CA CA - Susan Nason, 8, Foster City, 22 Sep 1969

[The Hands Team]

CA- Susan Nason - 8 -Foster City - Murdered.

I have searched this site to the best of my ability for a thread dedicated to this cold case. The only mentions I have found regarding Susan Nason is through other missing or murdered childrens threads that share a similarity with the way or location Susan's case went down.

Here are the known facts, that I am aware of:

Susan was 8 years old, the day was Monday September 22, 1969. Susan had gone to school that day and returned home after. She asked her mother if she could return a pair of athletic shoes to a friend who lived close by, who left them at school that day. Her mother said yes, and never saw Susan alive again.
2 months later near a neighboring reservoir, Susans remains were found hidden under a mattress down a steep embankment from a scenic highway pulloff, next to the reservoir. The girls skeletal remains indicated that she had a fractured skull behind her right ear and wore rings on her fingers that looked damaged from defensive wounds. I would imagine there were numerous efforts to find the killer or killers in the area at the time, but nothing ever came out of it... Until 20 years later...

(This is where the factual element of this story gets a little skewed)

Childhood playmate of Susan Nason, Eileen Franklin, who was also 8 or 9 years old(at the time of the Susan abduction), is now 29 years old and has a family of her own. She sat in her living room watching her daughter play with a couple friends on the living room floor when her daughter turned to her. The look that was in her daughters eyes/face at that moment unearthed a frightening moment from her own childhood. She saw in her daughters face the scared face of her friend Susan Nason, moments before she saw her own father brutally murder Susan. This imagining or relapsed/resurfaced memory set off a chain of events that would end up with her father locked up in prison.

Eileen Franklin told her husband at the time the story how she rememebered it. George Franklin was a very demanding and verbally/physically abusive parent. On Monday Sept 22, 1969, George was driving Eileen and her sister, Janice, to school when they spotted Susan walking by herself along the side of the road. George pulled over the family VW van and invited Susan (who was known by the neighborhood and family as a playmate of Eileen) into the van for a ride to school. The same moment George asked his daughter Janice to exit the van to make room for Susan. Janice obliged and exited and walked to school. George then, according to Eileen, proceeded to drive around for several hours with the girls in the van, and when he finally pulled up to the school, informed the girls, or asked them maybe?, that they were going to play "hookie". Either way the girls did not exit the van and they were driven around to various parks and nature preserves.

The van stopped at one place in particular, near Half Moon Bay Road in the hills. The VW van was decked out with a mattress bed in the back. The girls played, jumping from seat to seat, and ended up back on the bed where George eventually joined into the play. At one point George held Susan down with her legs hanging off the end of the bed facing the front and started to dry hump her. He then proceeded to pull her dress up and rape Susan. While this was going on Eileen rolled up into a ball near bed and waited it out. After the act was finished the girls were let out of the van to run around.

Susan had been crying, and walked over to sit on a stump or rock or peak of some sort by a cluster of trees. Eileen joined her to sit and in the sunlight that shone from behind Susan she saw a silouette of a man coming up from behind her with a rock in his hands raised above his head. At that moment Susan must have seen the fear in Eileens eyes and got a scared look to herself (which Eileen then claimed she saw in her daughter 20 years later), and looked up just in time for the man to smash the rock into her skull. The second blow Susan must have been trying to defend herself instictively, as she threw her hands up, and Eileen noticed the silver ring in which her friend wore with a gemstone. Soon thereafter or during she realized that the man attacking Susan was her father George. George then ordered Eileen to help him lift the mattress from the back of the van. Eileen remembers stumbling around with it and being chastized by her father for it. She doesnt remember what George did with the mattress. But before they went home George pounced on Eileen and held her down threatening her life if she ever told anyone, and that noone would believe her anyway.

Eileen also remembers crying to her father that he cannot just leave Susan out there for she will become cold and scared at night. What happened from there is as the story goes. She was missing for around 2 months, and then she was found by a state nature worker down a steep hill underneath a mattress, badly decomposed. Dental records and her rings were what eventually identified her. 20 years went by until Eileen remembered and relayed this info to her husband, who then talked her into relaying that info to the authorities.

Eileen was questioned extensively about how she remembered, how she forgot, what made her remember. All she wanted to do was have justice served for Susan, so she started talking about being hypnotised in some therapy sessions she had (Turns out her abusive childhood led her to drugs at a young age and prostitution, and thusly all that led to bad relationships).

In the science world "repressed memory" was starting to become a big deal in the late 1980s, and was working its way into courts and trials. Her father George Franklin was arrested and charged with the murder of Susan Nason. The courts found him guilt of first degree murder and he was sent to prison.

Then sometime around 5 years later, the courts started to reject the notion of "repressed memory", and some unconstitutional talk went down and Georges conviction was reversed.

When George was arrested to begin with the authorities had found child and other items in his house. Janice and Eileen both said they had previously been sexually abused by their father. Georges own wife, even 10 years after the Susan Nason murder, asked her husband if he killed the little girl, because she must have suspected such.

But that is all I have, if george did do it, then we know who the killer is. If he didnt and Eileen just had a crazy vivid imagination, then Susans killer is still at large. If there is a thread about this already on WS I apologize, I just missed it in my searches.

Some links:

https://faculty.washington.edu/eloftus/Articles/Cosmo.html


http://www.newsweek.com/forgetting-remember-205474


http://people.com/archive/exhuming-the-horror-vol-36-no-17/

 

[kemo]

People associate the 1980's with "satanic panic" when otherwise reasonable people came to believe that their children lived in very real danger of sexual abuse and murder by networks of child molesting satanist. Existing with satanic panic was the belief in " recovered memories" where people came to be aware of "long forgotten/repressed memories" of horrible abuse, often at the hands of trusted adult males. Frequently these memories were "recovered" with the assistance of professional psychologists or psychiatrists. People, usually women, would seek treatment for depression or whatever and "discover" that their fathers had abused them or subjected them to satanic rituals involving many people.

Many people were accused, families broken up, careers ruined some people convicted based on these recovered memories. Most of the accused could not be charged due to statutes of limitations that applied to charges other than murder. Eventually states passed law changing the statues of limitations on rape and child abuse to begin when the victim "remembers" the crime.

Eventually the tide turned. Skepticism began to build and "victims" began coming forward refuting their recovered memories. Courts began rejecting that sort of evidence and several high profile convictions including the Nason case were overturned.

As I recall, what happened was several friends of Eileen came forward and reported that she had been telling them , for years, that she suspected her father has killed Susan but never mentioned having seen anything or was privy to any evidence he was guilty.

George Franklin was an abusive father and a creepy guy. He was a neighbor of Susan who could very well have killed her but there was absolutely no evidence linking him to the crime except his daughter's recovered memory.

 

[CastlesBurning]

Horgan: Murder of Susan Nason still resonates in Foster City

 

[imstilla.grandma]

The Bay Area case that rocked the region and set the “recovered memory” precedent across the nation is the subject of Showtime’s new docuseries “Buried,” which premieres on Oct. 10. The four episodes utilize trial clips and police interviews to show the battle between Eileen Franklin-Lipsker and her father, George Franklin. (As an aside for locals, it’s also fascinating to see so much footage of Bay Area suburbs in the 1960s.)

How a Bay Area daughter's 'recovered memory' led to a murder trial

 

[Brotherfudz]

Very well done documentary. Don’t believe that the father committed this crime, though not sure about the sexual abuse. Also feel like all her memories were fabricated.

 

[Richard]

Susan Nason, age 8, Murdered 22 September 1969


LINK:

Susan Nason Murder: How Did She Die? Who Killed Her?

Showtime’s ‘Buried’ is a documentary series that delves into the notion of repressed memories, better known as dissociative amnesia, and how that became the focal point of a 1969 homicide case in California. After all, the sudden disappearance and death of 8-year-old Susan Nason had baffled...

thecinemaholic.com

 

[Deleted member 306806]

CA- Susan Nason - 8 -Foster City - Murdered.

I have searched this site to the best of my ability for a thread dedicated to this cold case. The only mentions I have found regarding Susan Nason is through other missing or murdered childrens threads that share a similarity with the way or location Susan's case went down.

Here are the known facts, that I am aware of:

Susan was 8 years old, the day was Monday September 22, 1969. Susan had gone to school that day and returned home after. She asked her mother if she could return a pair of athletic shoes to a friend who lived close by, who left them at school that day. Her mother said yes, and never saw Susan alive again.
2 months later near a neighboring reservoir, Susans remains were found hidden under a mattress down a steep embankment from a scenic highway pulloff, next to the reservoir. The girls skeletal remains indicated that she had a fractured skull behind her right ear and wore rings on her fingers that looked damaged from defensive wounds. I would imagine there were numerous efforts to find the killer or killers in the area at the time, but nothing ever came out of it... Until 20 years later...

(This is where the factual element of this story gets a little skewed)

Childhood playmate of Susan Nason, Eileen Franklin, who was also 8 or 9 years old(at the time of the Susan abduction), is now 29 years old and has a family of her own. She sat in her living room watching her daughter play with a couple friends on the living room floor when her daughter turned to her. The look that was in her daughters eyes/face at that moment unearthed a frightening moment from her own childhood. She saw in her daughters face the scared face of her friend Susan Nason, moments before she saw her own father brutally murder Susan. This imagining or relapsed/resurfaced memory set off a chain of events that would end up with her father locked up in prison.

Eileen Franklin told her husband at the time the story how she rememebered it. George Franklin was a very demanding and verbally/physically abusive parent. On Monday Sept 22, 1969, George was driving Eileen and her sister, Janice, to school when they spotted Susan walking by herself along the side of the road. George pulled over the family VW van and invited Susan (who was known by the neighborhood and family as a playmate of Eileen) into the van for a ride to school. The same moment George asked his daughter Janice to exit the van to make room for Susan. Janice obliged and exited and walked to school. George then, according to Eileen, proceeded to drive around for several hours with the girls in the van, and when he finally pulled up to the school, informed the girls, or asked them maybe?, that they were going to play "hookie". Either way the girls did not exit the van and they were driven around to various parks and nature preserves.

The van stopped at one place in particular, near Half Moon Bay Road in the hills. The VW van was decked out with a mattress bed in the back. The girls played, jumping from seat to seat, and ended up back on the bed where George eventually joined into the play. At one point George held Susan down with her legs hanging off the end of the bed facing the front and started to dry hump her. He then proceeded to pull her dress up and rape Susan. While this was going on Eileen rolled up into a ball near bed and waited it out. After the act was finished the girls were let out of the van to run around.

Susan had been crying, and walked over to sit on a stump or rock or peak of some sort by a cluster of trees. Eileen joined her to sit and in the sunlight that shone from behind Susan she saw a silouette of a man coming up from behind her with a rock in his hands raised above his head. At that moment Susan must have seen the fear in Eileens eyes and got a scared look to herself (which Eileen then claimed she saw in her daughter 20 years later), and looked up just in time for the man to smash the rock into her skull. The second blow Susan must have been trying to defend herself instictively, as she threw her hands up, and Eileen noticed the silver ring in which her friend wore with a gemstone. Soon thereafter or during she realized that the man attacking Susan was her father George. George then ordered Eileen to help him lift the mattress from the back of the van. Eileen remembers stumbling around with it and being chastized by her father for it. She doesnt remember what George did with the mattress. But before they went home George pounced on Eileen and held her down threatening her life if she ever told anyone, and that noone would believe her anyway.

Eileen also remembers crying to her father that he cannot just leave Susan out there for she will become cold and scared at night. What happened from there is as the story goes. She was missing for around 2 months, and then she was found by a state nature worker down a steep hill underneath a mattress, badly decomposed. Dental records and her rings were what eventually identified her. 20 years went by until Eileen remembered and relayed this info to her husband, who then talked her into relaying that info to the authorities.

Eileen was questioned extensively about how she remembered, how she forgot, what made her remember. All she wanted to do was have justice served for Susan, so she started talking about being hypnotised in some therapy sessions she had (Turns out her abusive childhood led her to drugs at a young age and prostitution, and thusly all that led to bad relationships).

In the science world "repressed memory" was starting to become a big deal in the late 1980s, and was working its way into courts and trials. Her father George Franklin was arrested and charged with the murder of Susan Nason. The courts found him guilt of first degree murder and he was sent to prison.

Then sometime around 5 years later, the courts started to reject the notion of "repressed memory", and some unconstitutional talk went down and Georges conviction was reversed.

When George was arrested to begin with the authorities had found child *advertiser censored* and other items in his house. Janice and Eileen both said they had previously been sexually abused by their father. Georges own wife, even 10 years after the Susan Nason murder, asked her husband if he killed the little girl, because she must have suspected such.

But that is all I have, if george did do it, then we know who the killer is. If he didnt and Eileen just had a crazy vivid imagination, then Susans killer is still at large. If there is a thread about this already on WS I apologize, I just missed it in my searches.

Some links:

The Myth of Repressed Memory


Forgetting To Remember


Exhuming the Horror

The story is contradictory. First it says Susan went to school, came home, then asked her mother if she could return shoes to a friend who had left the shoes at school that day.

The friend claims her father picked Susan up while driving friend and her sister TO SCHOOL. Then they sister was kicked out to walk and the friends and Susan 'played hookey' while the dad drove them aroubd in the van.