![]()
By M.P. Pellicer | Stranger Than Fiction Stories
On February 4, 1972, the first two victims of what became known as the Hitchhiker Murders disappeared. Their names were Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber. They were both 12 years old and attended Herbert Slater Middle School. They were last seen around 9 PM at the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. ![]()
-By 1973, a total of seven, unsolved murders took place in the North Bay area of California. They involved female hitchhikers that were found nude and dumped in rural areas, where it is believed they were thrown from the killer's vehicle.
Sterling and Weber were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, and only skeletal remains were recovered 10 months later down a steep embankment. The cause of death could not be determined. The girls were nude, and each were only wearing one earring. Later on this established a belief the killer was keeping jewelry as trophies, or souvenirs of his killings. A month to the day of Yvonne and Maureen's disappearance, Kim Allen, age 19 was seen hitchhiking near the entrance to Highway 101. Unlike the first two victims, Kim was found the following day in a creek bed off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa. She had been raped, and semen was recovered from the body. A single gold loop earring was found at the site. She had superficial cuts on her chest and rope burns on her wrists and ankles, where she had been hogtied, forcing her to strangle to death slowly over the span of 30 minutes. There was no doubt that she was killed at the hands of a sexual sadist. ![]()
Markings at the top of the embankment indicated the perpetrator likely fell or slipped while throwing Kim's body down into the creek bed. Two men who had given her a ride earlier that day were ruled out as suspects after passing a polygraph test.
On November 11, 1972 Lori Kursa was shopping at the U-Save with her mother. She was only 13 years old, however she had a history as a runaway. She was seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa, where she was visiting friends, probably after hitching a ride, which she was known to do. On December 14, 1972 in a ravine northeast of Rincon Valley her frozen remains were found. She had not been raped, and it was estimated she had died about two weeks prior to her body being found. The cause of death was a broken neck and hemorrhage of the spinal cord. Authorities believe she was kidnapped, stripped of her clothing, and that she opened the passenger door of the speeding vehicle in an attempt to escape her captor or captors. She fell, jumped or was pushed out, and broke her neck in the 30-foot fall into the ravine. For whatever reason her kidnapper did not return for her, possibly believing the fall had killed her. The broken neck would have prevented Kursa from moving, but it would have taken some time for her to die from the injury. She still had wire loops in her earlobes, but a portion of the earring had been removed. ![]()
Later a witness came forward to say that some time at the beginning of December, he had seen a girl fitting Kursa's description being forced into the back of a van. The driver was a Caucasian man with an afro hairstyle.
Carolyn Davis, age 14 was a runaway who also made a habit of hitchhiking. She left her home on February, 1973. In 2022, her sister was interviewed and she said that Carolyn had stayed with her after she ran away. Carolyn claimed she had witnessed a double murder in Shasta County, and that she was afraid for her life. Despite only being 14 years old she hitchhiked to Illinois, and returned four months later. She was last seen by her grandmother who dropped her off on July 15, 1973 outside the Garberville post office. She was seen hitchhiking near the southbound ramp of Highway 101. She said she was returning to her boyfriend in Illinois, but was stopping off first to see friends in Modesto, California. ![]()
Carolyn's body was discovered on July 31, just four feet from where the bodies of Sterling and Weber had been found in December 1972. Initially she was unidentified, and her sister who read about the body being found, forwarded her dental records to the police who made the match.
An investigator on the case said a witchcraft symbol meaning "carrier of spirits" was found by Carolyn's body. It was described as "a rectangle connected to a square, with bars running alongside" made of sticks or twigs. The symbol is supposed to date back to medieval England and suggested a tie to the Zodiac Killer. The symbol was found on the roadway above where her body was found. After Davis' murder her sister worked as a hotel maid at the California Motel in Anderson. There she found a map in a room that she knew belonged to her sister, and had been in her possession when she left Garberville. It had Davis' handwriting on it, and her sister turned it over to police. ![]()
Carolyn Davis was killed with strychnine poison about two weeks before being found. It could not be established if she had been raped, and like the other victims it appeared she had been thrown down a hillside right off the road. Besides the strychnine, she had no other drugs in her system.
Theresa Smith Walsh, age 23, went missing only 3 days before Christmas 1973. She was hitchhiking to Garberville to see her family for the holidays, often thumbing a ride on Highway 101. Separated from her husband, she had left her two-year-old son with her mother Goldie Smith. Within a week her body was found by kayakers in Mark West Creek, where it was partially submerged under a log. This was only less than 100 yards from where Lori Kursa was found. She had been raped and with clothesline rope, her thumbs had been bound together, then her wrists, who were then tied to her thighs. Her ankles had also been tied up and a length of rope had been tied to the ankle bindings, run up her back, looped about her neck, and pulled snug with her heels against her buttocks. The pain of being cinched up must have been excruciating, however stretching her legs to relieve the strain tightened the noose around her throat. As she inevitably tired and relaxed her legs, she slowly and agonizingly throttled herself to death. This same MO was found in several of the victims. It was estimated she had been dead about a week by the time she was found. ![]()
Not all the victims were found right away. On July 2, 1979 skeletal remains were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road, about 100 yards from where the body of Lori Kursa was found in 1972. Unlike Lori, but like other victims dumped elsewhere she had been hogtied, and one of her arms had been broken. Lengths of cord used in Venetian blinds were found around one ankle bone, and then around the neck bones where it had been wound a few times. Her body was stuffed into a duffel bag.
It was estimated she was a teenager or in her early twenties, and was killed between 1972 and 1979. She wore contact lenses and had dark red or brown hair, and was about 5 feet tall. She has never been identified. Initially it was thought she was Jeannette Kamahele, but comparison of dental records confirmed she was not. ![]()
POSSIBLE VICTIMS
Jeannette Kamahele was last seen on April 25, 1972, hitchhiking on the ramp to Highway 101. She was a student at Santa Rosa Junior College, and after that date she's never been seen, dead or alive. A friend saw her get into a brown Chevy pickup truck outfitted with a homemade wooden camper and driven by a white, young male with an afro hairstyle. When the Jane Doe was found in July, 1979, a comparison of dental records confirmed it was not Jeanette. Her parents are now deceased, but she had a brother who was still hoping to find out what happened to his sister. Coincidentally in the murder of Arliss Perry on Halloween, 1974 on the campus of Stanford University, a witness described a weird ritual inside Stanford Memorial Church. where a white male was wearing an Afro wig. Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble were next door neighbors and good friends. They disappeared in mid-December 1978. A friend said they had planned to hitchhike in order to attend a party in Santa Rosa. Seven months later unidentified, skeletal remains were found in Mendocino County about 100 miles northwest of where they were last seen. ![]()
The victims were nude and both had been bound with duct tapes. The remains were stuffed inside plastic bags, but since they were buried in shallow graves, animals had scavenged the bodies. Police believed they had been murdered elsewhere, and then dumped in the rural area.
Even though 90% of the skeletal remains were recovered, forensic evidence initially determined that one victim was male, the other female, and that they were siblings which could account why the remains were not identified for so many years. In 2000, they were exhumed from a cement crypt at the Russian River Cemetery in Ukiah, California. By then there was some doubt as to the theory they were siblings, and that one was male. It was not until 2014, when a second exhumation was performed that a better idea was formed as to their likeness, and that they were both female. In 2015, with the help of DNA evidence their identity was confirmed. Francine Trimble's parents were deceased, and Kerry Graham's were still alive and able to find out what happened to their daughter 36 years after her disappearance. Their murder remains unsolved. There is a theory that Francine and Kerry were the victims of serial killers Gerald and Charlene Gallego who were active from 1978 to 1980, and if so they would be victims number 5 and 6. These killers were mostly active in Sacramento, and murdered at least eleven victims, often keeping them as sex slaves. ![]()
In February, 1975 the FBI issued a report, where they indicated that 14 murders committed between 1972 and 1974 were the handiwork of the same perpetrator. These were in addition to the six that had already been discovered by 1975. They found connections between the disposal of the bodies, and the belief that the killer took souvenirs from his victims. The killer had shifted his hunting ground to the San Francisco area.
On May 29, 1973, Rosa Vasquez, 20, was discovered dead at the entrance to the Golden Gate Park. She had been strangled and her nude body thrown from a nearby road to land under some bushes. She was employed at the Letterman General Hospital on the Presidio as a keypunch operator. Two weeks later on June 10, Yvonne Quilantang, 15 was found strangled in a vacant lot in the Bayview district. She was 7 months pregnant. ![]()
Less than a month later on July 2, 1973, Angela Thomas, 16 was found nude on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School. She had been smothered to death and a locket was recovered near her body. She was originally from Belton, Texas and had only been in the area 3 weeks, where she was visiting friends.
This new killing ground proved to be fertile for this serial killer. On July 12, Nancy Gidley, 24, was staying at a Rodeway Inn where it was believed she was abducted from. Her nude, strangled body was found behind the George Washington High School gymnasium. She had only one fish-shaped gold earring hanging from her ear. ![]()
Originally from Idaho, she had served 4 years in the Air Force. She told her family she was going to San Francisco to attend a friend's wedding as the maid of honor, and to write for the San Francisco Chronicle, both stories which later on turned out to be false.
These murders coincided with the murder of young women thumbing a ride off Highway 101. It seemed this killer had not totally abandoned the allure of picking up hitchhikers. ![]()
On July 22, 1973, the partially clad body of 23-year-old Nancy Feusi was found by a fisherman in a remote area of Redding. She had been stabbed 29 times in the chest, stomach and arms. She was the mother of five, and had been separated from her husband for seven months. The sheriff believed she had been killed elsewhere and then dumped in the area she had been found in.
Laboratory tests revealed she had sexual intercourse within 24 hours of her death, but the sheriff did not believe that figured in her murder. She was last seen by her roommate when she left for a party. The police determined she attended a dance in Plumber's Hall across from the California State University, then left a 2 a.m. It's believed she might have hitchhiked a ride to North Highlands. This was 3 hours before her body was found by a fisherman. Her case remains unsolved. Nancy Feusi's children were left in the care of their father Gerald Marshall Feusi, who was abusive, often withholding food from the children as a form of punishment, and his daughter Angela ran away from home when she was 16 with a carnival worker. Throughout the years she became involved in criminal activity and drugs, and her children were placed in foster care. After being released from jail her daughter was returned to her, but two sons told the judge they preferred to stay in the foster care system instead of returning to the care of their abusive mother. In 2011, Angela Darlene Feusi McAnulty was convicted of torturing, beating and starving to death her 15-year-old daughter Jeanette Marie Maples. McAnulty became the second woman ever sentenced to die in Oregon and the first since the 1984 reinstatement of the death penalty. Also charged were Richard McNaulty, her husband who was sentenced to 25 years to life in prison. In 2019, Judge J. Burdette Pratt ruled that Angela McAnulty should get a new trial because her attorneys failed to adequately represent her during her trial. In 2020, she was sentenced to life behind bars without the possibility of parole. The death of all these victims had a ripple effect among their families, not only causing heartbreak but creating human tragedy beyond the point of their murders. ![]()
On November 4, 1973, the body of Laura O'Dell, 21 was found in some bushes behind a boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park. She was nude and her hands were tied behind her back. It appeared the cause of death was strangulation or head injuries, she had also been raped. She had been missing for two days.
According to police, the same man murdered Brenda Merchant, at Marysville, by stabbing her to death on February 1, 1974, She was found in the living room of her apartment, clad only in a nightgown. She had been stabbed more than 30 times, and drowned in a pool of her own blood. Her infant son slept undisturbed in his room, and the only clue the police had was a bloody handprint left on the screen door of the apartment. The last victim was 14-year-old Donna Braun who was found strangled floating in the Salinas River near Monterey. Her nude body was discovered by a crop dusting pilot who was flying overhead. Several theories and killers have been proposed throughout the years. There was an occult theory because of the phase of the moon they were killed on, or that they were dumped on the east side of the highway and that the killer was familiar with the occult. The Zodiac killer and Ted Bundy were considered as the killers. ![]()
One person who's been looked at as the killer, and who did have a direct link to one of the victims was Frederic "Fred" Manalli, age 41. He was an army veteran and he worked as a creative writing instructor at Santa Rosa Junior College and San Quentin Prison. He was killed in a head on collision when his van veered into oncoming traffic on Highway 12 west of Santa Rosa in August 1976.
In those queer twists of fate that sometimes explains why certain killers disappear from the murder map, if he indeed he was the killer, was the way he died and which provided the clue to his secret life as a sadomasochistic pervert. Sources say that after the accident the sheriff found drawings in the back of the van of women in sadomasochistic positions, listing them according to their sexual preference. One of them was Kim Wendy Allen, who was found dead in 1972. Two other students were also depicted in these drawings. Fred also drew himself as well, in drag, and captioned himself as "Freda" Manalli. He kept a lock of hair in his wallet, but it did not match Kim Allen’s. A backpack was also found which was connected to one of the victims. His former wife Suzanne supposedly had found other drawings, where he was depicted as "Freda" and other young women in bondage situations. Manalli lived in the area during the years the murders were committed, he was in his 30s, making him strong enough to handle abducting his victims and then dumping their bodies. He presented a clean cut appearance which made it easy for the girls to trust him. As to why the authorities did not pursue the theory of him being responsible for the murders is still unknown. Perhaps all they had was his reputation as being "weird", and sketches of him dressed as a woman. The connection between the S&M flavor of his drawings, and the way some of the victims were found is undeniable though. The problem is that the actual drawings or even copies of them have never surfaced, and some claim they were destroyed in 1979. The existence of these drawings was only relayed via someone who used to work at the coroner's office during the time Manalli was killed. Will the truth ever be known? We know there was DNA evidence recovered from some of the victims. Perhaps when least expected as in the case of the Golden State Killer who was captured April 2018, and whose real name is Joseph James DeAngelo, the identity of this murderer will be revealed. ![]()
NORTH COAST SERIAL KILLER
There is an ongoing investigation into the suspicious deaths of women along Highway 101. Two women, Alyssa Sawdey and Amber Dillon, were found dead under within a few days of each other in January 2022. The bodies of both women were discovered in remote areas near the highway. The community believes two other women who died in late 2021, are perhaps the victims of a serial killer. The police deny a connection between the deaths, and that they were victims of a serial killer. The word "suspcious" has been used by all the police departments investigating these different cases. On December 18, 2021 Cynthia Crane was found floating in a Mays Canyon creek. Two days later Crystal McCarthy, 33, was discovered 10 days after her disappearance under the Third Street Bridge near downtown Napa. All four women were young and attractive, and were found dead within 90 miles of each other in the span on a month.
0 Comments
Your comment will be posted after it is approved.
Leave a Reply. |
Stranger Than Fiction StoriesM.P. PellicerAuthor, Narrator and Producer StrangerThanFiction.NewsArchives
February 2025
Categories
All
|