CA CA - Speed Freak Killers (Shermantine talks; Herzog commits suicide)

[cocomod]

http://www.examiner.com/missing-per...ing-for-victims-of-speed-freak-serial-killers

Wesley Shermantine, 45, and his childhood and long-time friend Loren Herzog, also 45, killed for sport in the 1980s and 1990s. It was reported that they spent their childhood killing animals and exploring abandoned mines and wells in the area.

If it was "long-rumored" to hold a mass grave, as the LA Times reports, why was it not searched sooner? Why were families allowed to suffer for years wondering what happened to their loved ones, when the answers for some lie on that cattle ranch?

My question - if this was long suspected as a dumping ground, why did Shermantine get paid to divulge this information?

Padilla said.

Bostonherald.com reports that even when authorities had the maps in hand, Shermantine's directions weren't taken seriously and languished for months until Padilla took his own cadaver dogs to the San Andreas site and “got a lot of hits.”

Deputies were finally compelled to search the sites after some remains found in 2003 were identified last year but not connected to the "Speed Freak" killings until last month.

 

[JDB]

Cocomod IIRC He agreed to tell them where they buried the bodies only if paid $33k. The $33k is going for $15K to restution of victims headstons for his parents and the balance so he can buy from the prison comminsary (CANDY BARS) IMHO if that is what it took to give closure to some of these familes so be it.

 

[stillwatersc]

I'll also say-- I had ties to the area in San Andreas, Calaveras County, in the 1970's. It's one of my favorite places on earth... It just blows my mind that these two were carrying on their thrill killing at the same time Charles Ng and Leonard Lake had their torture and murder bunker fairly close by. Let's just say, it wouldn't be a surprise if these four were in the same bar/grocery store/driving the same stretch of road at the same time. Now, wouldn't that have been an interesting piece of serendipity?

Too bad they didn't all kill each other.

 

[Valleyboy]

Cocomod IIRC He agreed to tell them where they buried the bodies only if paid $33k. The $33k is going for $15K to restution of victims headstons for his parents and the balance so he can buy from the prison comminsary (CANDY BARS) IMHO if that is what it took to give closure to some of these familes so be it.

That was cheap,
Clifford Olson was paid $100,000.00 for the same thing.

 

[JDB]

http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/americas/6421438/Speed-Freak-Killers-boasted-ability
Looks like they boasted right after high school how they could make people disappear.

 

[JDB]

http://www.kron4.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=3108
As of this afternoon they have now recover over 700 bones along with numerous personal. Items.

 

[Kimster]

My mom used to live in Jackson in the 80s and I used to drive up and down Highway 49 by myself. Creeps me out to think about it now.

It's such beautiful country up there. To think of this evil lurking around this historical mining area just chills me to the bone.

 

[JoeFromLB]

http://www.kron4.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=3108
As of this afternoon they have now recover over 700 bones along with numerous personal. Items.

How many victims are we talking about? 30? 40? More??

Shermantine was sentenced to death in 2001. As this is California, it will be another 30 years, at least, before he's executed. He'll probably die of natural causes before that.

The death penalty in this state is an incredibly expensive joke.

 

[nursebeeme]

So how did Padilla, best known for bailing Casey Anthony out of a Florida jail in 2008 so she could search for her missing daughter, Caylee, get a death-row inmate to talk?
It took years of driving a wedge between the Speed Freak Killers, who already spent years blaming each other for the crimes, says the self-proclaimed Godfather of Bail. By phone and mail, Padilla would badger Shermantine about his raw deal. Herzog was about to be a free man, while Shermantine still sat on death row. Once he loosened him up, Padilla found out what really angered Shermantine, 45.
Whenever someone sent the death-row inmate money, it would go toward paying off his victims' families. Padilla made an offer: Draw maps showing where victims' remains were located in exchange for the payoff of an $18,000 restitution tab. The first positively identified body would wipe away the debt, and Shermantine requested Padilla pay an additional $15,000 by buying his mother and father headstones for their grave sites, and getting him a laptop, television and spending cash so he could buy candy bars from the prison commissary.
A California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation spokeswoman declined to comment on the deal.
Padilla does not expect to get any reward money.
"I don't care and I don't think I will," he said.
Maps lead to bodies
A week after Herzog's suicide, Shermantine mailed Padilla the first map.

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_19965802

much more at link (my hat is off to LP)

 

[sarx]

Following this one closely and hoping that there is closer for some families that have had to wait far too long.

http://sacramento.cbslocal.com/2012...d-as-speed-freak-killer-victim-chevy-wheeler/

 

[mysteriew]

I hadn't heard that LP was involved in this until today. And I do think that this is a much better use of his talents. Somehow he was able to work some combination of noteriety, cash and playing off each other to get the locations of some remains. And for that I thank him. Sooo many familes, maybe getting at least some answers maybe their loved ones remains. So Congrats Leonard, this one was a win.

 

[mysteriew]

The mother of Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, a 1985 murder victim of convicted mass killer Wesley Shermantine, said she was notified that remains found Friday at a burial site in Calaveras County were those of her daughter.

snip....Last week other remains from Calaveras County were tentatively identified as Cyndi Vanderheiden, another of Shermantine's victims.

snip...Those sifting efforts revealed about 700 bones

snip...
People who think their loved ones may have fallen victim to Shermantine or Herzog, before their arrests in 1998 and 1999, can call toll-free (855) 222-1599 or email coldcase@sjgov.org with name and phone number, the missing person's name and case number.

http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_19969317

 

[mysteriew]

The childhood friends killed for the first time less than three months after their high school graduation in 1984. Then they seemingly killed with impunity for the next 15 years, with one man making barroom boasts about their ability to make people disappear.

snip...John Vanderheiden, Cyndi's father, owns a Clement bar the deadly duo frequented. Vanderheiden said Shermantine boasted loudly on several occasions that he was a killer.

Vanderheiden said he chalked it up to drunken nonsense - until his daughter disappeared.

http://www.thirdage.com/news/serial-killer-victims-search-resumes-in-california_02-14-2012

 

[mysteriew]

'Speed Freak Killers' search yields 1K bone pieces

Authorities say the search for possible victims of the "Speed Freak Killers" at an abandoned well has yielded about 1,000 bone fragments so far.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/15/state/n085458S80.DTL

 

[Mom who cares]

The human body has 206 bones. FYI

 

[JDB]

Just found this. I hope this does not stop hime from telling more

a tersely worded letter dated Feb. 4, Shermantine said information The Record made public about a potential crime has put his life on death row in peril.

Shermantine had sent a missing-person flier for 9-year-old Michaela Joy Garecht, who was abducted in 1988 from Hayward. The flier includes a sketch of her abductor, which resembles a mug shot of Herzog.

Shermantine wrote that Herzog had relatives in Castro Valley, near Hayward. Herzog at the time was 22.

"I want you to look at this sketch, then at Herzog's photo," he wrote. "Then the timing and Herzog's age. It all fits."

Publication of that information provided by Shermantine - implicating Herzog - has turned other prisoners against him, he said.

"Now, you have inmates wanting to kill me," Shermantine wrote. "It's bad enough I've admitted covering up two of Herzog's victims, but don't go inventing (stuff)."

http://www.recordnet.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120215/A_NEWS/202150318

Plenty more at Link

 

[bessie]

It occurrred to me the other day while reading through various articles that LP would garner the spotlight, so I made a point to remember the name of the Stockton Record reporter who has played an important role in this effort. Besides LE investigators, Scott Smith has also corresponded with the SFK for many years.

Shermantine has been communicating with Padilla for years, as well as writing letters to Stockton Record reporter Scott Smith. In a recent letter to Smith, Shermantine drew a map he vowed would lead investigators to Herzog's other victims.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/14/4261853/hunt-for-human-bones-to-resume.html

Investigators, using specially trained dogs, began their search Thursday along after Stockton Record reporter Scott Smith tipped them off with information and a detailed map of where victims' remains were buried. Smith had been in contact with Shermantine for years and during an exchange of letters the convicted killer confessed to where he and childhood friend Loren Herzog hid human remains.

http://abcnews.go.com/US/remains-found-speed-freak-killers-victims/story?id=15563835#.Tzv747SLWAg

Garcia said sheriff's detectives got their break from a reporter at The (Stockton) Record newspaper, not from the bounty hunters.

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_19965802

Of course, Lenny's the one with the deep pockets. I admit that I'm grateful to him for stepping up because it's certain that Shermantine wasn't going to give the information away for free. In the end all that matters is bringing the victims home to their families.

 

[LinasK]

Associated Press
Posted: 02/15/2012 06:52:03 AM PST
CALAVERAS COUNTY -- The mother of Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, a 1985 murder victim of convicted mass killer Wesley Shermantine, said she was notified that remains found Friday at a burial site in Calaveras County were those of her daughter.
"It's really bittersweet," said Paula Wheeler, who said she received confirmation at 12:45 p.m. Tuesday that her daughter's dental records match a skull recovered at the site.
San Joaquin County sheriff's officials confirmed later that day that a forensic dentist had made the preliminary identification of Chevy Wheeler.<snip>
Paula Wheeler, who said San Joaquin County Sheriff Steve Moore called to confirm that the remains in Calaveras were those of her daughter, said the news barely eased more than 26 years of suffering. She said she pretty much knew it was her daughter because a lavender sweat shirt -- which she was last seen wearing -- was found with the remains on Friday.
"We finally got her," she said in a phone interview from her Crossville, Tenn., home. Then she added with a sigh, "But it was her."
Chevy Wheeler, a 16-year-old attending Franklin High School in Stockton, skipped classes after her mother dropped her off one day in 1985 and was never seen again.
Authorities say she vanished after she was seen in the company of Shermantine and his friend Loren Herzog.<snip>
Paula Wheeler reflected how Shermantine taunted her at his sentencing that her daughter would never be found.
"He looked at me straight dead in the eye after it was all over ... and he said, 'My parents will know where I'm at when I'm gone, but you'll never know where Chevy is," Wheeler said. "He is evil. And he wouldn't have admitted it if it hadn't been for the money." more at link: http://www.contracostatimes.com/news/ci_19969318

 

[mysteriew]

The human body has 206 bones. FYI

Thanks I had been wondering that but hadn't looked it up yet.

 

[mysteriew]

It occurrred to me the other day while reading through various articles that LP would garner the spotlight, so I made a point to remember the name of the Stockton Record reporter who has played an important role in this effort. Besides LE investigators, Scott Smith has also corresponded with the SFK for many years.

http://www.sacbee.com/2012/02/14/4261853/hunt-for-human-bones-to-resume.html

http://abcnews.go.com/US/remains-found-speed-freak-killers-victims/story?id=15563835#.Tzv747SLWAg

http://www.mercurynews.com/top-stories/ci_19965802

Of course, Lenny's the one with the deep pockets. I admit that I'm grateful to him for stepping up because it's certain that Shermantine wasn't going to give the information away for free. In the end all that matters is bringing the victims home to their families.

Thanks for posting this Bessie. I am so glad that LP's efforts have yielded fruit. But I wasn't aware that it was the reporter who actually provided the tip. Thank You Scott Smith for your continued work with Shermantine and for actually letting LE know when you got worthwhile information. You have helped so many many families.