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In the early 1970s in Sonoma County, California, young women and girls were turning up dead homicide victims discarded by the killer or killers, as detectives put it, like trash. Many of the crimes were similar in both nature and victimology. Despite an extensive investigation, the killer or killers remain unidentified to this day, and loved ones of the victims are still awaiting justice. Among the victims, all of the women were last seen hitchhiking in and around Santa Rosa in Sonoma county in the North Bay area of California. The remains of all of the victims, except for one whose body has never been found, were discovered in rural areas. The victims were found nude, their bodies discarded near creek beds and at the bottom of steep embankments in an area northeast or east of the city. A single gold earring was often present at the crime scene. Police believe that the perpetrators of the Santa Rosa murders had interviewed potential victims before killing them. This is thought to mean they assessed their victims based on certain characteristics, behaviors or vulnerabilities before committing the crime. If their suspicions are true, this means that the killer or killers, very likely and even perhaps on more than one occasion, let some unsuspecting individual go free as they did not fit their preferred criteria for a suitable victim. One should consider themselves very lucky to fall short of this benchmark. This is true Crime Garage Sonoma county, located in the Bay Area of Northern California, is home to the prosperous and vibrant city of Santa Rosa. This is wine country, and God bless them for that. California's Wine Country Today, Sonoma county has more than 425 wineries, ranging from small family run operations to internationally acclaimed wine houses. And this great county is host to more than 8 million tourists per year. But back in the 1970s, the city of Santa Rosa was undergoing transformative change. This is thanks to urban redevelopment at the time, and the city was growing in terms of population as well, but it was still surrounded by classic small town America. In rural areas, the 1970s saw a significant rise in violent crime such as assault, rape and murder from prior decades. The decade also has the dubious distinction of being at the Forefront of the Golden Age of serial killers the term serial killer, most likely coined by former FBI agent and profiler Robert Ressler, first entered the conversation in 1974. During this time, the country saw an extraordinary surge in in cases involving offenders who committed multiple murders over extended periods of time while operating in the shadows and eluding capture. Notorious figures like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, the Zodiac Killer and the Son of Sam dominated headlines, creating a culture of terror that rippled through our society. The breakdown of the 1950s style traditional family unit, coupled with the economic turmoil caused by urbanization and the energy crisis, combined to create an environment where serial killers could operate more freely. Sophisticated forensic technology had yet to be invented and the absence of a system supporting coordination among the various law enforcement agencies and jurisdictions contributed to the inability to track and capture these serial offenders. Within society, the fear of violent crime became widespread, influencing pop culture and media alike. But here in Sonoma county, the bodies dumped in rural areas were piling up and adding up. They were finding bodies in creek beds and steep embankments. First it was the missing girls. Marlene Sterling, age 12 and Yvonne Weber, age 13. Two middle school friends who disappeared on February 4th, 1972 after leaving a local ice rink. But their remains weren't found until 10 months later in December of 1972 on Fran's Valley Road. Then there were the hitchhiker murders. Kim Wendy Allen, age 19, an art student who frequently hitchhiked. She was last seen on March 4th, 1972. Her body was found the next day in a creek bed and she had been sexually assaulted and strangled. Someone who never came forward, never identified, mailed the victim's missing checkbook from a post office in Kentfield. This 20 days after her body was recovered. The distance between these locations is approximately a 40 to 60 minute drive from where she was found to where the checkbook was mailed. And again that checkbook mailed in Kent Field, a location very close to where she worked at a grocery store in Larkspur. Jeanette Kamahale, age 20, a college student who was last seen hitchhiking on April 25, 1972, this near Highway 101. Her body has never been found. Lori Lee Cursa, age 13, a runaway who disappeared in November of 1972. Her remains were found in a ravine of a Calistoga road in December of 72. Remember this victim, Lori was found tied up in a very specific and unique way. Of these five victims, Jeanette of course presumed a victim as she's never been found. But after the two girls bodies were found 10 months later, the two missing middle school girls. It was then that police were pretty much convinced that the four confirmed murder victims, along with the missing hitchhiker, Jeanette Kamahele, were possibly and probably linked. Whether the murders were the result of a single perpetrator or multiple assailants, they could not confirm nor 100% agree. We talked a lot about the Press, Democrat newspaper that covered this case and these victims, their cases extensively over the months that the investigation dragged on. In one article in particular, Sonoma County Sheriff Don Stripik reiterated his belief that these unfortunate young women had in fact fallen prey to the same killer or killers, citing the similarities between the victims. All four of the found victims were found nude. Their bodies had been discovered at the bottom of steep embankments off of desolate country roads. Two of the girls were known to routinely hitchhike, and the other two were deemed likely to have accepted a ride. Clothing and jewelry known to be worn by the victims were not recovered at any of these crime scenes. But in the case of Kim, Maureen and Yvonne, that weird little detail of a single earring found at each of the scenes. While it was true that the cases of death varied, the determination of how these victims were killed, strangulation for Kim, a broken neck for Lori, and an undetermined manner of death for Marine and Yvonne. The sheriff says, you know what, that's not going to rule this out. Because what they're seeing here, Captain, is very similar crime scenes where the victims are found, and also very similar ways that the killer or killers are procuring their victims, finding their victims, going to the ice rink, offering a ride, perhaps hitchhiking. Those two. We did have the witness saying that maybe they were hitchhiking or seen hitchhiking later. I am of the belief that whoever that guy was that was talking with them at the ice rink was probably a person that was able to get them into a vehicle willingly and pretty easily. But then the other victims, known to have been hitchhikers and known that they were going to be hitchhiking on the day when they were last seen, while some of the members of law enforcement, including high ranking officials, felt that the cases were unrelated, you could argue this day and night, and I'm sure that they did. And the reason for that is there's simply not enough evidence, physical evidence, to go beyond just gut instinct to make a clear cut determination one way or another. Now we know that regardless if they were agreeing or not, the investigation ramped up, and as it should, they decided that a group of up to eight investigators Would be focusing on the. What was dubbed the hitchhiker murders, as well as sharing information with neighboring counties in an attempt to crack the case wide open. I don't know what their strategy was at the time. They were not openly discussing their strategy for this team, this task force, if you will, that was put together working these homicides. If it were me, and we've talked about this in some other cases, especially we go way back in the garage archives to when there was no arrest. Rex Herman, nobody knew who he was at the time. But when we were talking about the long island serial killer case, and there was so much debate as to what victims, what cases within that were in fact related to it or belonging to and having been killed by the same perpetrator, we said the same thing, or at least I did here, captain, was. I am of the belief that the. The best way and the most clear, concise way to avoid confusion would be to work these cases independently. And here you have a unique situation where, yeah, we have the five victims, one never found. Of the four remaining victims, two of them are found together. So, you know, they were last seen together. Their bodies are found together. Those cases are absolutely connected. Right? And I hate to say this, because, you know, I believe every victim deserves a voice. Every case should be worked to its fullest. But also, time is of the essence here, right? You are working under a deadline, and pun intended, I guess I'm not trying to be funny here, but the deadline is the longer your investigation drags on, the longer that you don't find this maniac or find the persons who are responsible, very likely you're going to end up with another dead girl. So you are under the gun. You are under the clock and behind the eight ball, my friend. So what. What you got to do is you got to start making strategic moves. My move would be to, other than information coming in to you, ignore the missing girl case. Sorry, but I. I have to give some direction to this investigation. I have eight investigators. I. I'm going to take six of them and put them in and pair them up, right? So I got three sets of two. I want two detectives working the missing girls case, Maureen and Yvonne, who were eventually found ten months later. I want two detectives working independently on Kim Allen's case, and I want two detectives working independently from the other cases. On Lori Lee curse's case. That leaves me with two detectives left. I want one detective who is responsible for taking in all of the tips, all of the secret witness tips that might come in, all the phone tips. That come in, people dropping by the sheriff's office to submit information. I want just one person fielding all of that. Because what happens is, if you get all these detectives, all eight of them in the same room, the phone is ringing off the hook. They're picking it up at Rand. Captain, it's your turn to answer the phone. I took the last one. You start really muddying the waters and. And adding unnecessary confusion and chaos to your investigation. I want one detective fielding all of the incoming information, and it is their job to hand off that information to the appropriate channels. What investigation does it belong to? The two missing girls? Does it belong to Kim's case? Does it belong to Lori's case? And if it belongs to the missing girl's case, take the information and give it to the captain of the homicide unit, who should be overseeing all of these detectives. And then my remaining detective will be in charge of constantly reaching out to the surrounding jurisdictions looking for similar cases, looking to talk to anybody that may have information that's coming from outside of our county lines. As the captain of the homicide unit, it's about delegation, coordination, and management. And again, I don't know how they were working it. That's how I would have worked it.