barbara Joan Statt that mentions Pam Darlington titled ‘Mounties look for Sadist’ published in The Montreal Gazette on June 28, 1974.
An article about the killer of young women in British Columbia in the early 1970’s that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Star-Phoenix on June 29, 1974.
An article about the discovery of another body that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Leader-Post on June 29, 1974.
An article about the murder of Gale Weys that mentions Pam Darlington published by The Leader-Post on June 29, 1974.
Part one of an article about the murders of Pam Darlington and Gale Weys published in The Edmonton Journal on July 2, 1974.
Part two of an article about the murders of Pam Darlington and Gale Weys published in The Edmonton Journal on July 2, 1974.
An article about the murders in BC in that took place 1973/74 published in The Province on July 11, 1974.
An article about the recent murder of Robin Gates that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Vancouver Sun on July 22, 1974.
An article about the murder of Robin Gates that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Vancouver on July 22, 1974.
An article about the murders on the ‘trail of tears’ that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Quesnel Cariboo Observer on July 24, 1974.
An article about Pamela Darlington published by The Province on September 21, 1974.
An article about the murders on the ‘trail of tears’ that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Montreal Gazette on October 16, 1974.
An article about the murders on the ‘trail of tears’ that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Sault Star on October 23, 1974.
An article about the murder of twelve year old Carolyn Lee that mentioned both Pam Darlington and Barbara Statt published by The Times Colonist on May 2, 1977.
An article mentioning Pam Darlington published by The Edmonton Journal on July 18, 1981.
An article about a conference for British Columbian and Alberta LE surrounding the thirty unsolved murders between the two provinces that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Phoenix on November 20, 1981.
An article about the murders of Clifford Olsen that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Leader-Post on February 19, 1982.
Part one of an article about murders Ted Bundy may have committed in Canada published in The Providence on February 2, 1989.
Part two of an article about murders Ted Bundy may have committed in Canada published in The Providence on February 2, 1989.
According to an article published in 'The Vancouver Sun'
An article published after Ted Bundy’s execution that discusses the fact that he was investigated for the murder of Pam Darlington (along with others) published in The Spokesman-Review on February 3, 1989.
An article about the possibility that Bundy may have killed women in Canada that mentions Pamela Darlington published in The Spokesman-Review on February 3, 1989.
An article about Bobby Fowler that mentions Pam Darlington published in The West Coast News on September 26, 2012.
A comment made by Pam’s sister Laurel on the article written about her sister on the blog ‘Eve Lazarus.’ Taken from EveLazarus.com
A young Bobby Fowler.
Bobby Jack Fowler.
A Websleuth’s comment about Bobby Jack Fowler, made by user ‘hkristen’ on January 21, 2020.
Bundy’s whereabouts in November 1973 taken from the ‘1992 FBI Bundy Multiagency Team Report.’
One possible route that Bundy could have taken to Pams parents house in Kamloops, BC.
Clifford Robert Olson, who is nicknamed ‘The Beast of British Columbia.’
An article about the suicide of Edwin Henry Foster published in The Olympian on February 20, 1976.
Gale Weys.
An article about the murder of Gale Weys published in The Quesnel Cariboo Observer on December 27, 1973.
A newspaper article about the murder of Gale Weys published in The Vancouver Sun on April 8, 1974.
Colleen MacMillen.
Colleen MacMillen.
An article about the murder of Colleen MacMillen published in The Province on September 11, 1974.
The Highway of Tears corridor, including some paved offshoots of outlying communities near Highway 16. Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.
Part one of an article about the ‘trail of tears’ that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Vancouver Sun on October 13, 2007.
Part two of an article about the ‘trail of tears’ that mentions Pam Darlington published in The Vancouver Sun on October 13, 2007.
An article about the engagement of Pam’s parents published in The Vancouver Sun on November 3, 1952.
A newspaper clipping announcing the wedding of Pam’s parents published in The Vancouver Sun on November 13, 1952.
A newspaper clipping about the wedding of Pamela’s parents published in The Vancouver Sun on November 14, 1952.
An obituary for Pam’s Mother published in The Nanaimo Daily News on June 15, 1961.
Pamela’s mothers grave site, photo courtesy of FindAGrave user ‘renegade13.’
Arlene Ilvi Moisio-Darlington, Pam’s stepmother.
Thomas Darlington’s obituary published in The Times Colonist on May 24, 2002.
An article that mentions the fact that Pam’s Dad Thomas Darlington contracted Hepatitis-C in 1979 after coming into contact with tainted blood, published The Times Colonist on July 26, 2006.
Pam’s stepmother’s obituary, published in The Times Colonist on June 27, 2013.
A marriage announcement for Pam’s sister Laurel published in The Times Colonist on April 23, 1983.
Pam’s sister Laurel, photo courtesy of Ancestry.

Brenda Joy Baker, Case Files: Part Three.

The third installment of documents from the Thurston County Sheriff’s Department related to the murder of Brenda Joy Baker from Maple Valley, WA.

Missing/Murdered Oregon Women, 1969 to 1979.

I’ve been compiling a list of missing and murdered young women from the 1970’s in Oregon in a notebook, and I figured why not also include it here. As I learn of new victims I will update the list… over the years I’ve found dozens of names on various websites and newspaper articles about other missing and murdered women, but they’re scattered all over the internet in a million different sources… why not put them all here?

Janet Lynn Karin-Shanahan: (April 23, 1969, Eugene). Twenty-two-years-old. Strangled and found in the trunk of her own car.

Beverly Annette Gayley: (June 15, 1969, Deschutes County). Her remains were found in a wind cave covered with a bedspread and rocks; she had a ligature wrapped around her neck. A significant amount of blood was found in Gayley’s home, as well as in the trunk of her car.

Niki Diane Britten: (July 16, 1969, Albany). Fifteen-years-old. Frequent run away.

Julie Dade: (January 21, 1970, Junction City). Twenty-Year-Old. Julie’s husband, Terry was later found deceased in the couple’s Maple Street apartment. At about 4:20 AM, neighbors in the area of the Maple Street Apartments heard a female yelling and a witness saw a man dragging a screaming woman into a vehicle before leaving the area. A nearby neighbor woke to the sound of an explosion, saw the car on fire and tried to put it out but it was too late.

Sandra Young: (February. 23, 1970, Sauvie Island). Her remains were found on Sauvie Island in 1970 but were not identified until February 2024; her murder remains unsolved.

Barbara Katherine Cunningham: (May 25, 1971, Eugene). Thirty-four-years-old. Found deceased in her apartment by her mother.

Barbara Ann Bryson: (July 29, 1971, Stayton). Nineteen-years-old. Was last known to be attending a party.

Anne Marie Lehman: (found on August 19, 1971, Josephine County). Seventeen-years-old. Disappeared from Aberdeen, Washington in the winter or spring of 1971; the circumstances surrounding her case are unclear, although it is rumored she was a victim of human trafficking. Her remains were found by a man and his son while they were out mushroom hunting off the Redwood Highway, close to mile marker thirty-five; it is unclear as to why she was in Oregon.

Josephine County ‘Jane Doe’: (remains found on August 19, 1971). Body found near the California border; believed to be female victim somewhere between fourteen and twenty-five-years-old.

Fay Ellen Robinson: (March 12, 1972, Eugene). Found deceased in apartment.

Alma Jean Barra: (March 23, 1972, Happy Valley). Twenty-eight-years-old. Found deceased in Willamette National Cemetery.

Beverly May Jenkins: (May 25, 1972, Cottage Grove). Sixteen-years-old. Her remains were found in June 1972 just off the I-5 roughly ten miles outside of Cottage Grove; she had been strangled to death. 

Jane Pellett: (June 7, 1972, Salem). Twenty-eight-years-old. Found deceased on a busy roadside on June 26, 1972.

Geneva Joy Martin: (June 16, 1972, Eugene). Nineteen-years-old. Found deceased on the side of the road by a farmer.

Rita Lorraine Jolly: (June 29, 1973, West Linn). Seventeen-years-old. Disappeared while out on a routine nightly walk.

Allison Lynn Caufman: (July 1973, Portland). Fifteen-years-old. Died as a result of head injuries after being shoved from a car moving at a high rate of speed.

Laurie Lee Canaday: (July 9, 1973, Milwaukee). Her remains were recovered on the pavement at the intersection of Southeast Scott Street and McLoughlin Blvd in Milwaukee, OR.

Susan Ann Wickersham: (July 11, 1973, Bend). Seventeen-years-old. Was found deceased from a gunshot wound on January 20, 1976.

Vicki Lynn Hollar: (August 20, 1973, Eugene). Twenty-four-years-old. Disappeared along with her 1965 VW black VW Beetle with IL plates and the running boards removed.

Gayle LeClair: (August 23, 1973, Eugene). Twenty-two-years-old. Found stabbed in her apartment.

Delores Thompson and Gwendolyn Fulce: (September 8, 1973, Portland). A double homicide, twenty-four-year-old Thompson and twenty-one-year-old Fulce were found deceased in a home on North Ivy Street.

Deborah Lee Tomlinson: (October 15, 1973, Creswell/Eugene). Fifteen-years-old. Disappeared along with a friend on her sixteenth birthday. According to her sister (and my friend) Jean she was seen in California after she disappeared).

Virginia Erickson: (October 21, 1973, Sweet Home). Thirty-two years old, mother of six. Disappeared, most likely killed by her husband.

Suzanne Rae Seay-Justis: (November 5, 1973, Portland). Twenty-three-years-old. Was from Eugene, hitchhiked to Portland despite having a car of her own.

Belinda Cowden, along with her husband Richard and two children, David and Melissa: (September 1, 1974, Copper). The family were the victims of a still unsolved mass murder after they vanished from their campsite near Carberry Creek in the Siskiyou Mountains of Oregon; they were last seen on September 1, 1974, when Richard and David bought milk at the Copper General Store. When they never showed up for dinner at Belinda’s mother’s house later that day, their campsite was found deserted, with their truck, wallets, and a half-full carton of milk left behind. On April 12, 1975, two gold prospectors found their bodies roughly seven miles from the campsite: Richard was found tied to a tree on a steep hillside, and Belinda, David, and baby Melissa were hidden inside a nearby small cave that had been sealed up with rocks. Autopsies later revealed that Belinda and David had been shot with a .22 caliber weapon, while Melissa died from severe blunt force head trauma; Richard’s cause of death could not be determined due to the condition of his remains.

Joyce C. Hess: (October 18, 1974). Fifty-four-years-old.

Marion Vinetta Nagle-McWhorter: (October 1974, Tigard). Twenty-one-years-old. According to McWhorter’s sister, she had been traveling before she disappeared around the Western part of the US. Her body was finally identified in September 2025, but the case remains unsolved.

Becky Rae Martin: (February 15, 1975, Junction City). Twenty-two-years-old. Throat cut.

Leslie Michelle (seven-years-old) and Geoffrey Lyman (five-years-old) Brown. Murders took place on February 22, 1975 and both victims were found on March 12, 1975 in McIver Park, Estacada.

Margo Nerline Ascencio-Castro: (March 1, 1975, Eugene). Twenty-two-years-old. Found stabbed in a motel room, possibly involved with a local motorcycle gang.

Ceceilia Louise Hostetler: (March 26, 1975, Eugene). Last seen leaving the Embers restaurant getting into a vehicle with another person whom she appeared to know. On October 30, 1998, an unidentified deceased female was found burned and stabbed in the forest near 24243 Bolton Hill Road in Lane County, Oregon; it was later identified through dental records as Ceceilia Hostetler.

Caroletta Spencer: (May 20, 1975, Sauvie Island). Seventeen-years-old. Spencer’s was a sex worker whose body was found on a gravel road on Sauvie Island in Oregon. She had been shot four times and most likely had been killed earlier that morning, as she was last seen at Fred’s Place Bar in Portland around 2:20 AM.

Wanda Ann Herr: (June 1, 1976, Government Camp). Nineteen-years-old. Few details about Herr’s life are available, but according to family members, she grew up in Gresham, Oregon, but did not live with her siblings and reportedly ran away from home multiple times as an adolescent. Herr was last seen alive sometime around June 1976 and may have been living in a group home when she disappeared; her upper skull and some miscellaneous bones were discovered on August 2, 1986, near two roads off of Highway 26.

Shirley Anita Wallace: (July 21, 1975, Eugene). Thirty-one years-old. Found, shot.

Tina Marie Mingus: (October 1975, Salem). Sixteen-years-old. Murdered, body recovered.

Cherril Sue Miller: (October 12, 1975, Portland). Twenty-eight-years-old. Few details are available in Miller’s case, but she had two children, whom she had left in a neighbor’s care that evening. One of her teeth in the front of her mouth is discolored or capped and she wears eyeglasses with thin bone rims.

Camille Karen Covert-Foss: (October 17, 1975, Hillsboro). Twenty-five-years-old. Found shot in her vehicle at her POE, in a Southwest Portland-area shopping center.

​Deborah McNoise-James: (October 28, 1975, Klamath County). Found deceased at the 97 Trailer Court with lacerations to her head, neck, arms, and leg, as well as trauma to her larynx.

Betty Johnson: (November 1975, Estacada). Nineteen-years-old. Not much is known, I only happened to stumble upon her name when searching for a different Oregon woman (Marion McWhorter).

Kim Charleson: (January 7, 1976, Cannon Beach). The twenty-two-year-old had been in college and may have been carrying a small amount of Canadian currency when she disappeared.

Cordelia Sheehan McMinn: (May 1, 1976, Portland). Twenty-six-years-old.

​Julie Ann Beardslee: (June 30, 1976, Astoria). After Beardslee failed to attend a regularly scheduled Bible study class in Astoria her vehicle was found on July 1, 1976, at Fort Stevens State Park. Her body was discovered by hikers on July 12, 1976 near Coffenbury Lake in Clatsop County, Oregon; she had been stabbed, and her throat had been cut.

Sharon Ryan: (December 16, 1976, Portland): Seventeen-year-old. Vanished going to buy eggs, her body was found near a parking lot in Portland.

Roxanne Marie Sims: (January 1, 1977, Portland). Eighteen-years-old.

Sandra Renee ‘Sandy’ Morden: (1977) Approx sixteen-years-old, her partial skeleton was found in Washington in 1980 and it’s believed that she died in the late 1970’s; she was identified in October 2019.

Karen Jean Lee: (last seen alive, May 26, 1977, Cornelius). Lee ran away with a male companion, fourteen-year-old Rodney L. Grissom. Her possessions and clothes were found by a logging crew sometime in November 1977 however her remains were never recovered. Grissom’s clothes and belongings found in same area, roughly a quarter mile away from Lee’s in November 1982; his remains have also never been found. (Thank you to my friend Ryan AuClair for this information).

Lliana Gay Adank: (June 1977). Sixteen years-old. Was found shot to death along with seventeen-year-old Eric Shawn Goldstrand at the remote Broken Bowl Picnic Grounds near the Fall Creek Dam located about twenty-five miles southeast of Eugene.

Cindy Irene King: (July 19, 1977, Grants Pass). Fifteen-years-old. Disappeared.

Elizabeth ‘Lisa’ Ann Roberts: (July 25, 1977, Roseburg). Found August 9, 1977, formerly known as ‘Precious Jane Doe.’ Roberts was identified on June 16, 2020.

Margie Ann Fernette: (January 24, 1978). Fifteen-years-old. Found in Fairfield Elementary School.

Benita Gay Chamberlin: (February 23, 1978, Eugene). Twenty-four-years-old.

Floy Joy/Jean Bennett: (February 23, 1978, Beaverton). Thirty-seven-years-old.

Karen Etta Whiteside: (March 22, 1978). Sixteen-years-old.

Ann Marie Ellinwood: (April 15, 1978, Corvallis). Twelve-years-old, last seen walking alone ‘during daylight hours.’ Possibly a victim of Earl Patrick Chambers.

Stephanie Ann Newsom: (April 19, 1978, West Salem). Eleven-years-old. Remains found on April 25, 1978 near the Ankeny Wildlife Refuge: possibly a victim of Earl Patrick Chambers.

Elana Jacobs and Teresa Krause: (May 21, 1978, Astoria). Both girls were enrolled in the Tongue Point Job Corp. They were known to go into town to ‘party and socialize,’ which is most likely why they left the compound the night they were last seen alive; their remains were found near Del Rey Beach, Krause’s on December 3, 1978, and two days later Jacobs were discovered; they were most likely stabbed and/or strangled to death.

Finley Creek Jane Doe: (found August 27, 1978, Elgin). The remains of a pregnant woman between the ages of fourteen and twenty-five-years-old; detectives strongly believe she died between 1970 and 1975 and was six to eight months pregnant at the time of her death; fetal remains were found with her. She was found buried face down under a log, and evidence at the scene, including a coaxial cable, suggests she may have been strangled.

Diana Marie Kuhn*: (December 10, 1978, Portland). Twenty-years-old. Remains found in in West Linn, OR.* Thank you for Diana’s cousin Donna Mollema for informing me about her.

Christie Lynn Farni: (December 14, 1978, Medford). Six-years-old.

Pem Michelle Yates-Briggs: (January 1, 1979). Fifteen-years-old.

Janie Landers: (March 9, 1979, Salem). Eighteen-years-old; she slipped away from the Fairview Training Center in Salem, a residential facility for those with developmental disabilities and mental health problems.

Mary Jo Templeton: (April 1979, remains found on April 30, 1979, Redmond). Forty-nine-years-old. In April 1979, she was renting a room at the El-Rancho Motel when she disappeared; her remains were uncovered in several parts over the time period of a month in Mirror Pond and near the Newport Avenue Dam in Bend. The first remains (a thigh) were found by a utility worker raking intake grates at a dam on April 30, 1979. She had been dismembered with what detectives called a ‘surgical precision,’ leading to theories that her killer may have had experience as a hunter, butcher, or surgeon, butcher (or a combination of the three); she was eventually identified through dental records.

Daisy Motley: (May 8, 1979, Portland). Motley was a sixty-four-year-old, unemployed female who lived alone that had no apparent enemies. Someone anonymously called the manager of her apartment complex to her death and asked them to check on her because they heard a ‘disturbance’ coming from her residence. The last time Daisy was known to be alive was when she talked to her daughter at approximately 9 PM on May 7th.

Lisa Danein Boggs: (June 13, 1979, Salem). Boggs and her boyfriend, Randolph Robertson, left their home state of Missouri on May 7, 1979 and arrived in Salem, Oregon, on May 9, 1979, and lived at a transient camp on property near the KOA at 1595 Lancaster Drive. On June 7, 1979, Salem police were called to the KOA for a homicide, where they discovered that Randolph Robertson, had been killed by two shotgun blasts; Boggs was nowhere to be found. On June 13, 1979, her’ body was discovered in a creek 17.5 miles up Little North Fork Road off Highway 22E in Marion County, Oregon. Her cause of death was drowning, even though she had also sustained a blunt-force injury to the skull behind her left ear. She was found lying on her back, with her head submerged in eleven inches of water; it had been held in place by a large rock

Irin Marie Meyer: (July 20, 1979, Brookings). Twenty-nine-years-old.

Sheryl Wright: (no additional information at this time).

A very helpful Websleuth’s user compiled a list of missing/murdered women from Oregon in the time frame right after I did.
The second part of the Websleuth’s post about the missing women from Oregon in 1978 to 2005.

The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders.

Introduction: ‘The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders’ is a moniker for a group of unsolved homicides that took place in 1972 and 1973 in the general Santa Rosa area, located specifically in Sonoma County in the North Bay region of California. The perpetrator is responsible for at the murders least seven young female hitchhikers, who were all found completely naked in rural areas. Californian detectives strongly suspect that the killer spoke with and was familiar with some of his victims before he killed them. 

Confirmed Victims: At roughly 9 PM on February 4, 1972 twelve-year-old Maureen Louise Sterling and thirteen-year-old Yvonne Lisa Weber disappeared after being dropped off at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena at around 7:30 PM. Weber was born in Carson City, Nevada on January 29, 1959 and Sterling was native to Santa Rose and was born on February 18, 1959. Maureen’s father Larry tragically died in a skiing accident in August of 1958 just months before her birth at the age of 23, leaving Arleen to raise both her and her older sister, Theresa alone during a time where that was easier said than done).The girls, who were both studentsat Herbert Slater Middle School, had no intention of staying at the skating rink that evening, and had plans to go somewhere else, most likely a nearby park with four older boys (who later took lie detector tests, which ruled them out as suspects). They were last seen getting into a car on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa. 

Sterling was last seen wearing blue jeans, a purple shirt, a red zip up hoodie and brown suede shoes, and Weber was also wearing jeans, a lavender and white tweed shirt, a black velvet coat, and brown suede shoes. Law enforcement only released that two pieces of evidence in relation to the case that were found with the victims: a single filigree type drop earring with orange beads and a basket weave mixed metal cross attached to a gold chain necklace. Neither item belonged to either one of the girls.

When one of the girls parents came to pick them up from the skating rink at 11pm, they were nowhere to be found, and in the early stages of the investigation LE had felt that they were runaways. Their heavily decomposed bodies were found on December 28, 1972 by 17-year-old Glen Frost and 18-year-old David Brooner, who were hiking through the area known as ‘The Devil’s Kitchen’ and down a steep embankment roughly 66 feet off the east side of the roadway. A single earring, orange beads and a 14-carat gold necklace with a cross were found at the scene, and the victims cause of death could not be determined, due to the advanced state of the remains. By that time Santa Rosa was in a panic, and a county wide program dubbed ‘The Secret Witness Program’ offered a $20,000 reward for any tip that would lead to the apprehension of the girls killer(s).

In 2019 an acquaintance of Weber and Sterling came forward and told detectives that she had spoken with them earlier on the evening they were last seen alive, and that the girls told her that a tall, slim man had asked them to smoke marijuana in the lobby of the ice arena (she declined to go with them), and that he strongly resembled Ted Bundy. However, that same friend was interviewed for the 2024 HBO Max documentary, ‘The Truth About Jim,’ and THAT time she said that Jim Mordecai (the subject of the documentary) was the man that was talking to her friends that evening.

There were also rumors that the girls had been looking for a ride to a nearby bowling alley so they could meet up with some friends, where other sources claim they were in contact with a gentleman who lived along the Russian River; detectives could confirm neither report. Schoolmates were questioned about the missing young women the week after they vanished, but nothing useful came of it.

Kim Wendy Allen was born on July 22, 1952 to Kimball and Roberta Allen, and had a sister named Annilee and a brother named Robert. Of her daughter, Mrs. Allen told The Press Democrat that: ‘she was never a speck of trouble to anyone from the day she came on this earth. She trusted everyone, believed that people were good.’ Kim graduated from the private, all-girls Ursuline High School in Santa Rosa, and despite being her senior class’s spirit leader she was an incredibly private person and usually kept her thoughts and opinions to herself, even with the people that knew her best. Allen lived in the 2200 block of Guerneville Road with two roommates and worked part-time at a natural health food store in Larkspur, located roughly forty miles south of Santa Rosa. 

Kim was last seen on Saturday, March 4th, 1972, and in the morning she had been visiting with friends in San Francisco and hitchhiked her way to work in Larkspur shortly before her shift at Larkspur Natural Foods was due to start at noon. She worked for approximately five hours then began making her way back to Santa Rosa, and the second-year art student at Santa Rosa Junior College was picked up by two men outside of her POE. They dropped her off on San Rafael’s Belle Avenue, leaving her with nearly forty miles left to her destination. The men told investigators that they last saw her at roughly 5:20 PM trying to hitchhike near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, and was carrying an orange, aluminum-frame backpack and a large wooden sauce barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Like Sterling and Webster, she also frequently used hitchhiking as a means to get around despite multiple warnings from her mother and a professor about how dangerous it was.

Allen’s remains were found the following day at the bottom of an embankment in a creek bed roughly twenty feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa. She had been bound at her wrists and ankles and had been strangled with a cord. She had been brutally sexually assaulted, and semen was found on her remains; a single gold hoop earring was found near the body. Detectives found skid marks at the top of the embankment and wondered if her assailant may have slipped or lost their footing while throwing or transporting the body. The two men that gave Allen the first ride (one which had passed a polygraph test) were both ruled out as suspects. Her checkbook was found in a drive-up mailbox across from the Kentfield (CA) Post Office sometime in the morning on March 24, 1972. 

On November 11, 1972 thirteen year old Lori Lee Kursa was reported missing by her mother after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save, and she was last seen on either November 20/21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends. Someone reported possibly seeing her hitchhiking on November 30, however that was never positively confirmed by investigators. Kursa had a troubled home life, and she was a known hitchhiker and frequent runaway, and on December 14, 1972 her frozen remains were found in a ravine roughly fifty-feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa. Lori’s murderer had thrown her body at least 30 feet over an embankment, and she was found wearing a single wire loop earring in each earlobe.

On her death certificate, Allens cause of death is listed as a broken neck with compression and hemorrhage of the spinal cord, and she most likely died one to two weeks before her remains were found; she not been raped. Two people later called in tips to LE about possible sightings of Kursa: one shared that they saw two men with a girl fitting her description on Calistoga Road. A second said they saw a young woman with a white male with ‘bushy hair’ driving a pickup truck that had been parked near where her remains were later found. Nothing ever came of either report.

A possible witness to Kursa’s abduction eventually came forward and told investigators that on an evening sometime in between December 3 and 9, 1972 he saw two men with a young woman fitting her description run across Parkhurst Drive then push her into the back of a van that had been parked on the side of the road. They said that the woman seemed to be physically impaired in some way and that the men were holding her up in between them. The driver was a Caucasian man with an afro-type hairstyle and after the three got in the van it quickly drove north on Calistoga Road. 

At around 7 AM on February 6, 1973 fifteen year old Carolyn Nadine left her family residence in Shasta County and spent the next five months traveling. She was last seen wearing a brown leather jacket with a fur collar and faded jeans, and before leaving the Anderson Union High School student left a note for her mom and stepdad that read: ‘Dear Mom. Don’t worry too much about me, the only thing I’m gonna be doing is keeping myself alive. Love, Carolyn.’ In 2022 her older sister Judy Wilson told an interviewer that after she ran away Carolyn had stayed with her for a period in her apartment in Garberville, and that she had been an eyewitness to a double murder and was ‘afraid for her life.’

Wilson said that Carolyn was getting increasingly paranoid that she might be discovered by someone that that knew about the murders, and she left her duplex and hitchhiked to Illinois. Davis returned to Garberville in the summer of 1973 because her sister was going to have a baby, and she stayed with her grandmother for two weeks that July before returning to her boyfriend in Illinois. According to multiple reports, her grandma drove her to downtown Garberville on July 15,1973 and shared with her plans to hitchhike to Modesto, California, with plans of staying with friends. She parked in front of the post office located two city blocks away from Highway 101, and Carolyn was last seen hitchhiking in Garberville that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp going southbound. Her remains were discovered in Santa Rosa on July 31, 1973, just three feet away from where the bodies of Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber had been found seven months before. 

Carolyn’s naked body had been discovered face-down roughly twenty feet down the embankment, and the fact that the vegetation growing around the body was not disturbed told investigators that her remains had been thrown from the road and she rolled for a few feet after landing. The way detectives discovered her body told them that ‘either a very large, strong man had heaved the dead girl’s body off the roadside, or he had help.’

Davis’s cause of death is listed as strychnine poisoning, administered ten to fourteen days before her remains were found, however the ME could not determine whether the drug had been administered by needle or by pill. Strychnine is sometimes mixed with other poisons, however an autopsy showed no trace of either heroin or amphetamines in her system. Having heard of the unidentified young woman, Carolyn’s sister sent detectives her dental records, and two weeks after her body was discovered, Jane Doe finally had a name: Carolyn Nadine Davis.

The ME determined that Carolyn’s probable date of death was July 20, 1973, five days after her grandmother had last seen her. It could not be determined if she had been raped, and her autopsy reported that she had an injury to her right earlobe that seemed to be an attempted ear piercing; her left earlobe had not been pierced. Detectives strongly felt that her killer had thrown her body from the road, as the brush on the hillside seemed to be undisturbed, and one investigator said that a witchcraft symbol that meant ‘carrier of spirits’ was found close to her body. In 1975 LE shared that it was ‘a rectangle connected to a square, with bars running alongside’ made up of twigs and sticks, and was identified as an occult symbol going back to medieval England, and possibly hinted at a connection to the Zodiac Killer.

In the winter of 1973 twenty-three-year-old Theresa Diane Smith Walsh left home and hitchhiked across California, making her way to Los Angeles and often traveled using Highway 101. Back home in Miranda, her two-year-old son was in the care of her mother, and she was separated from her husband. In late 1973 Walsh was in Malibu but made plans to go to Garberville for Christmas. She tried to arrange a ride home and even reached out to a group known as ‘Hitchhiker’s Anonymous’ for help but had no luck. At around 9 AM on December 22, 1973 Walsh said goodbye to her friends, who dropped her off near Zuma Beach; she was last seen wearing bell bottoms, a lavender blouse, a faux-fur brown coat, brown hiking boots, and an olive-green Boy Scout knapsack. Her remains were discovered partially submerged underwater six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek; she had been hogtied with rope, raped, and strangled to death. It was later determined that she had been dead for roughly one week before she had been found, and a combination of high water and heavy rains suggest that she may have floated several miles down the river from where her attacker initially left her.

On July 2, 1979 the skeletal remains of a young woman were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road, roughly 100 yards away from where the remains of Lori Kursa were found seven years prior. Due to the advanced level of decomp, at first forensic experts believed that the victim may have been Jeannette Kamahele until dental records later proved this to be false. The young woman had been hogtied, and her arm had been fractured during the struggle at the time of her death; her body had been stuffed into a bag of some sort (maybe a duffel bag) before it was dumped in the ravine. Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputy Rick Oliver said that several pieces of evidence were found near the scene, but didn’t elaborate further.

It was determined that the young woman was between sixteen and twenty-one-years-old, wore hard contact lenses (that she kept in a metal container with cherries on it), had red/auburn/brown hair, was about 5’3”, and had broken a rib at one point in her life. Her weight and eye color could not be determined and no clothes were found at the crime scene. One medical expert hired by the sheriff’s department determined that at the time of her death the victim was roughly nineteen years old and was most likely killed sometime between 1972 and 1973. It’s also worth noting that hard contacts weren’t typically sold in the US and Canada after the mid-1970’s as soft contact lenses had become available.

* I have seen the next young woman listed as both a confirmed and unconfirmed Santa Rosa Hitchhiker victim: Twenty-year-old Santa Rosa Junior College student Jeannette Kamahele was last seen by her roommate on April 25, 1972 at around 9:30 PM, and had plans to hitchhike near the Cotati on-ramp of Highway 101. A friend may have (possibly) seen her abduction, and told investigators that she had seen Kamahele get into a faded brown Chevy pickup that had been fitted with a homemade wooden camper in the back and was being driven by a twenty to thirty-year-old white man with an afro-styles hairdo. Jeannette stood at 5’5” tall and weighed 120 pounds; she was of Pacific Island descent and had black hair, brown eyes, and had a large birthmark directly underneath her right breast. She was last seen wearing a dark brown short, Levi’s jeans, and gold-post style earrings.

Born on February 10th, 1952 Jeannette Kamahele spent her formative years in Japan thanks to her dads naval career, and attended Yokohama American High School, which was designated for American children of military service members stationed overseas. After she graduated from high school, Jeannette decided to move stateside, and decided to enroll at Santa Rosa Junior College and moved to Cotati, where she lived along the 900 block of Sierra Avenue with her roommate, Nora Morales. Because she didn’t have  a car of her own Jeannette often hitchhiked to get around, and would often catch a ride to class by walking along the nearby Highway 101 on-ramp. No trace of Kamahele has ever been recovered.

Unconfirmed Victims: Seventeen year old Lisa Michele Smith was last seen hitchhiking just a short distance away from her foster home, located along Hearn Avenue in Santa Rosa. Her foster parents reported her as missing from Petaluma, California on March 16, 1971 and shortly after a young woman with the name of ‘Lisa Smith’ went into Novato General Hospital after an incident she had while hitchhiking on March 26, 1971. Smith told investigators that she was picked up by a man that pulled a gun on her and threatened to rape her but she was able to escape by jumping out of the pickup, which was going 55 miles per hour at the time. The young victim was treated for a skull fracture as well as multiple cuts and bruises by physicians, and a nurse at the facility said that she looked to be about twenty-one-years-old. At the time, she was wearing a white blouse with ruffles, a dark pea coat, green bell-bottom jeans, and cowboy boots.

In an article published in The Santa Rosa Press Democrat on April 1, 1971, the ‘Lisa Smith’ that was treated at Novato General Hospital was the same person as the missing 17-year-old Lisa Smith. The young woman that is believed to have been Smith left the hospital before detectives could speak with her, and she reportedly hitchhiked her way back to San Francisco. Her biological parents eventually caught up with her and took her back to their residence in Livermore, California.

In 2011 The Press Democrat reported that the two Lisa Smiths were not the same, and she was not actually found. As of March 2025 it’s still not certain if the two Lisa Smiths were the same person or two separate individuals, and all of the police reports and medical records pertaining to the case were deemed to be missing by 2011.

Fifteen-year-old Kerry Ann Graham and fourteen-year-old Francine Marie Trimble of Forestville, California both disappeared on December 16, 1978 after leaving their respective homes to visit a shopping mall in Santa Rosa. Their remains were found wrapped in duct-taped garbage bags that were buried in an embankment of a heavily overgrown wooded area beside a remote part of Highway 20 the following July, roughly 80 miles north of their hometown. Because of the advanced level of decomp, their exact cause of death has never been determined. At first Graham’s remains were mistakenly ID’d as a male, until genetic testing proved otherwise. Both victims remained unknown until November 2015, when their identities were confirmed thanks to DNA profiling.

In 1975, the FBI issued a report stating that fourteen unsolved homicides that took place between 1972 and 1974 were committed by the same perpetrator, which consisted of six of the known SRHM victims as well as the following young women:

Twenty-year-old Rosa Vasquez was last seen May 26, 1973, and her body was found three days later on May 29 near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco; she had been strangled and her remains had been thrown seven feet off the road into some shrubbery. On June 10, 1973 fifteen-year-old Yvonne Quilantang was found strangled in a vacant Bayview district lot; she had been seven months pregnant and was out and about in the community buying groceries.

Angela Thomas was found July 2, 1973, smothered to death on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. The sixteen-year-old was a resident of Belton, Texas and was last seen at 9:00 PM the previous evening walking away from the Presidio in San Francisco; a locket was discovered near the crime scene. Nancy Patricia Gidley was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973, and her remains were found three days later behind the George Washington High School gymnasium. The  24-year-old radiographer had been strangled and was completely nude, except for a single fish-shaped gold earring. It was eventually determined that she died within the previous 24 hours. Gidley had served in the US Air Force for four years prior to her murder, and told friends and family members that she had plans of becoming a freelance writer for the San Francisco Chronicle and was going to San Francisco to be the maid of honour at the wedding of a friend from Hamilton Air Force Base. After some investigating, this was all proved to be false.

Twenty-three-year-old* separated mother of five Nancy Feusi disappeared after going dancing at a club called The Plumbers Hall in the eastern part of Sacramento, and her nearly naked remains were recovered fifteen miles away by a fisherman at 6:30 AM on July 22, 1973, alongside Pleasant Grove Road and Steelhead Creek in Redding; her clothes were recovered nearby, and she had been stabbed twenty-nine times, mostly in the stomach, chest, and arm. She was last seen alive roughly two miles away from the night club, only three and a half hours before her remains were discovered. Detectives found shoe prints and tire tracks close to where Nancy’s remains were found, which opened up the possibility she was possibly killed in another location and was brought to the scene where she was found. 

In 2011, one of her daughters, Angela Darlene Feusi-McAnulty was accused of torturing, beating, and starving to death her 15-year-old daughter Jeanette Marie Maples. After she was convicted, McAnulty officially became the second woman in history to be sentenced to death in the state of Oregon, the first since the 1984 reinstatement of the death penalty. *Some sources say that Nancy was twenty-two.

Twenty-one-year old Laura Albright O’Dell was reported missing on November 4, 1973; her remains were discovered three days later in some shrubbery behind the Stow Lake boathouse in Golden Gate Park. Her hands had been tied behind her back, and her cause of death appeared to be from head injuries and/or strangulation. On February 1, 1974 nineteen year old Brenda Kaye Merchant was found dead at her apartment in Marysville; she had been stabbed over 30 times with a long bladed knife and had asphyxiated on her own blood. Her assailant left a bloody handprint behind on the screen door of the residence, and it is believed that she was attacked between 6 PM (when she was last seen) and midnight, when neighbors happened to overhear a loud argument. Donna Maria Braun was only fourteen when her strangled remains were discovered by a crop dusting pilot at 7 PM on September 29, 1974 in the Salinas River near Monterey.

Over the years, California investigators have strongly considered the possibility that the perpetrator of the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders was also active in Oregon, Washington, Utah, and Colorado, and additionally have looked into the possibility that there was a link to the Flat Tire Murders, which took place in Miami-Dade County in the southern part of Florida between February 1975 and January 1976. Also, in 1986 author Robert Graysmith published a list of forty-nine confirmed and possible Zodiac Killer victims, which included the Santa Rosa victims as well as some additional murders with some striking similarities, including:

Seventeen-year-old Elaine Louise Davis disappeared from family’s home in Walnut Creek, California on December 1, 1969, when she was left to watch her younger sister while her mother went to nearby Concord to pick her husband up from work. When Mr. and Mrs. David arrived home shortly after 11 PM, they found their three year old daughter alone in the residence with no trace of Elaine. At the scene there was no sign of a struggle, however investigators were immediately suspicious of foul play due to the fact that her purse and glasses were left behind. After they arrived home, her little sister told her parents, ‘they took her away, she didn’t want to go,’ and ‘there was a Volkswagen,’ the latter part was corroborated by neighbors. The young woman’s coat was found two days later on the side of the road along Highway 17 near Santa Cruz.

On December 19, 1969 the remains of Elaine Davis were discovered floating near Lighthouse Point near Santa Cruz, however a positive ID was not made until 2001. An initial examination determined that the victim was in her early twenties, which led investigators to dismiss her as a potential match. Her cause of death is undetermined, however medical experts leaned towards strangulation because of some damaged cartilage found in her neck. In 2000, the investigation was reopened as part of a routine review of cold cases and the following year a new examination of the remains were conducted, and the victims dental records proved that the body did belong to Elaine Davis.

Sixteen-year-old Leona LaRell Roberts had been kidnapped from her boyfriend’s home on December 10, 1969; eighteen days later her nude body was found on the beach at Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County, and although the official cause of death was listed as ‘exposure,’ her case was treated as a homicide. Twenty-three-year-old Marie Antoinette Anste was kidnapped in Vallejo after experiencing a blow to the head, and her body was recovered in rural Lake County on March 21; an autopsy revealed that she had drowned and had traces of mescaline in her bloodstream.

Seventeen-year-old Eva Lucienne Blau was found dumped in a roadside gully near Santa Rosa during the equinox on March 20, 1970, and the medical examiner determined that she had been hit in the head and discovered drugs in her system. Blau was last seen leaving Jack London Hall on March 12 after telling friends that she was going to go home. On the evening of December 3, 1969, twenty-one-year-old Sonoma State College student Kathy Sosic accepted a ride from a stranger outside her school’s library, and at some point during the drive the man pulled out a handgun and tried to assault her. Sosic managed to escape by jumping out of the moving vehicle, and thankfully she was not seriously injured.

Suspects: Over the years there have been quite a few men that have been investigated for the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, and the first I’m going to talk about is Ted Bundy. When these murders took place in 1972 and 1973 Ted was in an active relationship with Elizabeth Kendall (and was seeing multiple other women as well) and he graduated from the University of Washington in the spring of 1972, and began law school at the University of Puget Sound in the fall of 1973. He had quite a few jobs during this time period, and from September 1971 to May 1972 he worked one night a week at the Seattle Crisis Clinic (with Ann Rule), and between June and September 1972 he had an internship as a counselor at Harborview Mental Health Center in Seattle. From September to November 1972 he worked for Governor Dan Evans’ re-election campaign, and between November of ‘72 and April 1973 he worked at the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission, and helped draft Washington’s new hitchhiking law, and even wrote a rape‐prevention pamphlet for women. From September 1972 to January 1973 he worked with the Law & Justice Planning in Seattle, and between February to the end of April 1973 he worked for the King County Program Planning, Additionally, in September 1973 he held the title of the Assistant to the Washington State Republican chairman.

s we all know, Ted didn’t ‘officially’ become active until January 1974, when he brutally attacked and left for dead University of Washington student Karen Sparks, but it’s widely speculated that he began killing much earlier than that. Some people even believe he may have begun killing as early as fourteen with the murder of Ann Marie Burr, who was stolen out of her Tacoma residence in  late August of 1961. Additionally, it’s thought Bundy killed two young stewardesses in the Queen Anne district of Seattle in 1966, as well as two young friends vacationing in the Jersey Shore in May of 1969. More realistically, he may have started killing in 1973, with the murder of a young hitchhiker in Tumwater, WA.

After Ted was captured for similar crimes in Washington/Colorado/Utah/Idaho he was suspected in the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders as well, however according to Sonoma County law enforcement he was ruled out as a suspect in the late-1970s then again in 1989 (as his credit card receipts reveal that he was in Washington on the dates of some of the disappearances). I mean, let’s be real: he was known to drive hundreds of miles to commit a murder, and he confessed to having killed in the Golden State before (the ‘1992 TB FBI Multi agency Report’ credits him with one kill in the state). Another reason investigators feel that Ted isn’t responsible for the SRHM is that they believe that the perpetrator most likely lived in the Santa Rosa area, and may have even worked a local job, like as a mail carrier or a public utility worker that would have been familiar with the remote, rural areas where the young women were left. 

In an interview with The San Francisco Gate in 2011, retired Seattle Detective Dr. Robert Keppel said of Ted: ‘one of the last times I talked to Bundy, I mentioned California, and he looked at me like, ‘I can’t talk about that right now.’ I think he believed his execution would be stayed so he could talk for years about his crimes, but the governor had other ideas… Bundy is 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 1974… it was an open market for Bundy.’

Some similarities between the cases and Ted’s victims sticks out to members of law enforcement, as the SRHM victim profile is nearly identical to his and were all young women between fifteen and twenty-five-years-old that wore their hair long and parted down the middle. Additionally, he also made sure to dispose of remains in out-of-the-way, rural locations completely nude, and the way the assailant subdued his victims was incredibly similar to Bundy’s, as they were strangled to death, either by hand or with a household item.

Bundy also matched the description of a young, ‘bushy haired’ man that was seen near the scene of at least two of the SRHM. The first is in relation to the disappearance of Jeannette Kamahele, who was last seen getting into the truck of a man with an afro which is a type of style that Bundy wore in 1972. Additionally, it’s worth noting that Ted did own a truck in the mid 70’s, as he bought an inexpensive one to help with his move from Seattle to SLC (I believe he gave it to his brother Glenn, or he at the very least drove it). Then there’s the abduction of Lori Kursa in November of 1972, where a similarly-described man with an ‘afro-styled hairstyle’ was seen waiting in the getaway van that Kursa was shoved into (although in this situation the driver would have been only one part of a three-man operation; whereas Bundy acted alone). 

After his first arrest while investigators were looking into his background, they learned that Ted had been in California on several occasions in the late 1960’s/early 1970s, proving that he did have some ties to the area: in 1968 he attended Stanford University and in 1973 he visited Sonoma County while working on a political campaign for the Republican party. He had also driven through the region on numerous occasions between 1968 and 1974 while visiting with his one-time love Diane Edwards, who had lived in Palo Alto and San Francisco.

However, despite his (weak) ties to California, Bundy was not linked to any of the victims from the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, and investigators would later find evidence that placed him in Washington either right before or after several of the murders. In a January 1976 issue of ‘The Vallejo Times Herald,’ Sonoma County Sergeant Butch Carlstedt said: ‘I tried to tie Bundy to our cases but we found credit card receipts that put him in Seattle at the time of the murders here… He’s definitely cleared as far as we’re concerned.’ However, years later detectives in Sonoma County learned that this was anything but true, as on a few occasions there were two-day periods in between many of his gas receipts that supposedly placed him in Washington, which allowed Bundy upwards of two days to make the drive to California then back home to Seattle.

In 2011, authorities uploaded a sample of Bundy’s DNA into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) in the hopes of matching to any victims that haven’t been tied to him yet. When speaking to ‘The San Francisco Gate’ in 2011, Sonoma County Lieutenant Steve Brown commented that: ‘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.’

Another suspect of the SRHM is The Zodiac, thanks to the timing of the murders as well as the general location of where they took place. Additionally, the killer was known to correspond in code using symbols and ciphers, and located on Kim Allen’s missing soy sauce barrel was some chinese characters. Also, there was a crudely constructed symbol made out of twigs close to Carolyn Davis’ remains that looked like it could have been constructed by the Zodiac. Investigators reportedly ruled out the killer as a suspect because the SRHM seem to have a sexual component to them, where the Zodiac murders did not and the killer progressing from homicides involving a knife/gun to brutal slayings involving rape would be a huge shift.

Zodiac suspect Arthur Leigh Allen of Vallejo owned a mobile home at Sunset Trailer Park in Santa Rosa at the time of the murders. In 1968 he had been let go from his job at The Valley Springs Elementary School for suspected child molestation, and in 1972-73 he was a full-time student at Sonoma State University. Allen was arrested by the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office on September 27, 1974, and was charged with child molestation in an unrelated case involving a young boy. He pleaded guilty on March 14, 1975 and was imprisoned at Atascadero State Hospital until late 1977. In his book ‘Zodiac Unmasked’ true crime writer Robert Graysmith said that a Sonoma County sheriff said that chipmunk hairs were found on all of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker victims, and that Allen had been collecting and studying the same species of the animal.

Forty-one year old US Army veteran Fredric Manalli was a writing instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College and San Quentin Prison, and after he was killed in a head-on collision after his van veered into oncoming traffic on Highway 12 on August 24, 1976 he was a suspect in the SAHM; at the time of the accident he had no illicit drugs or alcohol in his system, but was taking medication for epileptic seizures. After his death police found sadomasochistic drawings in his van, and amongst his artwork were pieces showcasing Kim Allen, who was one of his former students as well as additional works involving two other young women and himself in a sexual manner. It’s also heavily speculated that he had one of Allen’s backpacks in his possession.

According to Robert Graysmith, ‘when the teacher’s widow was cataloging his property, she came across drawings of people being whipped. The sketches suggested the husband had been involved in S&M. The instructor had drawn himself as a woman and labeled it with the female version of his own name. Chief Wayne Dunham felt the deceased man might have something to do with Kim Wendy Allen’s death.’ In Graysmith’s book ‘Zodiac UnMasked,’ Sergeant Steve Brown said ‘I’ve actually got a photocopy of two of the drawings that they found. He drew Kim and he drew himself as ‘Freda.’ He drew the other girl and those two girls had classes with him. They tested it, but it wasn’t Kim. He probably taught Kim, and when she shows up dead, he became really obsessed with her. A weird dude.’

In 2024 HBO Max created a documentary titled, ‘The Truth About Jim,’ which explored the idea that a high school vocational agriculture teacher and part-time landscape designer named Jim Mordecai might have been responsible for the SRHM. Mordecai was born August 27, 1941 in Santa Rosa, and as early as 1953 his name started appearing in local papers thanks to his skill in basketball and football. He died of cancer in 2008 and his family had an isolated ranch in Sonoma County near Santa Rosa, where he spent a lot of time in the early-1970’s. He had no known criminal record and after his death family members found a box of mismatched jewelry among his belongings, which belonged to no one in the family. One item, a hoop earring with orange beads attached, matched the description of a piece of jewelry that was worn by one of the SRHM victims…but his family threw out the evidence and didn’t hold onto anything. A DNA profile of Mordecai was turned over to the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Department in August 2022. 

Philip Joseph Hughes Jr. resided in Pleasanton, CA and was convicted of three murders in Contra Costa County in the early-to-mid 1970’s: in November 1972 he stabbed nineteen-year-old Maureen Field to death after she disappeared after her shift at KMart was over. Two days after she was last seen, her family got a phone call from an unidentified male caller, who said: ‘I’m calling about your daughter. She is dead. I killed her,’ then hung up. Her badly decomposed remains were discovered on February 15, 1973 on Morgan Territory Road. Just over a year after her death on January 26, 1974 fifteen-year old Skyline High School sophomore Lisa Berry disappeared while hitchhiking. It was later determined that Hughes (along with his wife and accomplice Suzanne Perrin) kidnapped Berry at knife point after picking her up near her home then took her to a basement in Oakland, where they sexually assaulted her then stabbed her to death. They then wrapped her remains in a bed sheet then dumped her in a shallow grave in a desolate area in Contra Costa County; she was found five years later in Moraga.

On March 19, 1975, Hughes and Perrin abducted then strangled, raped, and beat (with a hammer) twenty-five-year-old Letitia Fagot. Her nude remains were discovered in her Walnut Creek home after coworkers called on a welfare check when she never showed up for her shift; she had experienced blunt force trauma to the head. Hughes managed to fly under the radar until July 1979 when a friend of his then wife went to police and confessed on her behalf (this supposedly was due to Perrin’s intense fear of her husband). The day after the call to law enforcement was made, Suzanne met up with a Contra County Sergeant at a local restaurant and gave him information about her husband and the murder of Lisa Beery, and on July 13, 1979, detectives got a search warrant for their home. Because Hughes victims were stabbed it’s a deterrent to him being responsible for the SRHM and he is currently serving life imprisonment at California Correctional Institution.

Another serial killer Joseph Naso was investigated for the SRHM: known as ‘The Double Initial Killer,’ Naso was born on January 7, 1934 in Rochester, NY and after serving in the US Air Force in the 1950’s he met his first wife, who he lived with in San Francisco. Together for eighteen years when they separated, Naso continued visiting her and the two had a child together that eventually developed schizophrenia, and he spent a good part of his life caring for him. Nicknamed ‘Crazy Joe’ for his unusual behavior, Naso took classes in a few different colleges in the general San Francisco area in the 1970’s, and in the 80’s resided in the Mission District of San Francisco, then in Piedmont and Sacramento; in 2004 he relocated to Reno, Nevada and worked as a freelance photographer. He also had a long history of lower-level crimes, like shoplifting, which he committed up to his arrest in his mid-seventies.

Nevada law enforcement arrested Naso in April 2010, and while searching his residence discovered a diary where he listed ten unnamed women along with some correlating geographical locations. The journal proved that he stalked and sexually assaulted his victims then photographed them in suggestive poses next to mannequin parts. He was charged with the murders of four sex workers on April 11, 2011 and was later charged with the murders of two additional victims. On August 20, 2013, Naso was given a guilty verdict by a Marin County jury and on November 22, 2013, a judge sentenced him to death.

Another name that came up in my research a few times in relation to the SRHM was Robert Kibbe, or the I-5 Strangler, who was known to target young, vulnerable hitchhikers in the later part of the 1970’s. Kibbe was first arrested for assault and battery in 1987, after he tried to handcuff a sex worker named Debra Ann Guffie, who managed to fight him off and flag down a nearby police officer for help. With her testimony, Kibbe was arrested and sentenced to eight months in country lock-up, and it was at this time that LE began to piece together their case against him. He was arrested in 1988 for the murder of Darcie Frackenpohl that took place the year prior, and was convicted of first degree murder and was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. The SRHM’s fall a bit outside of when Kibbe was active, as he didn’t begin killing until September 10, 1977 when he met twenty-one-year-old Lou Ellen Burleigh for an interview; the two met again the following morning and she was never seen again. He was also known to cut off the hair of most of his victims in order to remove the duct tape before he would abandon them, and this was never seen in the SRHM murders.

Kenneth Bianchi and his cousin Angelo Anthony Buono Jr. were also briefly investigated for the SRHM but they were both ruled out as suspects, as they weren’t active until October 1977. Known as the Hillside Stranglers, they were convicted of killing ten young women in Los Angeles between October 1977 and February 1978 (Bianchi killed two women in Washington by himself). Buono died on September 21, 2002 and Kenneth Bianchi is currently serving a life sentence in Washington State Penitentiary.

Joaquin Cordova is another possible perpetrator in the SRHM: at the time of the murders in 1972/73, Cordova was a twenty-two-year old bartender that was arrested for the rape and assault of a twenty-nine year old woman in his home. During the assault he told his victim that she was ‘different from the other girls,’ hinting at him doing this multiple times prior. He was ruled out by investigators (as he was in jail during the murders).

I would like to give credit to the ‘unresolved’ true crime website, who said the following about a man named ‘Campo de Santos: ‘outside of these big name, serial offenders, there are a couple of other small-time criminals that I discovered during my research into this case. One is a man named Campo de Santos, who operated under the alias, ‘Deyo.’ By 1975 ‘Deyo’ was spending time on New Mexico’s death row, having been convicted for a crime that was almost identical to the hitchhiking crimes. He was believed to have been in Sonoma County when at least some of the crimes were carried out, but it’s unknown what kind of connection there may be if any. Speaking to The Press Democrat, Sonoma County Sheriff’s captain Jim Caufield would state the following about the suspect: ‘he could be out man in some of these, but he won’t talk to us. It’s essentially possible they’ll send him to the gas chamber and we’ll never know if he’s the man, in fact, it’s possible out killer is dead or locked up somewhere else on other charges.’

True crime writer Gray George strongly suspected that serial killer Jackie Ray Hovarter was responsible for the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders. Hovarter was a long-haul trucker that routinely drove throughout the northern part of California, and he was convicted of kidnapping, raping, and killing 16-year-old Diana Walsh from Willits, CA in August of 1984. He raped a second girl from Fortuna a few months later in December and tried to kill her by shooting her in the head, but she survived; she testified at his trial and helped put him behind bars. George feels that he could be a strong suspect in the murders of Francine Trimble and Kerry Graham.

Another name I came across in my research was an individual named Byron Avion, who was described as ‘an odd, portly man that was admittedly obsessed with the Zodiac Killer.’ He had other eccentricities as well, not the least of which was his ‘large collection of cardboard boxes, carefully stacked and tied shut with white nylon rope.’ However, the only place I came across a possible link was one source: a book titled ‘Suspect Zero,’ published on May 15, 2003 and written by Michael D Kelleher. I didn’t read the book so I didn’t learn much about this individual.

Works Cited:
Best, Joseph. ‘Jim Mordecai and the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders.’ (Fenruary 29, 2024). Taken on March 8, 2025 from Medium.com
Fagan, Kevin. ‘Ted Bundy a suspect in Sonoma County cold cases.’ (July 7, 2011). Taken March 8, 2025 from sfgate.com
Hamilton, Francis. ‘Sonoma County Missing and Murdered.’ (September 11, 2019). Taken March 8, 2025 from sonomacountymissingandmurdered.wordpress.com
March, Lisa. ‘Adventurous Shasta County Teen Last Seen in Garberville: An Unsolved Cold Case.’ (May 16, 2022). Taken March 8, 2025 from kymkemp.com
Romano, Tricia. ‘The Case of the Double Initial Murders: An Odd History.’ Taken March 13, 2025 from crimelibrary.com
‘Serial Killer Database: HUGHES, Philip Joseph Jr.’ Taken March 13, 2025 from skdb.fandom.com
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders. (March 21, 2020). Taken March 8, 2025 from killerqueenspodcast.com/the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
Unresolved. ‘The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders.’ Taken March 8, 2025 from https://unresolved.me

Yvonne Weber, who went missing on February 4th, 1972 with her friend Maureen Sterling and was last seen getting into a car in front of the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. Her body was found on December 26th, 1973 at the bottom of an embankment on the west side of Franz Valley Road roughly 2.7 miles from the intersection with Porter Creek Road.
Yvonne’s obituary published in The Press Democrat on January 4, 1973.
Maureen Sterling, who went missing with Yvonne Weber on February 4, 1972.
Sterling’s obituary published in The Press Democrat on January 5, 1973.
The only two pieces of evidence that LE released in relation to the murders of Sterling and Weber: a single filigree type drop earring w beads and a basket weave mixed metal cross attached to a gold chain necklace. Photo courtesy of ‘Sonoma County: Missing and Murdered WordPress’ page.
Part one of an article about the murder of Sterling and Weber published in The Press Democrat on January 3, 1973.
Part two of an article about the murder of Sterling and Weber published in The Press Democrat on January 3, 1973.
Part one of an article about the funerals of Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber published in The Press Democrat on January 3, 1973.
Part two of an article about the funerals of Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber published in The Press Democrat on January 3, 1973.
Kim Allen, who went missing on March 4th, 1972 hitchhiking from her job in Larkspur in Marin County to her home in Santa Rosa. Her remains were found on March 5th, 1972 at the bottom of an embankment on the north side of Enterprise Road. She had been strangled.
An obituary for Lori Lee Kursa published in The Press Democrat on December 19, 1972.
An article about the murder of Kori Kursa published in The Press Democrat on December 27, 1972.
An article about Lori Kursa clipped from The Press Democrat on February 6, 1973. Kursa was last seen on November 20th, 1972 with her mother at U-Save Market ; her remains were found on December 14th, 1972 roughly 20′-30′ down an embankment on the western side of Calistoga Road. She died due to extreme trauma, and her first and second cervical vertebra were dislocated and her spinal cord had been compressed.
Carolyn Davis, who went missing on July 15th, 1973 and was last seen hitchhiking on the on ramp of Highway 101 in Garberville, California. Her remains were recovered on July 31st, 1973 less than ten feet away from where Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber were found; she died from strychnine poisoning.
An article about the murder of Carolyn Davis published by The Press Democrat on August 16, 1973.
The Sonoma West Times and News on August 23, 1973.
The following symbol was left in sticks next to Santa Rosa Serial Killer victim, Carolyn Davis. Some think it was left by the Zodiac Killer.
Theresa Walsh, who has been missing since December 22nd, 1973 when she was last seen hitchhiking north on Highway 101 to Maranda, California. Her body was recovered a few days later on December 28 found submerged under a log in Mark West Creek .I have seen her name also spelled ‘Terese,’ however ‘Theresa’ is what is on her death certificate.
An article about the murder of Theresa Walsh published in The Times Standard on January 9, 1974.
An article about the Santa Rosa Jane Doe, who as of March 2025 still remains unidentified.
An article about the thwarted abduction of Lisa Smith published in The Novato Advance on March 31, 1971.
Jeannette Kamahele, who was last seen on April 25th, 1972 hitchhiking north on Highway 101 and was going from her residence to Santa Rosa Junior College. Her remains have never been recovered.
Jeannette Kamahele.
Jeannette Kamahele.
An article about the disappearance of Jeanette Kamahele published in The Rohnert Park Cotati Clarion on May 2, 1972.
An article about the disappearance of Jeanette published in The Press Democrat on April 28, 1972.
Kerry Ann Graham.
Francine Trimble.
An article about Francine Trimble and Kerry Ann Graham published in The Sacramento Bee on February 4, 2016.
An article about Francine Trimble and Kerry Ann Graham published in The Fresno Bee on February 4, 2016.
Rosa Vasquez.
An article about the murder of Rosa Vasquez published by The Oakland Tribune on June 1, 1973.
An article about the murder of Yvonne Quilantang published by The Oakland Tribune on June 15, 1973.
An article about the murder of Yvonne Quilantang published by The San Francisco Examiner on June 24, 1973.
An article about the murder of Angela Thomas published by The Oakland Tribune on July 5, 1973.
An article about the murder of Angela Thomas published by The San Francisco Examiner on July 6, 1973.
Angela Thomas’s obituary published in The Austin American on July 7, 1973.
A picture of Nancy Gidley taken from The Idaho Statesman published on July 18, 1973.
An article about the murder of Nancy Patricia Gidley published by The Idaho Statesman on July 18, 1973.
An article about the murder of Nancy Gidley published by The Martinez News-Gazette on July 19, 1973.
An article about the murder of Nancy Feusi published by The Sacramento Bee on August 9, 1973.
An article about Nancy Feusi’s daughter being charged with the torture of her daughter published by The Corvallis Gazette-Times on February 11, 2011.
An article about the murder of Laura O’Dell published by The San Francisco Examiner on November 7, 1973.
An article about the murder of Brenda Merchant published by The Sacramento Bee on February 2, 1974.
An article about the murder of Brenda Kaye Merchant published by The Colusa Sun-Herald on February 4, 1974.
An article about the murder of Donna Marie Braun published by The Californian on October 1, 1974.
An article about the murder of Kathy Sosic The Press Democrat on December 4, 1969.
An article about the murder of Elaine Davis published by The Martinez News-Gazette on December 5, 1969.
An article about the murder of Leona LaRell Roberts published by The Sacramento Bee on December 12, 1969.
An article about the murder of Marie Antoinette Anstey published by The Berkeley Gazette on April 1, 1970.
An article about the murder of Cosette Ellison published by The Concord Transcript on March 25, 1970.
A general article about the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders published in The Press Democrat on January 10, 1973.
An article mentioning a man from Camarillo being arrested for the rape of a seventeen year old that is possibly related to the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders published in The Press Democrat on May 11, 1973.
A general article about the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders published by The Ventura County Star on July 17, 1973.
A general article about the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders published by The Morning Union on July 17, 1973.
A general article about the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders published in The Press Democrat on September 13, 1973.
A general article about the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders published by The San Francisco Examiner on April 25, 1975.
Bundy’s whereabouts in the early part of 1972 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’
Bundy’s whereabouts in 1972 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’
Bundy’s whereabouts in the early part of 1973 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’
Bundy’s whereabouts in 1973 according to the ‘Ted Bundy Multiagency Investigative Team Report 1992.’
Arthur Leigh Allen.
Fred Manalli.
Jim Mordecai.
Philip Joseph Hughes Jr.
Naso
Robert Kibbe.
Kenneth Bianchi.
Angelo Buono.
Joaquin Cordova.
Jackie Rae Hovarter.
A book about Byron Avion titled ‘Suspect Zero,’ written by Michael D. Kelleher