The Curse of No. 28

by M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
Presently stories abound about haunted houses, castles, cars, collector items etc., but the real question lies in how did this come about. Take the story about the murder at the Keddie Cabins.

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Victims, clockwise: Sue Sharp, John Sharp, Dana Wingate, and Tina Sharp

Is there really a way to truly release the agony, torment and terror of incidents that produced a haunting, whether intelligent or residual?
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Sheila Sharp, 14, stepped from normal to a world of madness on the morning of April 12, 1981 when she returned to Cabin No. 28 at Keddie Resort where she lived with her mother and four siblings. Her mother began renting the cabin at the Keddie Resort in 1980, after separating from her husband John Sharp. She left Connecticut and moved to the area to be with her brother Don.

Inside Sheila found three victims bound with duct tape and electrical wire, and they were attacked with knives and a claw hammer. Walls were splattered with blood, the furniture was overturned, and her mother Glenna "Sue" Sharp, her brother John 16, and his friend Dana Wingate, 17, had been butchered to the point they were mostly unrecognizable. Sue was found naked from the waist down, gagged with her own underwear and tape, and posed in a sexually suggestive position, while her wrists and ankles were tied together. 

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Two bloody knives and one hammer were found at the scene.

Sheila's sister sister Tina, 13, had disappeared, and she found her two younger brothers Greg and Rick, and their friend Justin Smartt in a bedroom. They were all unhurt. They claimed they had slept through the entire event.

After the discovery Sheila Sharp ran to the neighboring cabin where the Seabolt family lived. She had slept at their house the previous night.

​The Sharps lived in the two-story back of Cabin 28. John Sharp’s bedroom was in the unfinished basement of the home. There’s also evidence that Tina Sharp was taken out of the house by way of the steep stairs leading from the kitchen. Jamie Seabolt went into No. 28 through the back door. He hoped to find survivors, but this possibly contaminated evidence. He helped the three boys get out through the bedroom windows in order to hide the scene from them.

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Original composite sketches of two suspects based on testimony from Justin Smartt, who claimed to have witnessed the crimes

No. 28 was one of 33 cabins, and despite the proximity of each other, no other resident in the resort heard anything unusual. 

Occupants in a nearby cabin reported hearing what they thought was a muffled scream some time after 1 a.m., but they never investigated it.

Justin Smartt later reported seeing two men in the house that night—one with a mustache and long hair, the other clean-shaven with short hair, both wearing glasses, and one carrying a hammer. He also described a violent altercation between the men and John and Dana, during which Tina was allegedly taken out the back door.​ He gave contradictory information, but enough for an untrained artist to draw a sketch of two suspects. 

It's never been explained why Harlan Embry an amateur was used to produce the sketches, when professional forensic artists from the FBI and the Justice Department were available.

Despite this information, and the use of canines, suspects who should have been covered in blood after what they did, were not found.

Rumors and motives abounded from dangerous neighbors, a jealous wife, devil worshipers, a drug connection or just bad luck which resulted in a mistaken identity.

Why had this family been targeted? Some thought the killers had followed John Sharp and Dana Wingate when they hitchhiked from Quincy, California the same day. Others thought perhaps the murderers were already inside the house when they arrived.

Police found there was no sign of forced entry, and the phone lines had been cut. The drapes had been pulled shut, and they could not understand how the murderers were able to spend ten hours inside the walls of No. 28 without anyone noting what was happening inside.

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Living room interior of Cabin 28; Keddie crime scene c.1981

Keddie Resort was established in 1910, and attracted visitors throughout 70 years for the scenic beauty of the place and the food served there.

​In 1984, three years after the horrific crime the property was put up for sale for $1.8 million, but potential buyers recognized what the owner already did, which was that no one wanted to spend time in a place where a family could be savaged inside their own cabin.​
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In June, 1984, bones and a mandible were found at Camp Eighteen in Feather Falls, about 50 miles from the Keddie Resort. Later a cranium was recovered which allowed a positive identification to be made with Tina Sharp through dental records. No cause of death could be determined

Soon after, the Butte County Sheriff's Office received a call from an unidentified male caller telling them what they had found was Tina Sharp's remains. For some unknown reason this call was not documented in the case, a recording of the call was found in 2013 by a newly assigned deputy at the bottom of an evidence box.

One of the main suspects was Martin "Marty" Smartt who died in 2000. He happened to be a friend of Sue's ex-husband Jim Sharp, and had a history of violence, and was staying in the resort the night of the murders.

In a 2008 documentary, his wife Marilyn said she believed Marty and his friend Severin "Bo" Boubede had a hand in the murder. They'd gone out the night of the murder to a local bar and returned a little after 1 a.m. She went to sleep, and the men returned to the bar. She woke up a little after 2 a.m. to find them burning something inside the wood stove. Marilyn also claimed the Marty "hated Johnny Sharp with a passion." Marilyn Smartt was seen in the area around the time of the crime, and had been involved in a fight with Sue a few weeks before the murders. She died in 2009.

In the documentary Sheriff Doug Thomas said that he interviewed Martin Smartt, and that he passed a polygraph examination. This it turned out was a lie. Sam Lister who administered the test filed a false report stating that Marty Smartt had passed it, when in truth he'd failed on certain key questions. He filed an alternative report to the California DOJ, but other officials including Sheriff Thomas were provided with the true results. ​

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The two-story back of Cabin 28 where the Sharps once lived. (Source - Plumas County Sheriff’s Office)

Soon after the murders, Marty Smartt left town and went up to Oregon. He sent his wife a letter which he ended with a rather telling passage, "I've paid the price of your love and now I've bought it with four people's lives." This letter like the anonymous call was "overlooked" and never admitted as evidence.

Bo Boubede who allegedly had ties to organized crime, returned to Chicago and died November, 1988. His own brother Alvin Boubede was a criminal, who suffered an ignominious death. In 1959, the 35-year-old, ex-convict dropped dead in the criminal courts where he was being tried for armed robbery. He and his nephew John Boubede were captured in October, 1958 shortly after they committed a $14,000 robbery. Alvin Boubede's attorney warned him that 30 to 50  years was the best the prosecution would agree to. Boubede remarked to his attorney he was "scared to death." This was followed by: "I've got a pain in my chest" and he collapsed outside the bull pen door. He was pronounced dead by a doctor a few minutes later. He had already served two prison terms for robbery.

In March, 2016, a hammer was recovered at the Keddie Pond. It matched the description of the one Marty Smartt said he lost. It was matched using DNA from Justin Smartt.

A mental health counselor who worked with Martin Smartt alleged his client admitted to the murder of Sue and Tina, but denied anything having to do with the boys. Tina had been killed since she was a witness.

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Martin Smartt DL

In April, 2018, DNA evidence taken from a piece of tape at the crime scene matched that of Justin Smartt.

Within a few years of the murders, squatters and vagabonds moved into the once vibrant Keddie Cabins, and the owner renovated it, but No. 28 dubbed the "Murder House" by locals remained desolate and boarded up. Reports of moans, slamming doors and shadowy figures fueled its reputation as a haunted house.

The owner's stepdaughter described seeing the word "no" carved on the kitchen door with a pitchfork next to it. She returned in 30 minutes and everything had disappeared.

Prior to Sue Sharp moving to No. 28 with her children, it was occupied by Plumas County’s then-sheriff, Sylvester Douglas Thomas.

In 2004, the cabin was demolished. A psychic from Campbell said that even though the structure was razed, the haunting would continue until some type of spiritual ceremony was performed to ease the torment of the spirits there, who perhaps did not understand what happened to them.

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Cook shot at Keddie Resort c.1936

The events at No. 28 served as the basis for the 2008 film, The Strangers.

​Despite its idyllic reputation, violence visited Keddie Resort in the past. In 1936, Hugh Garrett, a night cook was shot through the jaw and neck by an unknown man. He was dressed in a yellow slicker, gray hat and mask. Despite being identified as a robber, after shooting the cook he left without attempting to take the cash from the register.

​Two years before A.C. Berry was critically injured when robbers busted into the lunch room, and made the waitresses hand over the cash in the register.

A $5,000 reward is offered for information leading to an arrest and prosecution of the Keddie Cabin murders, and tips can be submitted anonymously via text to 847411 (TIP411) with the keyword "SW".

Long after witnesses and family have passed away, and stories in newspapers or books are buried and forgotten, those that stumble upon places like the Keddie Resort, specifically where No. 28 once stood, will wonder how it became cursed. And this unfortunate story provides an explanation.

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