Found Deceased SD - Pamella Jackson & Cheryl Miller, both 17, Vermillion, 29 May 1971 *car and remains found 2013*

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The "vehicle enabled" sexual homicide was a phenomenon that emerged in the 1970's. Law Enforcement was not prepared to deal with the problem and many homicides or disappearances remain unsolved. Many were dismissed as "runaways".

I suspect many of the predators were later convicted of other rapes, murders or abductions. The logical place for any cold case detective to start would be anyone who had any connections to one of these cases who
subsequently was convict of a related crime. David Lykken would be a perfect "suspect". This doesn't prove anything; they still have to find evidence linking the suspect to the crime. I'm not so sure they have anything. I haven't read anywhere that anything found on the farm can be tied to the missing girls.


Anytime someone "disappears" along with their vehicle, you have to consider the chance that they either deliberately took off or they drove into a body of water. It is very rare for a sexual predator to dispose of both the victim's body and their vehicle. Vehicles are much harder to conceal. there is little benefit in concealing the vehicle, and there is the logistic problem of moving second vehicle if you have one of your own.


From what I can see on Google Earth, there is a river and some ponds along the SD/Iowa border that could harbor a sunken vehicle. People who know the area would have a better idea. Apparently the Missouri River is a more likely place for a vehicle to disappear in but the girls were not in that area when they were last seen.
 
kemo said:
The "vehicle enabled" sexual homicide was a phenomenon that emerged in the 1970's. Law Enforcement was not prepared to deal with the problem and many homicides or disappearances remain unsolved. Many were dismissed as "runaways".

I suspect many of the predators were later convicted of other rapes, murders or abductions. The logical place for any cold case detective to start would be anyone who had any connections to one of these cases who
subsequently was convict of a related crime. David Lykken would be a perfect "suspect". This doesn't prove anything; they still have to find evidence linking the suspect to the crime. I'm not so sure they have anything. I haven't read anywhere that anything found on the farm can be tied to the missing girls.


Anytime someone "disappears" along with their vehicle, you have to consider the chance that they either deliberately took off or they drove into a body of water. It is very rare for a sexual predator to dispose of both the victim's body and their vehicle. Vehicles are much harder to conceal. there is little benefit in concealing the vehicle, and there is the logistic problem of moving second vehicle if you have one of your own.


From what I can see on Google Earth, there is a river and some ponds along the SD/Iowa border that could harbor a sunken vehicle. People who know the area would have a better idea. Apparently the Missouri River is a more likely place for a vehicle to disappear in but the girls were not in that area when they were last seen.
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I think that there was some evidence that pointed to Lykken. IIRC I saw somewhere that his own sister said she had seen the car on their property with the two girls "slumped over" inside. They also supposedly found Studebaker Lark hubcaps when they dug on the property.

You are right, though, a car would be difficult to dispose of on land. I thought that maybe by searching Google Earth it could be spotted abandoned in some woods somewhere, although I know it's a total long shot.

The whole thing about the boys strikes me as odd, though. If the boys were innocent, I don't understand how they became separated from the girls for long enough for this to happen - and what a coincidence that this Lykken character happened upon them in the few minutes that they could have been separated?
 
I read that Law Enforcement did find "auto parts" and a hub cap but I could find no verification that they came from a Studebaker Lark. I also read that the sister was going to be a prosecution witness (before the charges were dropped when the prison snitch testimony went bad). It is not clear exactly what she had to say. Lykken is a bad guy and I think the rest of us are a little safer as long as he is locked up, but I need a little more information before I conclude that he killed Pam and Cheryl.
 
I think it's safe to say Pam and Cheryl are gone, and I do think the streets are safer with Lykken behind bars, but I wish they could find the girls' remains, or at least the car...I think it's possible they even still be in the car-I know there have been some cases where to perp. hides the victim's vehicle, but that would take a lot of work, so it's kind of rare, I really haven't read up on too many of those, although I know they are out there...usually the vehicle is just left abandoned somewhere or along the side of the road. I'm sure there was great motive for making the car disappear along with the girls.
He had to have good reason to hide it like he did, if he is the one who did it.
Maybe the girls are in there or maybe it's the crime scene? Either way, if it's ever found, I sure feel there would be some pretty damning evidence still present inside, even decades later.
It does seem very likely LE has their man, they just need to find the girls now.
 
Odyssey said:
I think that there was some evidence that pointed to Lykken. IIRC I saw somewhere that his own sister said she had seen the car on their property with the two girls "slumped over" inside. They also supposedly found Studebaker Lark hubcaps when they dug on the property.

You are right, though, a car would be difficult to dispose of on land. I thought that maybe by searching Google Earth it could be spotted abandoned in some woods somewhere, although I know it's a total long shot.

The whole thing about the boys strikes me as odd, though. If the boys were innocent, I don't understand how they became separated from the girls for long enough for this to happen - and what a coincidence that this Lykken character happened upon them in the few minutes that they could have been separated?
Click to expand...

If the car still exists above ground it almost certainly would have been spotted by now. Hunters, particularly during deer and pheasant seasons, walk almost every square foot of wooded area. Even land that is posted "No Hunting, No Trespassing" will eventually be covered by someone who ignored or did not see the signs.

Abandoned cars are not unusual in tree rows and old over grown farm yards. Farmers will often will often park them in the trees so they are out of the way. But the Studebaker Larks were never as common as other cars and now are sought after by collectors. Someone would have noticed a 1960 Lark.

I believe that if the car had gone into the river either by accident or deliberately it is also likely that it would have turned up by now. Over the last 40 years the river has been very high but also very low. Things tend to turn up eventually.

The girls left the hospital at 9:30, which was a half hour after sunset. They were last seen near St Mary's Church which is on Highway 48 one mile east of Exit 31. That is about 15 miles from the hospital so it was rather dark by that time. They asked the boys for directions to the party at a gravel pit and started to follow the boys. However the boys missed their turn to the party and had to back track. By that time they lost sight of the girl's car.

There is a gravel pit directly across the road from the church however that pit looks rather new. And since it is across the road from the church I think it can be ruled out as the arty destination.

I need to make another try at getting into my old hard drive so I can access my research. As I recall Pamela had been acquainted with Lykken through church and both of the girls attended school with him. The Lykken farm is only about eight miles from the church, so it is very possible that he may have been in the area on his way to the party. I believe that it is quite plausible that if the girls had encountered Lykken after loosing sight of the boys they had been following, they may have be willing to follow him if he had offered to lead them to the party.

Lykken never became a suspect until decades after the girls vanished, and other than dragging the river, law enforcement did not conduct a very extensive search of the area. Therefore it is possible that he had plenty of time to dispose of the girls and vehicle. When LE did start searching the farm, more than 30 years after the girls had gone missing, they did target specific buildings and other areas on the farm. I do not know what leads may have given them reason to be interested in specific areas.
 
scriptgirl said:
What is vehicular enabled sexual homicide?
Click to expand...

That would be any situation where a vehicle was part of the Perp's M.O. What I had in mind was the type of sexual homicide where the Perp uses his vehicle to abduct his victim and then uses it to transport the body where it will either never be found or not found for a while.

While the automobile has ben uses in committing crimes, including sexual crimes, since they were invented, the phenomenon of theses murders took Law enforcement by surprise in the late 1960's. Ted Bundy was the first Serial Killer who got famous using this MO but he was hardly the first.

The increasing role of the automobile in American life certainly played a role in the increase of this type of crime but two additional changes that occurred in the late 1960's were major contributors: the widespread practice of hitch-hiking and the emergence of prostitution "strolls" where hookers would stand at a roadside and were picked up by Johns in their cars.
 
Eoanthropus Dawsoni said:
If the car still exists above ground it almost certainly would have been spotted by now. Hunters, particularly during deer and pheasant seasons, walk almost every square foot of wooded area. Even land that is posted "No Hunting, No Trespassing" will eventually be covered by someone who ignored or did not see the signs.

Abandoned cars are not unusual in tree rows and old over grown farm yards. Farmers will often will often park them in the trees so they are out of the way. But the Studebaker Larks were never as common as other cars and now are sought after by collectors. Someone would have noticed a 1960 Lark.

I believe that if the car had gone into the river either by accident or deliberately it is also likely that it would have turned up by now. Over the last 40 years the river has been very high but also very low. Things tend to turn up eventually.

The girls left the hospital at 9:30, which was a half hour after sunset. They were last seen near St Mary's Church which is on Highway 48 one mile east of Exit 31. That is about 15 miles from the hospital so it was rather dark by that time. They asked the boys for directions to the party at a gravel pit and started to follow the boys. However the boys missed their turn to the party and had to back track. By that time they lost sight of the girl's car.

There is a gravel pit directly across the road from the church however that pit looks rather new. And since it is across the road from the church I think it can be ruled out as the arty destination.

I need to make another try at getting into my old hard drive so I can access my research. As I recall Pamela had been acquainted with Lykken through church and both of the girls attended school with him. The Lykken farm is only about eight miles from the church, so it is very possible that he may have been in the area on his way to the party. I believe that it is quite plausible that if the girls had encountered Lykken after loosing sight of the boys they had been following, they may have be willing to follow him if he had offered to lead them to the party.

Lykken never became a suspect until decades after the girls vanished, and other than dragging the river, law enforcement did not conduct a very extensive search of the area. Therefore it is possible that he had plenty of time to dispose of the girls and vehicle. When LE did start searching the farm, more than 30 years after the girls had gone missing, they did target specific buildings and other areas on the farm. I do not know what leads may have given them reason to be interested in specific areas.
Click to expand...

Thank you for this... I'm familiar with the area... and you hit on many points.

I didn't realize the boys missed the turn... That is a crucial part.

I bet the girls ended up on Lykken's property after that.
 
tarabull said:
Car Connected To 1971 Missing Girls Case Found In Union County
September 23, 3013

http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail....g-girls-case-found-in-union-county/?id=153591
Click to expand...

There is a new story at this site. They are having trouble retrieving the car. It doesn't say how deep the creek is, but if the girls had gone off the road into the creek, that would explain why the boys couldn't find the girls when they turned around.

http://www.keloland.com/newsdetail....ty-connected-to-missing-girls-case/?id=153600
 
Authorities have found an old Studebaker believed to be related to the 1971 disappearance of two 17-year-old South Dakota girls, officials said Monday.

South Dakota Attorney General Marty Jackley and Union County Sheriff Dan Limoges said the car recovered from an embankment in Brule Creek is believed to be related to the disappearance of Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson. Jackley said the vehicle will be processed for forensic evidence. He said he could not comment on whether any remains were found inside the car.

The girls were last seen on May 29, 1971, driving a beige 1960 Studebaker Lark on their way to a party.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...heryl-Miller-vanished-1971.html#ixzz2fobJXGiE
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
Click to expand...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-Pam-Jackson-Cheryl-Miller-vanished-1971.html
 
We don't have all the information, but it sure sound like the girls just drove off the road into a body of water; it was an accident. The prosecution of Lykken was just a fishing expedition.
 
Were the items found on Lykken's farm ever proven to belong to the girls? If not then it does seem as if we can expect their remains to be found in the car.
 
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/201...lve-missing-persons-case-in-south-dakota?lite

In an eerie echo of events earlier this month in Oklahoma, skeletal remains were discovered Tuesday in the car of two teenage girls who disappeared 42 years ago, a day after it was found wheels-up in a South Dakota creek, authorities said.

Cheryl Miller and Pamella Jackson, both 17 and both from Vermillion, in southeastern South Dakota, disappeared May 29, 1971, as they were on their way to a party, according to records on file with the Justice Department's National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.

More at link.....
 
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