CA CA - Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders, 7 girls/young women, 1972-1973

[burblestein]

Unfortunately, the Calistoga and Franz Valley sites were burned over by the Tubbs fire, as be seen by the map in this article: http://theava.com/archives/74963

 

[burblestein]

As near as I can tell by squinching my eyes at the map above, Kim Wendy Allen's drop site south of Santa Rosa has also been burned over.

 

[Mountain Mama]

Unfortunately when I heard that Tubbs fire started up Calistoga Road I had a bad feeling about the Franz Valley site. I don't know if arson has been ruled out..

 

[Pettibon Junction]

There are several striking features of the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker cases that link them. First is the similarity between the murderer's victims. His named victims were known hitchhikers and/or were hitchhiking when they became victims.Victims being considered in this analysis are:

Maureen Sterling (age 12) and Yvonne Lisa Weber (13)
Kim Wendy Allen (19)
Lori Lee Kursa (13)
Carolyn Nadine Davis (14)
Theresa Diane Walsh (23)
Calistoga Jane Doe (about 19)
Kerry Graham (15) and Francine Trimble(14)
* Jeannette Kamahele (19): not considered due to paucity of information

All of the Santa Rosa Hitchhike victims were Caucasian or Hispanic females; none were African-American or Asian. Eight of his victims were teenage girls. A ninth was 23 years old, but appeared much younger. All nine victims were physically unprepossessing, being typically 5 feet 6 inches tall or shorter, and weighing about 125 pounds or less. None of the victims had been murdered where they were found; the actual murder location(s) are unknown. The victims' bodies were pretty well cleansed of potential clues.

In those cases where cause of death could be determined, it was gratuitously cruel. In three cases, the victim was hogtied in such fashion that they throttled themselves to death when excruciating pain forced them to relax their legs. In another case, the victim was poisoned with strychnine—a viciously painful toxin. In the fifth case known, the victim was flung down an embankment with a broken neck and left to slowly die in the cold. His disposal method of flinging dead or dying girls down embankments indicates he was a physically powerful man. At one disposal site, he slipped over the edge of the bank while throwing a body. This leads me to believe he did not have a partner, based on the following line of reasoning. If one of a pair of murderers had slipped in mid-fling, the victim would have been pitched in a diagonal direction instead of directly downhill. As it was, the victim was found directly downhill from the slip marks. Thus, one assailant.

It becomes readily apparent that the murderer has a mortal grudge against teenage girls. I would surmise that he was pretty roundly rejected in the middle school and high school courting games and did not take it lightly. The cause of his rejection may have been readily apparent, such as a severe case of acne, birthmark, or other facial deformation. Otherwise, or in addition, he just may have seemed too “creepy” for the girls to want to date. At any rate, he developed a deadly rage against adolescent females because of rejection. This rejection may have lasted past his teens, given the common young male tendency to “date down” in age by two to five years.

Working off this thesis, the UNSUB is unlikely to have completed high school. Lack of education thus limits him to blue collar work and blue collar expectations. He is probably single and/or only tangentially involved with a significant other, who will be younger than he and will be subservient to him. If not living with family, he probably lives alone rather than with roommate(s). He may have grown facial hair to obscure his facial deformity. He will live an orderly and well planned life.

Because the Santa Rosa dump sites were so obscure, it seems likely that the perpetrator is very familiar with the Santa Rosa area. He is likely to live locally, as serial murderers tend to operate in environments well-known to them. He may have had a service, maintenance, or delivery job that took him into these lesser traveled roads. Such a job would have supplied him not only with an anonymous commercial vehicle for cover, but may have given him access to a garage or warehouse as a murder site. In addition to a company vehicle, such as a van or truck, he probably owned personal vehicles. If so, that vehicle was probably an older model, due to his finances, but kept in good shape and appearance. Expect it to be a “macho” vehicle, such as a sport pickup, muscle car, or full-size pickup truck.

I also note that two of the victim discoveries were by motorcyclists. These obscure roads used for his body dumps seem to be favorites for motorcycle excursions. Might the killer also be a biker?

The two victims dumped outside Willits were found down a bank in a location consistent with the Santa Rosa victim discoveries. The use of a turnout on a major highway would seem to mark a difference in the killer's modus operandi, until the state of Mendocino County's back roads is considered. “Outsiders” on Mendocino scarce back roads are usually noted, and distrusted, by the locals because of widespread marijuana cultivators watching for LE. (My personal experience doing census work there will verify that.)

The locations where the bodies were found are strikingly consistent. In all but one case, the victims were dumped down an embankment on an isolated road. The ninth victim was found in a creek downstream from such embankments. In all cases, the approach to any turnout used to discard the girls was along a winding road; at night, oncoming vehicle headlights would announce an intruder long before it arrived at the killer's chosen turnout. At any rate, the killer seems to have taken only the time necessary to hurl the dead or dying girls down the bank; there was no posing or other activity detected. He did not discard their clothing or other goods with them.

One peculiarity of the victims' remains was the presence/absence of earrings. Both pairs of victims were found with an earring on site. So was one of the lone victims. LE has previously posited that the earrings were left to signify the femininity of the victims. I have a complementary point of view.

It is a common signature for a serial killer to collect souvenirs from his victims. Instead of concentrating on the found earrings, let's look at the missing ones. In the cases above, comprising five victims, one of a pair of earrings is missing. In another case, the victim was found with wire loops but no earrings. A seventh victim had pierced ears but no earrings were found. An eighth was found with a hole in her right ear that may have held an earring. In only one case, there was no mention of earrings. To me, that points to a killer who collects earrings, and/or possibly other jewelry or feminine personal items, as trophies.

Given that serial killers almost always choose victims of their own race, the UNSUB will be a Caucasian male. He is very much a cunning and organized lust killer, and a sadistic one, as shown by his brutal methods of killing. His removal of his victims' clothing removes a host of clues, as well as humiliating the deceased and showing his contempt for them. He is very much a methodical and organized killer. His only error known at present is the dumping of pairs of victims together; splitting those pairs would have complicated the investigation still further.

The murderer is a control freak, as shown by his elaborate binding of his victims. Serial killers usually have collections; his stash will skew strongly or entirely toward bondage and discipline. Don't be surprised if there is a Nazi motif in the collection. The UNSUB will be contemptuous of women in his personal and social life. Expect him to have a background of sexual offenses against minor girls.

As his known offenses began in 1972, the UNSUB will be in his late 60s or older if he is still living. He may be incarcerated, given his high probability of having sexually offended against teenage girls.


Any additions, corrections, or extensions of this offender profile are most welcome. This is strictly an amateur attempt, and could use professional input.

I agree with most of this, except for the omission of Jeannette. She was most certainly a victim of the same killer or killers.

I would also add to your profile that the killer was likely a large, powerfully-built man, whose version of masculinity led him to pursue something that would keep him in good enough shape to carry and toss his lifeless victims into the ravines where they were found, most likely weight-lifting. (There was no sign, as I recall, that the bodies were dragged.)

Finally, he likely owned his home or had a residence with a private residence. The bondage and torture of the victims would necessitate someplace relatively private/isolated. He was a sadist and so his interest was in live women rather than dead ones. Living women make noise when you torture them and even though strangulation was the cause of death for some of the victims, the killer did not strictly adhere to this MO and may have employed other means that would have been similarly prolonged.

 

[burblestein]

Those are some astute observations, Pettibon, and help round out my description.

It's not that I have omitted Jeannette as a possible victim. It's just that there is so little info on her, nothing can be learned for the profile by considering her. If someone is caught for the others, then he will probably account for Jeannette.

 

[Claireishere]

Totally new to this case. Does anyone know if Lawrence Singleton has been ruled out? The profile sounds a lot like him.

 

[Mountain Mama]

Totally new to this case. Does anyone know if Lawrence Singleton has been ruled out? The profile sounds a lot like him.

Hey Claireishere Welcome to this thread. I had not heard of Lawrence, so I did a quick search on him and I think you are wise to consider him. There are definitely some commonalities to the crimes he committed and the SR Hitchhiker murders. He threw a woman named Mary off a 30 foot cliff after cutting her arms off, in ModestoCA, in 1978. She lived.

According to wikipedia, regarding the now deceased Singleton:
"On September 29, 1978, Singleton picked up 15-year-old Mary Vincent of Las Vegas while she was hitchhiking in Berkeley, California, raped her, and then severed both her forearms with a hatchet and threw her off a 30-foot cliff outside of Modesto, California, leaving her naked and near death. She managed to pull herself back up the cliff and alert a passerby, who took her to a hospital. By the time of Singleton's arrest, Vincent wore prosthetic arms."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Singleton

 

[Claireishere]

Hey Claireishere Welcome to this thread. I had not heard of Lawrence, so I did a quick search on him and I think you are wise to consider him. There are definitely some commonalities to the crimes he committed and the SR Hitchhiker murders. He threw a woman named Mary off a 30 foot cliff after cutting her arms off, in ModestoCA, in 1978. She lived.

According to wikipedia, regarding the now deceased Singleton:
"On September 29, 1978, Singleton picked up 15-year-old Mary Vincent of Las Vegas while she was hitchhiking in Berkeley, California, raped her, and then severed both her forearms with a hatchet and threw her off a 30-foot cliff outside of Modesto, California, leaving her naked and near death. She managed to pull herself back up the cliff and alert a passerby, who took her to a hospital. By the time of Singleton's arrest, Vincent wore prosthetic arms."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lawrence_Singleton

How do we submit him for consideration with this case?

 

[burblestein]

There have been a number of other notorious serial killers proposed as the Santa Rosa Killer. Usually they are excluded because they were jailed at the time of these murders. So why not start to see if Singleton was loose at the time of the murders?

And--not to rain on your parade--how would Singleton have known about these obscure body drop sites?

 

[burblestein]

I might add that the Zodiac Killer, Ted Bundy, and Edmund Kemper have been considered by LE and excluded.

 

[4SAM]

What material was in the professors car?

 

[Pettibon Junction]

What material was in the professors car?

I don’t know about his car but a self-portrait of him (in drag, no less) with victim Kim Wendy Allen were found among his possessions after his death. His name was Frederic Manalli and there’s more out there about him online than I can accurately summarize off the top of my head there.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Claireishere]

How do we submit him for consideration with this case?

There have been a number of other notorious serial killers proposed as the Santa Rosa Killer. Usually they are excluded because they were jailed at the time of these murders. So why not start to see if Singleton was loose at the time of the murders?

I know he was loose but what his location was then and how he would have known the locations I’m not sure. However I do know one of his previous victims was a teen female hitchiker that he took into a desolate area in California. So he knew enough to find that location and he is suspected to have murdered way before her since He was 50 at that Attack.

 

[burblestein]

Well, Claire, now it's clear you should be searching the internet and your local library for information on Singleton. Where was he when the murders occurred? Is his modus operandi the same as the Santa Rosa Killer's?

I must admit, Singleton was vicious enough to have committed these crimes. Why not see if you can put him either in or out of the case? I must point out, that the killer apparently had an intimate knowledge of Santa Rosa's environs. Did Singleton?

You probably want to check NamUS. Good luck in your quest.

 

[Claireishere]

Well, Claire, now it's clear you should be searching the internet and your local library for information on Singleton. Where was he when the murders occurred? Is his modus operandi the same as the Santa Rosa Killer's?

I must admit, Singleton was vicious enough to have committed these crimes. Why not see if you can put him either in or out of the case? I must point out, that the killer apparently had an intimate knowledge of Santa Rosa's environs. Did Singleton?

You probably want to check NamUS. Good luck in your quest.

I actively have been doing just that. However I've always been under the impression part of websleuths is suggestions being put out and everyone working together to assist in ruling someone out. Which is why I suggested here in hopes of someone having more information Also I live in lower Alabama my local library isn't exactly a wealth of information on someone who never lived near the area.

 

[Claireishere]

Also I now realize that I failed to add that he did live an hour and a half away from Santa Rosa when his first known Attack occurred. So I do not think being just that’s short of a distance away would make it overly difficult for him to know the area.

 

[Mountain Mama]

Claireishere, we are definitely all here to help each other to hopefully bring answers to families and find out who committed which crimes. I wonder if you could share which town he lived in that was 1.5 hrs from Santa Rosa? Would it happen to have been Berkeley? I think I read that the teen he abducted, tortured and left for dead was a hitchhiker he picked up in Berkeley.

 

[Mountain Mama]

There is some good information available on the internet on Lawrence Singleton. He was 50 in 1978, making him roughly 44 years old around the time the SR murders first began. He later was charged with killing a prostitute who he stabbed a dozen times with a boning knife. He only spent 8 years in jail for his attempted murder of the teen who thumbed the ride from him in 1978 in Berkeley, CA, Mary Vincent. Anyone interested should check out this article about the awful implications of his attack on Mary.

Mary is a survivor. She told one high school audience she spoke to "It doesn't matter what you think. You're not 10 feet tall and bulletproof. I used to think that. . . . But look what happened to me. Because there's always somebody who can take you down if you don't stay aware".

http://articles.latimes.com/1997-02-25/news/ls-32048_1_mary-vincent

 

[Mountain Mama]

This article describes many details of his style of crime, possibly his M.O.:

http://familyarrested.com/when-your-parent-is-a-monster/

It begins "(Lawrence) Singleton picked up Mary Vincent in his blue van on Sept. 29, 1978, as the teenager was hitchhiking from Berkeley to Los Angeles. She’d come from home in Las Vegas to visit an uncle and was setting out on her own to see California. Singleton told her he had a daughter, (name deleted) just her age and offered to drive her to Interstate 5, the fastest route south." The rest of the article is very graphic.

 

[Claireishere]

Actually all I knew was the county that he lived in as afar as California goes.Now reading further it was north east San Francisco. Which put him 54 miles from that area. I know he was a merchant marine and he was in WW2. So he moved around a lot. Unfortunately getting clarity on military records is not easy. Police have long suspected he had murdered before. Also I do not believe that you suddenly just wake up at 50 and decide that day you’re going to rape a teenager,chop off her arms, and toss her off a cliff. Also why did the Hitchiker murders stop? The guy either moved, died, or was arrested. Is there a clear timeline on when the murders began an ended?