I've been reading this forum for months, but have never posted. However, I knew Linda slightly, and have always wondered about her disappearance. I bought some of her artwork in the late 70's/early 80's. She painted model horses, and was well known and respected in that crowd. I still have three pieces that she painted.
Anyway, here are some thoughts on her disappearance. This is coming from the perspective that Linda did NOT have anything to do with killing her husband. Why? Because they were very much in love, according to people close to them. Because she loved her cats, and would never have left them in jeopardy. Because the whole story is inconsistent, if you look at it closely.
First, Linda and John told the family that they were going for a job interview on the East Coast. As far as I can tell, they never told the family about any 'secret mission' or a trip to Europe *before they left*. All of that came later, and probably came through Chichester.
Linda had dropped her cats off at the boarding kennel. Chichester was supposed to take them to the airport, but they never arrived. Somewhere in between these two events, I believe that Chichester killed Linda. He may have made a move on her... he has been accused of inappropriate touching. She would have fought back. She found him "creepy", which is what she told her best friend. He probably killed her right after she came back from taking the cats, which you would do the day of, or the day before, leaving on the flight. I think that he either buried her on the property, or took her elsewhere. If he dumped her in the wilderness around San Marino, she has long since been eaten by animals or possibly found and never identified. No one would have been looking for her, really.
Either John caught him with Linda's body, or grew suspicious when Linda couldn't be found. Or, Chichester decided that he had to kill John before he guessed the truth. So, in the few hours remaining before their flight was to leave, he killed John. I believe that John was second to be killed, because Chichester had time to dismember and bury John. He would not have risked that if Linda was still alive. Dismemberment is messy and time consuming. John didn't call around to look for Linda... if he had, her best friend would have known about it, she would be a logical one to call. So I believe that he killed John as soon as he could, probably when John returned from running errands in advance of their trip.
John and Linda would have had a lot of cash on hand. In those days, you didn't count on visiting an ATM. They were planning to be gone a week or two, probably renting a car, hotel, etc. Chichester also may have known how to access their money, they very possibly kept some in the house. Were any checks cashed after they were supposed to have left on their trip? He had plenty of time to search the house for money, and assets, and also to forge their handwriting on a check or two. I believe that he quickly mastered Linda's handwriting, a skill that he used later to send the postcards.
The postcards are interesting because they don't make sense. If Linda had written them, months later, she would have known that her husband was not with her... either she thought that he was dead, or Chichester convinced her that John was on some secret assignment. If Linda did not write them, it was because she was dead too... she never left the country. I believe that Chichester fled the country, watched the news... and wrote the postcards to keep the family quiet for a while longer, once he figured out that the bodies hadn't been found. He wrote the postcards to the few addresses that he grabbed... Didi's, and the bookstore. The bookstore, because he probably held on to a pay stub of Linda's. Didi, because he knew that she would be looking for John. Linda didn't write a postcard to her best friend, nor did she call anyone. She would have called... she had the money. She would have arranged to have her cats picked up, or cared for.
The people who knew her sort of guessed/assumed that she and John had either been arrested for spying in France, or had been put into the witness protection program. But the foundation for that belief was Didi's assertion that they had gone on a 'secret mission'.. and that came from Chichester. If anyone has record of the family or friends hearing about this 'secret mission' from Linda or John directly, please post the link. I think that it circulated after they disappeared, not before.
The lady from the bookstore says that she received two enquiries about Linda's employment from two different employers. This is really strange... why would this happen, if Linda were alive and hiding? Would she use her own name to apply for a job, if she had killed her husband, or knew of it? NO, of course not. Would Chichester bother to send in applications for her, to throw people off the trail? Not likely. It seems the most possible that Chichester had a woman, at some point, pose as Linda. Maybe another woman that he married, who was also hiding from the law. Or Chichester called the bookstore himself, as a way to find out whether Linda was being sought. If her employer knew that the police were looking for her, she would have told the caller that Linda was missing, and asked for more details. Then he would have known that he needed to disappear again. He did call the mother, Didi, on a regular basis. Didi was the one that he was most afraid of. When she died, a few years later, still thinking that John and Linda were on a mission, Chichester was safe. Was that when he felt free to sell the truck?
Just some thoughts, about a mystery that I have had in the back of my mind since I was 25 years old. Linda was almost an icon for us... she was on Dr. Demento as "Laughing Linda", she was a good artist, she hung out with Harlan Ellison's familiars. She loved her cats as if they were her children. She loved her new husband, and thought that their tenant was creepy. And he certainly is.
Joanie