Identified! CA - Emigrant Gap, WhtFem 640UFCA, 25-35, near I-80 in snowbank, 17 December 1977 *id'd March 2026 - Melinda “Pip” Beardsley*

[johnnyhands]

Her body was found nearly a year to the day of her last known contact. Her body showed signs of recent weight loss. I wonder if someone was holding her captive and dumped her body on the anniversary that the killer first made contact with her. Either that or maybe she ended up homeless and vulnerable to predators. I wonder if her fingerprints where taken when she was brought in for drunk driving. Maybe her Post mortem prints never made it to the PD in Reno.

I hope her child now knows that their mom didn't intentionally abandon them and that her family finds answers peace and justice. Rest peacefully Pip.

It's possible she was held captive, but I'm hoping Moxxy Investigation and her family found out further information beyond that DUI arrest a year before. Maybe she was known to be somewhere in that missing year. Did she ever show up for her DUI court date? Was she found guilty? Do the Washaw County court even have any records of any of legal proceedings from 1976-77 anymore?

 

[Aegon_the_Conqueror]

Strip away the Zodiac suspicions, I'm not wed to them, what do you think about the same-killer notion for Melinda and Donna?

Plausible, but that's it. It could've been the same person, but I need more than just location to consider it likely. Otherwise, it could just be a coincidence... I-80 is the only interstate in the area, and something about that spot might've made it seem like a prime location.

 

[Aegon_the_Conqueror]

"2) No evidence of gunshot wounds."

Did Cecelia Shepard have gunshot wounds?

No, and that one did cross my mind, but it was usually a gun, and there's a good chance that they would've been evidence of that with the remains that were found. Not likely with a knife, when the only remains are the skull. Zodiac never transported or tried to hide his victims, either (in at least one case he even called the cops), he just left them there. He didn't care if they were found, he probably even wanted them to be.

 

[Aegon_the_Conqueror]

Some of the things you're claiming as facts have been debunked. Here's a link to a private investigator who's looked into the original police and family-hired investigators reports. Note it's from a page that consider the Lass case a Joseph Deangelo-possible, but still worth reading if you want to know more about the Lass case:

Casefiles - Donna Lass

Just as Judith Hakari's case faded from the public eye, another young nurse vanished.

sites.google.com

There was a podcast episode about Donna put out this week that gave details of the case obtained froma FOIA request; I'm not sure if I can say the name here, because I've seen where naming them has led to posts being removed (it isn't hard to find, though).

In the link, it says that the call saying that there was a death in her family never happened and that this was due to miscommunication. It doesn't provide evidence of this, though, or a clarification from police. I've heard LE correct false narratives (even if they came from their department) many times, so it shouldn't have been a big deal.

 

[snooptroop88]

The Zodiac theory has been pretty much dropped for Lass. Her family never bought it either. It very well could have been Zodiac that wrote it, but more likely he was taunting the cops. Several reasons:
1) Wasn't Zodiac's MO to take women on dates.
2) No evidence of gunshot wounds.
3) When a call was made to Lass' work by someone claiming to be her landlord, saying that there was a death in her family (there was no death, other than her), she hadn't yet been reported as missing. Zodiac wouldn't have known who his victim was yet, let alone who her landlord was.
4) If she was on a date (which is where she was headed), her companion would've been shot, too. Zodiac would've gleefully taken credit for both. But he didn't mention a second person.
5) Had her date lived, he wouldn't have been secretive (especially if he went to the hospital).
6) The only specific of the crime scene that was mentioned in the postcard was that there there were trees.

Melinda Beardsley's body was found within 1000 feet of the remains of Donna Lass (potential Zodiac victim) on 12-17-1977, and estimated to have been dead two to six days.

Given the near proximity, could it have been the same killer?

I'm thinking, if the Zodiac "Peak Through the Pines" postcard was, indeed, sent from the Donna Lass killer in 1971 (six months after she disappeared), perhaps the placing of the body was another taunt from the killer - again, if it was the same person.

If the Lass killer went through the trouble of making the postcard, he might have grown impatient that Donna had not yet been found - and wanted to give them a challenge/clue to see if they could recover Donna nearby, which they didn't for another nine years - after she was found by Pacific Gas & Electric crew surveying the area (8-5-1986.)

Here's the 12-26-75 Placer Unsolved + Sierra Unidentified interactive map, so you can see how close they were to each other. There are other unidentifieds in that same general area (use the +/- to zoom in/out, scroll down to bottom of the sidebar to uncheck the red-colored Victimology lines, if desired):

Shared Unsolved + Unidentified Sierra - Google My Maps

Click through to see all of the locations and events in time order. NOTE: The EAR cases in Citrus Heights are included because several of the Placer cases involve Greenback Lane. Foothill EAR attack also just off Greenback, and near Placer locations.

www.google.com

I don't think we know enough about Zodiac to know what his MO truly was. We have his wacked out letters and evidence for certain horrifying murders he's known to have committed. That does not mean that we have the complete picture, we don't even know his true identity as of yet. And unfortunately, a lot of what we do know is based on what he himself has decided he wanted us to know. It may not be the best strategy to attempt to rule Zodiac out for certain cases based on the little that's known of him, he has managed to hide his actual identity for decades, and he may be hiding more murders as well. He essentially told LE he planned to adapt his MO. He certainly may have stalked and planned for some of his victims. He may actually have interacted extensively with a victim before he murdered, we just don't know. All of this is just my opinion, though, and agreed Zodiac couldn't possibly be the perp in the many (many) cases out there where someone's trying to draw a connection. Not sure on this set of circumstances as of yet, though, I can see how there's some speculation.

The relatively close distance between these victims-- it's absolutely of interest. It's just incredibly weird, but jmo. This victim's weight loss... That may have already been a factor before the crime. They'd noted, too, this Doe (when she was a Doe) walked a lot, that's explained by the fact that Melinda was reported to be a waitress-- plenty of walking and lots of calluses. And perhaps no vehicle of her own at various points. She may have been not only walking but hitchhiking.

A witness claimed to see two men in a Toyota Celica apparently placing the body there where it was found Who were these two men with the Toyota Celica? They have never been identified. Was it their vehicle, or the victim's vehicle?

RIP Melinda.

 

[johnnyhands]

I don't think we know enough about Zodiac to know what his MO truly was. We have his wacked out letters and evidence for certain horrifying murders he's known to have committed. That does not mean that we have the complete picture, we don't even know his true identity as of yet. And unfortunately, a lot of what we do know is based on what he himself has decided he wanted us to know. It may not be the best strategy to attempt to rule Zodiac out for certain cases based on the little that's known of him, he has managed to hide his actual identity for decades, and he may be hiding more murders as well. He essentially told LE he planned to adapt his MO. He certainly may have stalked and planned for some of his victims. He may actually have interacted extensively with a victim before he murdered, we just don't know. All of this is just my opinion, though, and agreed Zodiac couldn't possibly be the perp in the many (many) cases out there where someone's trying to draw a connection. Not sure on this set of circumstances as of yet, though, I can see how there's some speculation.

The relatively close distance between these victims-- it's absolutely of interest. It's just incredibly weird, but jmo. This victim's weight loss... That may have already been a factor before the crime. They'd noted, too, this Doe (when she was a Doe) walked a lot, that's explained by the fact that Melinda was reported to be a waitress-- plenty of walking and lots of calluses. And perhaps no vehicle of her own at various points. She may have been not only walking but hitchhiking.

A witness claimed to see two men in a Toyota Celica apparently placing the body there where it was found Who were these two men with the Toyota Celica? They have never been identified. Was it their vehicle, or the victim's vehicle?

RIP Melinda.

" And perhaps no vehicle of her own at various points. She may have been not only walking but hitchhiking."

Yes, was the DUI vehicle owned by her? No record of that either?

What are the odds the FBI could get involved given this seems to be an inter-state crime (though may be it isn't if Melinda was in California already?). I'm not thinking a massive investigation (not much to go on), just a perusal of any federal records on a judges order (IRS?). Am I talking crazy?

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The tragedy began on Dec. 17, 1977, when a woman’s body was found in a snowbank in Emigrant Gap, a historic region in the Sierra Nevada mountains that was once traversed by pioneers. While investigators later determined that she’d been strangled to death, they were unable to identify the victim, officials said.

In 1978, the sheriff’s office dispersed about 300 copies of the woman’s fingerprints to law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. and Canada, to no avail. In the early 2000s, authorities revisited the case and exhumed the victim’s remains in 2011 as new technology emerged

After years of attempts, the cold case investigations team at the sheriff’s office was finally able to create a DNA profile that could assist with investigative genetic genealogy in 2025.


That same year, the agency began working with Moxxy Forensic Investigations, a nonprofit organization that helps families search for missing loved ones through forensic research.

Beardsley’s family had contacted the Doe Network to help find her, which referred her to the nonprofit.

“Moxxy’s Missing Persons Task Force conducted extensive research into Melinda Beardsley’s life and the circumstances surrounding her disappearance,” officials said. “During that research, investigators identified a potential connection between Beardsley and the Emigrant Gap Jane Doe.”

https://people.com/woman-found-dead-in-snowbank-identified-as-missing-mom-50-years-later-11933030