Casino Nurse Philippines

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ? Theories on the San Francisco killings ? Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73 Summary:The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rodeway Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator.There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled) The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman Vehicle: Tire went flat On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked Cindy was abducted on January 20, 1970.After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford Vehicle: Headlights Went Out January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged. On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada) Vehicle: Found Untouched A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner Abduction method: Unclear On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham Vehicle: Ran out of Gas On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber Abduction method: Hitchhiking On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen Abduction method: Hitchhiking On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello Vehicle: Tire was punctured On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa, Abduction method: Hitch-hiking On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez Abduction Method: Unclear On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang Abduction Method: Unclear Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas Abduction Method: Unclear Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley Abduction Method: Unclear Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis Abduction method: Hitchhiking Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville. Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi Abduction Method: Unclear Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell Abduction method: Unclear Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh Abduction method: Hitch-hiking On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant Abduction method: Unclear Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun Abduction method: Unclear On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos Vehicle: Ran out of gas On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson Abduction method: Unclear Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old.The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon) On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana) On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information: http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read) https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
*reuploaded with new information
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer:
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rode-way Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on January 20, 1970.After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old. The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer]
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rodeway Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
- Bonus Oregon and Montana murders Lovers lane Murder's (at end)
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on January 20, 1970.After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old.The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
​
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer:
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rode-way Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on *January 20, 1970.*After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old. The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
*reuploaded with new information
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer:
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rode-way Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
Bonus Nevada, Oregon, and Montana story
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on *January 20, 1970.*After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old. The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

Is it possible the Santa Rosa slasher is connected to numerous other vehicle related killings across California. From the late 60s to early 70s young women were killed in the California Bay Area, Valley, and Los Angeles areas. These murders all featured either a act of sabotage or an abduction after car trouble. This trend then stops. In 1972 Girls hitchhiking in California's Santa Rosa area were viciously murdered. In 1973 killings of teenage and college aged San Francisco girls took place in the span of 47 days. Could the Zodiac killings of the late 1960s and early 1970s have taught killers to not leave a pattern. Changing location and technique allowed for the killer to go uncaptured. Thoughts if these could be connected ? (Links Below)
Theories on the Santa Rosa Slasher ?
Theories on the San Francisco killings ?
Theories on the Zodiac and did the Zodiac ever travel into Oregon or Nevada ?
List of murders Below:
The Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Killer
Summary: A series of at least seven murders in the North Bay, California area, the Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders occurred between 1972 and 1973. The female victims of these murders were all found nude in rural areas near steep embankments, or in creek beds along a roadside. Originally, it was thought that there were only seven victims in the case, who ranged in ages from 12 to approximately 23 years old. However, the FBI released a report in 1975 claiming that there were a series of fourteen connected homicides, which included the original seven Santa Rosa Hitchhiker murders. The cause of death for victims was typically asphyxiation due to being strangled with a cord of some nature. Many possible murder suspects were proposed, ranging from The Zodiac Killer to Ted Bundy, but no one was ever prosecuted, and the case has gone cold in Sonoma County.
Zodiac Killer]
Summary: https://www.biography.com/crime-figure/zodiac-killer
Theories are vast. Highly unlikely but seems to fit a pattern of changing serial killer techniques. These change as others begin. None were captured. Did the Zodiac ever travel to Oregon ?
The San Francisco Murders of ‘73
Summary: The body of Rosa Vasquez (20) was discovered close to the Arguello boulevard entrance of the Golden Gate Park on May 29th 1973. She had been strangled and thrown from the nearby road. Twelve days later, a pregnant Yvonne Quilantang (15), from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries. Nancy Patricia Gidley (24) was last seen alive on Thursday July 12th 1973 leaving the Rodeway Inn at 895 Geary Street, San Francisco. Her body was found on Sunday 15th July 1973, nude and strangled in the grounds of George Washington High School in the Richmond area, although it was believed she was murdered elsewhere. Finally, Angela Thomas (16), a resident of Belton, Texas, had traveled to San Francisco for a brief stay. After a day out in Hayward she visited friends in the Presidio district- but neither of her friends were at home and she was last seen walking away at 9.00 pm on Sunday July 1st 1973. She was found naked and smothered the following day in the grounds of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School.
Almost three years earlier Donna Ann Lass disappeared from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970 after finishing her shift as a nurse. A few months earlier in June she had moved to South Lake Tahoe, from San Francisco, where she had previously been employed as a nurse at the Letterman General Hospital in the Presidio, near the Paul Stine murder scene. Curiously Rosa Vasquez was also employed at the Letterman General Hospital as a keypunch operator. There is no evidence to suggest that any of these four victims were Zodiac crimes, although there is reason enough, to consider these four murders may have been committed by a single perpetrator, due to numerous similarities, within such a short time frame.
Some researchers believe that Lawrence Kane and the Zodiac Killer may be one and the same, trailing Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe, having lived at 217 Eddy Street, close to Mason and Geary Streets in San Francisco at the time of the Paul Stine murder. Latterly, working near Donna Lass at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, according to former law enforcement officer Harvey Hines. Is it possible he returned in 1973?. Two possible murders- that of Donna Lass and Rosa Vasquez from the same hospital, inside of three years seems unusual, albeit probably coincidental. Whoever the Zodiac Killer is, may never be known- but did he continue his reign of terror beyond the murder of Paul Stine on October 11th 1969?
- Bonus Oregon and Montana murders Lovers lane Murder's (at end)
Cheri Jo Bates
Vehicle: Sabotaged (Ignition Coil Disabled)
The murder of Cheri Jo Bates is an unsolved murder that occurred in Riverside, California on October 30, 1966. Bates, an 18-year-old college freshman, was stabbed and slashed to death on the grounds of Riverside City College.
In November, 1967, Multiple Van Nuys area women were approached by a man following them and flashing their lights. similar to the
In the Fall of 1968, on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley, two young women were walking when a man pulled alongside them and asked if they needed a ride. Cheri Jo Bates similar SABOTAGE Survived
David Arthur Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16: shot and killed on December 20, 1968, on Lake Herman Road, within the city limits of Benicia. (Zodiac Killing)
Rose Tashman
Vehicle: Tire went flat
On May 18th 1969, Rose Tashman (aged 19) was driving from a friend’s home in Van Nuys to her home in Hollywood when she had gotten a flat tire near the Highway Avenue off ramp within the greater Los Angeles, California area.
Michael Renault Mageau, 19, and Darlene Elizabeth Ferrin, 22: shot on July 4, 1969, in the parking lot of Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo. While Mageau survived the attack, Ferrin was pronounced dead on arrival at Kaiser Foundation Hospital. (Zodiac Killing)
Bryan Calvin Hartnell, 20, and Cecelia Ann Shepard, 22: stabbed on September 27, 1969, at Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Hartnell survived eight stab wounds to the back, but Shepard died as a result of her injuries on September 29, 1969. (Zodiac Killing)
Paul Lee Stine, 29: shot and killed on October 11, 1969, in the Presidio Heights neighborhood in San Francisco. (Zodiac Killing)
Cindy Lee Mellin
Vehicle: Tire was flat in parking lot. Not flat when parked
Cindy was abducted on *January 20, 1970.*After work that evening. Cindy walked to her car in the parking lot, apparently to find she had a flat tire. Cindy’s father admitted that his daughter would not have been able to tend to a flat tire, so a theory that an unidentified man approached Cindy under the guise of helping her makes sense. Ventura, California
Joy Hungerford
Vehicle: Headlights Went Out
January, 1970 Redwood City
Kathleen Johns
Vehicle: Signalled with lights to pull over, then sabotaged.
On March 20, 1970, a man driving behind her started flashing his headlights. Johns pulled over for the man. He walked up to her car and said that her rear wheel was loose and wobbling and that he’d tighten it for her. Modesto, California area. (Survived)
Donna Lass (Nevada)
Vehicle: Found Untouched
A Stateline casino nurse, Donna Lass, 25, disappeared after work on September 6, 1970. Her car was found parked at her apartment with no signs of a struggle. She may have been a victim of the infamous Zodiac Killer, a serial killer who claimed 37 murder victims (seven of whom who were confirmed by investigators) during the 1960s and 1970s.
Vicki Miner
Abduction method: Unclear
On November 14, 1970 Vicki Miner’s badly decomposed body was found in a vacant field near Malvern Avenue and Dale Street. Police determined that she had been bludgeoned to death. A student at Buena Park High School, Miner was last seen alive as she left for school at about 9:30 on the morning of Oct. 30. Her parents reported her missing later that day when she didn’t show up at school.
Robin Graham
Vehicle: Ran out of Gas
On November 15, 1970 Robin Ann Graham, an 18 year old college student, ran out of gas on a Los Angeles area freeway near the Santa Monica off ramp.
Maureen Louise Sterling and Yvonne Lisa Weber
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On February 4, 1972 both 12-year-old Herbert Slater Middle School students disappeared around 9 pm. after visiting the Redwood Empire Ice Arena. They were last seen hitchhiking on Guerneville Road, northwest of Santa Rosa.
Kim Wendy Allen
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
On March 4, 1972 Kim Wendy Allen, 19, was given a ride by two men on March 4, 1972 from her job at Larkspur Natural Foods to San Rafael. They last saw her at approximately 5:20 pm hitchhiking to school near the Bell Avenue entrance to Highway 101, northbound, carrying a large wooden soy barrel with red Chinese characters on it. Her body was found the following day down an embankment in a creek bed 20 feet off Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa.
Ernestine Terello
Vehicle: Tire was punctured
On April 20, 1972, a woman named Ernestine Terello pulled over for a flat tire near the Ventura freeway in Agoura.
Lori Lee Kursa,
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On November 11, 1972 after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save and was last seen on November 20 or 21 in Santa Rosa while visiting friends, having deliberately run away She was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. The 13 year old girls' frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in a ravine approximately 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
Rosa Vasquez
Abduction Method: Unclear
On May 29th 1973, the body of Rosa Vasquez, 20, was found strangled near the Arguello Boulevard entrance at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco. The victim had been thrown seven feet off the roadway into some shrubs.
Yvonne Quilantang
Abduction Method: Unclear
Quilantang aged 15, from Delta Street was found strangled in a Bayview district vacant lot on June 12th 1973. She had been out to buy groceries.
Angela Thomas
Abduction Method: Unclear
Angela, 16, was found July 2, 1973, smothered on the playground of Benjamin Franklin Junior High School in Daly City. She had last been seen the previous evening at the Presidio of San Francisco.
Nancy Patricia Gidley
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy was a 24-year-old radiographer. She was found strangled behind the George Washington High School gymnasium on 15 July 1973. She was last seen at a Rodeway Inn motel on July 12, 1973.
Carolyn Nadine Davis
Abduction method: Hitchhiking
Carolyn, 14, ran away from her home outside Anderson in Shasta County on 6 February 1973, but disappeared 15 July 1973 after being dropped off by her grandmother at the Garberville Post Office. She was last seen hitchhiking that afternoon near the Highway 101 ramp in Garberville.
Her body was discovered on 31 July 1973 about three feet from where the remains of Sterling and Weber had been recovered seven months earlier. Carolyn died of strychnine poisoning 10–14 days before her body was discovered. It could not be determined if she had been raped.
Nancy Feusi
Abduction Method: Unclear
Nancy, 22, disappeared after going dancing at a club in the Sacramento area on July 22, 1973. A fisherman discovered the body in a remote area off Pleasant Grove Road. The woman was clad only in a miniskirt and bikini-type briefs. A blouse was found nearby.
Laura A. O'Dell
Abduction method: Unclear
Laura, 21, was found in bushes behind the boathouse at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, San Francisco. She was last seen on 4 November 1973, three days before her body was discovered.
Theresa Walsh
Abduction method: Hitch-hiking
On December 22, 1973 Theresa Diane Smith Walsh, 23, was last seen on December 22, 1973, at Zuma Beach in Malibu, intent on hitchhiking to Garberville and joining her family for Christmas. Her partially submerged body was found six days later by kayakers in Mark West Creek. She had been hogtied with clothesline rope, sexually assaulted, strangled and had been dead approximately one week when her body was discovered.
Brenda Kaye Merchant
Abduction method: Unclear
Brenda, 19, was found stabbed to death at her home February 1, 1974, in Marysville. The killer left a bloody fingerprint on the screen door when he fled.
Donna M. Braun
Abduction method: Unclear
On September 29, 1974, the strangled body of, 14, was found in the Salinas River near Monterey.
Mona Jean Gallegos
Vehicle: Ran out of gas
On June 19,1975, Mona Jean Gallegos, a 19 year old Covina girl, was returning home from a friend’s house in Alhambra at about 1am when she ran out of gas near Santa Anita Avenue on the San Bernardino Freeway.
Eileen Hynson
Abduction method: Unclear
Eileen Francis Hynson’s disappearance on June 1, 1976, from Napa, California. Hynson left the residence she shared with her father and brother to attend a wedding in Solano County. She never arrived and her suitcase was left at home.
Unidentified Remains
On July 2, 1979, the skeletal remains of a young white female were found in a ravine off Calistoga Road approximately 100 yards from where the body of Lori Lee Kursa had been recovered seven years earlier. One expert consulted by authorities determined that the victim was likely killed between 1972 and 1974 and was about 19 years old.The victim had been hogtied and her arm fractured around the time of her murder.
Larry Peyton and Beverly Allan (Oregon)
On the evening of November 26, 1960, Larry Ralph Peyton and his girlfriend, Beverly Ann Allan disappeared after having made plans to shop at the Lloyd Center in Portland, Oregon, United States. The following day, November 27, Peyton's Ford coupe was found in Forest Park, with his mutilated body inside. Allan was missing from the scene, though her purse and coat were still inside the car. A widespread manhunt ensued over the following two months. In January 1961, a highway crew 30 miles outside Portland discovered Allan's partially-nude body in a ravine, and it was determined she had been raped and strangled to death.
Lloyd Duane Bogle and Patti Kalitzke (Montana)
On Jan. 3, 1956, three young boys walking west of Great Falls, in an area now known as Wadsworth Park, discovered the body of 18-year-old airman Lloyd Duane Bogle lying next to a car. Bogle's hands were tied behind his back using his own belt, and he'd been shot through the head. The car's ignition switch was still engaged, and its headlights were still on. The body of Bogle's 16-year-old girlfriend, Patti Kalitzke, was found the next day northwest of the city. Like Bogle, Kalitzke was shot through the head. She showed no signs of sexual assault.
More Information:
http://www.santarosahitchhikermurders.com/suspects.php
https://www.sfweekly.com/news/yesterdays-crimes-the-santa-rosa-hitchhiker-murders/
https://zodiackillersite.com/viewtopic.php?f=34&t=86http://truecrimeguy.com/californias-good-samaritan-ruse/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murders_of_Larry_Peyton_and_Beverly_Allan
https://www.zodiacciphers.com/zodiac-news/the-san-francisco-1973-murders
Boston Hitchhiker Killers: (unrelated but interesting to read)
https://www.thecrimson.com/article/1973/2/14/the-hitchhike-murders-pbbebllen-reichb-was/

We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.

• Kurt Vonnegut

Tulalip Resort Casino is an Indian casino and resort in Quil Ceda Village, Washington, owned and operated by the Tulalip Tribes of Washington. It opened in 2004 as Tulalip Casino, and was renamed in late 2007 because of the new hotel, which opened August 15, 2008.[1] In addition to the AAA Four Diamond award-winning 12-story hotel with 370 rooms and suites, the resort includes 192,000 square feet (17,800 m2) of gaming space. The property has 7 restaurants: Tulalip Bay, Blackfish, Cedars Cafe, The Draft Bar and Grill, Journeys East, Eagles Buffet and Canoes Carvery. The T Spa is the resort's onsite spa and features 14,000 square feet (1,300 m2) of treatment rooms. There are also meeting facilities, and the Canoes Cabaret, Orca Ballroom, and Tulalip Amphitheatre for entertainment events.[1]
DO NOT GO GENTLE INTO A DOMESTIC FIGHT
I had just passed through Arlington when the Taco Time began to take hold. The meaty filling and breathtaking sauces had begun to plummet my belly's pH level to a low that now refused all immigrants to my stomach like a pack of Texans at a gun show in a Trump convention. Or something. I turned to my wife and told her we were going to need to stop.
This was a mistake.
She beamed at me and said "How about the Outlet Mall?"
I would like to say I didn't shit my pants. But I shit my pants. I needed to pull over and a thought occurred to me. Well, two thoughts: fireworks and the casino. Any able bodied Washingtonian should know that the Outlet Mall in Tulalip is a win situation. In fact, it's not a bad idea to tell your wife that "Hey, you deserve a treat - let's go to the Outlet Mall in Tulalip." And then drive her up there, stay for the Banana Republic and Starbucks and then "Hey, hon, I might have more fun if I went over to the casino." And then drink until she has to drive and gamble until she has to take all the clothing she bought at the mall back.
So, it was off to the Outlet Mall. Luckily, they sold underwear.
THERE IS NO OUTLET AT THE OUTLETS
Nothing in life is free. And nothing in life is easy. So, I did have to purchase new underwear and I had a little more trouble than I imagined getting out of the Outlet Mall.
The mall seems extremely escapable as it's outside. However, you must be quick with your "Ho-hum, I'll just go to the Casino" story. You must say it nonchalant and give your partner a look that says "I can take it or leave it". Unfortunately for me, she replied "Maybe next time."
I forgot that our chance adventure at the Outlet Mall was a product of me shitting my pants and not a gift on a Saturday of spousal Outlet shopping.
"Look" I said. "I need to sit down and rest. We just spent the last five hours driving from Canada down here and Taco Time made me shit my pants AND I had to go into Banana Republic. I need to chill. This is important to me." Telling a loved one something is important to you is very important. You must use it wisely.
She gave me a look that said that she wouldn't forget it, but I got clearance to leave. I nodded her adieu and made my way through the Outletters.
There is a sick notion in the American mind that goods and services can be had on the cheap by venturing into an Outlet Mall. Nothing can be further from the truth. In fact, the new underwear I was wearing had already begun to split at the seams. There is a reason the Outlets are far away from civilization - it impedes returns.
Teams of tourists surrounded me, looking for bargains, when all I wanted to do was get away from them. The cheap kitchenware and taffy were not the drugs I needed at this time. I needed fireworks, beer, and that feeling that only comes when you pull cash out of a credit card to get your bank account back from the greedy wheel at the roulette table.
"Back, you!" I shouted at the Scientologist that is a permanent fixture at the Outlet Mall.
"But it's just a personality test!" She screamed after me.
"I take that personal!" I screamed back.
Into a Japanese tourist I slammed and spilled their belongings of muffin pans, omelet makers, and fudge named after some damn mountain in Montana that no one knows about or wants to.
Security was on me and took a hold of my collar and shook me like a bag of gold. "Out of here, you joker!" the guard yelled.
"Thank you." I whispered as he shoved me out into the parking lot and on my way to the firework stand.
TWO NATIONS MEET
There's nothing like a firework stand. Well, nothing like a good one: the kind that will sell you enough explosives to get sanctions slapped on you. Tulalip was one.
Much like sister city Auburn, Tulalip did not disappoint in the firework department. They had razzlers, tazzlers, jizzles and phazims. They had rollies, tollies, gollies, and bazims. I made all those words up, but the point is that you simply point at the biggest cannon you see at the stand and say "I'll take that."
Some of the fireworks are themed. There's a Terminator themed pack full of cannons and mortars. There's a Star Wars themed pack of cannons and mortars. There's even a Celebrity Chef pack that has...cannons and mortars.
Because of my hurry and my need to return to my loving wife within the two hours it would take her to figure out nothing fits, I went for the bone: the stuff they pretend they won't sell you unless you act like something illegal is going on.
I approached the fireworks dealer. "Sir - I would like - come closer."
"Yes?" The man asked.
"I hear your firework stand is the best." I cozied up to the register and began toying with a pack of Saturn Missiles seductively.
"Big Tits and Ass Fireworks is the best. My grandfather built Big Tits and Ass Fireworks with his bare hands! Tulalip Nation!" The man screamed and the other firework dealers screamed back.
"Yes, that's all well and good. It is a fine establishment. But tell me this...."
"Yesssss?' He asked, winking.
"Can I get..."
"Yessss?"
"A tennis ball full of....."
"Gun powder?!"
My head shot up and I looked at him cross and said "Good lord, no! Cocaine! Cocaine, my good man! I want to buy cocaine from you!"
Again I was tossed out of an outlet. This time it was the fireworks kind. I had flown too close to the sun. I figured I'd get some sparklers. Then I figured a mortar. Then I figured an M80. Then I just went all in and asked for cocaine. I was severely off my game.
THE CASINO
I got back in the car and began cursing the Tulalip Nation in the only language I knew: English.
Sure, I took some sign language and Spanish, but I didn't remember most of it and wasn't going to Google it.
Not now. Not with the casino a half a mile away.
I parked the car and took out a cigarette from a pack I kept in the trunk for just such an occasion: shitting your pants, getting kicked out of an outlet mall, trying to buy cocaine, and then getting kicked out of a firework stand.
I called it Old Smokey.
Tulalip Casino is a majestic building that greets you with fountains and lights and all the majesty of realizing you are about to lose money you don't have to a video game themed on the premise of milking money out of a cow.
As you enter, the smoke comes on you like hot fudge on a sundae if hot fudge was smoke and you were a sundae. The atmosphere reminds you of a wedding some uncle had before he went to jail for a crime that the family will not acknowledge in public. From room to room you feel that rush of being a racial minority for the first time in your life, only to become just another white guy leering at a cocktail waitress behind aviator glasses in the next room - complicating this is the fact that you're Korean.
There's an aroma of food under the nicotine and perfume, but you can't quite make out what it might be. It could be spare ribs or it could be Pad Thai, but what it won't be is good. There is no good food made by human beings that can be carried from poker table to poker table in a plastic sack. Sure, there's the nice restaurant where you sit down and eat your food at a table instead of in your car crying as you try to figure out how you're going to tell your wife that you lost the life savings and all you got out of it was a free bag of sliders and fries...but you don't want to sit down and eat food like a human. You want to gamble.
Like most casinos, the Tulalip has a club you can join to lose money within a kind of fraternal order of losers. Sure, you'll get free money and smokes and food, but those things just keep you anchored to that casino. No, the real pros skip the club and lose on their own terms.
Like me. It was time to lose money the only way I knew: video slots. Video slots are like the slot machines of old, only they have little video games within them where you get entertained as you pay for three computers and a college education for a Tulalip Nation member's family. There are bonuses, free spins, and even quests where you lose money by way of slaying dragons or orcs or zombies.
I slid a hundred in and began navigating a gnome around a fairytale castle hoping to hit the jackpot that would possibly pay off my car, but certainly wouldn't make me a rich man. As I slid hundred after hundred in the machine, the damn gnome continued to get lost in the flower city of Zambel. I shouted at the gnome "JESUS, WILL YOU PICK THE CORRECT DOOR - THIS IS COSTING ME MONEY!" But the gnome failed to pick the right door and I was out 800 dollars.
I went to the bar.
THE CASINO AND BEYOND
"At least I can get drunk now." I was left to my own shame in a bar in the casino, nursing a beer and trying to imagine how to rob the Wal Mart next door and actually make any money.
I had another half hour before I would have to meet my wife and explain how we couldn't have kids now.
"You seem down on your luck." The bartender looked at me from behind a mask of years of inbreeding. His eyes were fused and his cycloptic movements made me cringe as he pushed a matchbook across the table to me. "Meet this man at the city limits."
"You mean the Exit door?"
"Yes."
I couldn't possibly see how this man (T.C. said the matchbook) or any other man could help me out in the predicament the Native Americans had put me in. Oh, who was I kidding, it was my fault!
And the Native Americans. And my wife's. If she wouldn't have shit her pants on the way home - but I must not blame, I thought.
"Hear you need a job, kid." It was Tom Cruise.
"What the hell are you doing here?"
"I own this place."
"Really?"
"Hell no. I had to take a piss on the way home from Canada. You lose some money?"
"It's true, Mr. Cruise! I am guilty of gambling! But the Native Americans made me do it. It was some ancient curse, some demon that -"
"Speaking of ancient curses - have you heard about Xenu?"
"No."
"Good. Now, I hear you need some money."
"YES! I DO! Did the cyclops tell you?"
"The...no, that's John Travolta."
"He's a bartender?"
"No. He's a drunk. Look, you want to make some money or not?"
"I don't have to...?" I made a gesture with the hotdog I always keep in my pocket for just such instances.
"Let me just show you."
THE NEXT DAY
"Free personality test!" I yelled at the Japanese tourist.

To all of the new users saying, "If gme hits 500 I'll get a tattoo of WSB" ... this is a casino, and bets need to be paid. FFS I found this sub after a guy made it to all drinking his own piss. If you make a bet here, you don't back down.
When (not if, WHEN) gme skyrockets again, I want to see those posts of tattoos, vanity license plates, commissioned paintings and all the stupid shit that you said you'd do/buy with your earnings. When it's finally your turn for the rona vaccine, tell the nurse you don't need one- you're already autistic- but she can go ahead and load up that needle with some ink for your WSB tattoo that you promised you'd get on your ass when GME moons.
Currently holding 33 shares of SPCE, 430 shares of NIO and depending on if I poop before noon, buying 50 shares of bb on Wednesday. If I poop after noon, I'm buying 30 more SPCE. Either way, while I'm on the toilet scrolling WSB I'd better be seeing some fresh ink from all you newer members making bets.
EDIT: Some of you already owe this sub your tattoo videos. u/raymofuwk I'm looking at you, you owe us a WSB-GME tattoo as it is over $200 after market now. Time to pay up!
EDIT2: u/lightlyGhosted you coward, deleting your comments. You owe us a tattoo of the WSB logo kid on your ass when GME passes 1k, u/skultun owes us the WSB kid on your ass and a rocket tattoo- you can do the rocket tattoo anywhere on your body since you didn't specify ass but the WSB kid MUST be on your ass.
I will update with all the bets that are owed, for now u/raymofuwk you have 48 hours to produce proof of your tattoo appointment being booked, or be banned. EDIT: Proof produced, can't wait to see that fresh ink go BRRRR
u/yotta_T100 you bet $200 and the WSB logo somewhere on your body. As per your comments- if you see this post holding you to your bet as a "threat" in any way, that smells really fishy... and I'm only supposed to smell that after Antoine visits (he's my wife's American lover, dude never showers!) I'm eager to see your new tattoo, pay your bets or be banned.
To all you fun people who said "GME $420.69", congratulations! You're now rich! You also need to pay your bets:
u/HollaHollaBillsYall said they'd get the WSB logo "tattooed on my ass while smoking a joint with the tattoo artist". Nice! Time to pay up.
u/Hidhtr said they'd get the WSB logo "'if' GME crosses 420$" - if? LOL
EDIT: u/sc00ba_steve owes a rocket emoji tattoo, another "$420.69"
EDIT: u/EzClapsFN said $100 and owes a GME tattoo.
Special mention to the guy who said he'd eat his own poop if the stock hit $25,000. I also associate poop with stock-buying- poop before noon, bb to the moon! If nothing but pee, buy GME!

The last drama post I did about Kuma Miko seemed to have gotten some praise, but some wished to see a Hobby Drama post that had consequences outside “people got angry over it”. So without any further delay, here’s a story about a studio that’s close to my heart, one that I’ve backed twice and seen die twice.
Note: This is a fairly lengthy drama, so forgive me if I’m not able to provide all of my sources. Most of the front half of this comes from this video, which chronicles the first half of Lab Zero entirely in Russian.
From Ahad to Mike Z
Let’s start in the beginning. Alex Ahad is a freelance illustrator who, in between other work, had created character designs for a prospective fighting game. Mike Zaimont is a professional fighting game player best known for games like BlazBlue and Marvel Vs. Capcom, but since 1999 had been coding a custom engine in his free time, which he hoped could be used for a fighting game. The two met in 2008, and the two quickly realized that with each other’s help, their dream could come true. In 2010, the two joined the newly developed game studio Reverge Labs. Joining their team was Mariel “Kinuko” Cartwright, a friend of Ahad’s and daughter of a Disney animator who helped animate games such as Scott Pilgrim vs. The World and Shantae; Peter Bartholow, who acted as CEO of Reverge as well as their PR arm; and an assortment of other animators and designers. Their goal: a fighting game in the style of Marvel vs. Capcom 2 with hand-drawn animation that they called Skullgirls.
After obtaining publishers in Autumn Games and Konami (at the time of development the Microsoft required indie devs to have a retail publisher in order to bring their games to Xbox Live Arcade), the team got to work on Skullgirls. Initial impressions were favorful - people liked Ahad’s unique character designs, the fluid animation, and the solid engine Mike Z built - but upon release, there were some concerns. The time and money needed to develop each character meant a starting roster of only eight characters, a far cry from other fighting games (the original MvC had 15 characters in 1998), and due to the team trying to get the game out, there was no in-game move list. Some were also concerned that the cast, consisting entirely of women, was too fanservice-filled, although Bartholow said that the characters were just attractive women who could fight as opposed to characters using their sexuality in battle (Ahad said that sex wasn’t his main focus, he just wanted to have monster girls fight each other). The team at Reverge Labs stressed that they would continue to update the game, with plans to add DLC if the game sold well enough. Good thing nothing could go wro-
Everything goes wrong
Alongside publishing Skullgirls, Autumn Games and Konami had previously published a karaoke game called Def Jam RapStar. Unfortunately, around March 2012, the time Skullgirls released, both parties were at the end of several lawsuits made against them - one argued that Autumn and Konami did not get the rights to some of the songs used in the game, while another claimed that the game was funded with a bank loan which Autumn Games was unable to pay back. The result of these costly lawsuits was that Autumn was unable to pay Reverge the money made from Skullgirls - this led to the entire Reverge team being laid off around July, and the future of the game in the air.
And so, the team decided on a whim to reconvene as a new development studio, Lab Zero Games. At a fundraiser for breast cancer research which included a fighting game tournament, Mike Z revealed the first DLC fighter and promised that new information about her and the team would be posted soon. This would turn out to be an Indiegogo fundraising campaign that asked for $150,000 to develop the first DLC fighter, with more characters promised if people backed enough.
In the end, $829,829 was raised in the campaign, enough to fund five DLC characters, a bevy of stages and voice packs, and other features. It was quickly becoming a cult classic.
The Skullgirls Curse
And so work on Skullgirls DLC was underway. However, a variety of events happened to befall Lab Zero during development, some causing controversy and others just annoying the team. Some dubbed this “The Skullgirls Curse”. So let’s go over some of them:

• Paypal Woes: During the Indiegogo DLC campaign, Lab Zero announced that Ahad had created around 30 prospective designs for DLC characters, and that there would be a vote to see which characters would be the two “mystery characters” teased in the Indiegogo campaign. As you would guess, this caused the Skullgirls fanbase to get heated, to the point where some stressed that they would ask Indiegogo for their money back if their character didn’t win. PayPal, who managed the funds for this campaign, was concerned about these threats and put nearly all of the money on hold. Bartholow tried to negotiate with PayPal, and was eventually able to get the funding - once PayPal was given a hefty sum as collateral.
• Bad Juju - If you notice on the list of prospective DLC characters, one character is Juju, a character who was designed by Ahad from a fan’s suggestion on a Whiteboard Wednesday art stream. Ahad seemed to like the idea of the character, and kept building her up until she became a legit character in the game. The original fan made a joke on Facebook that he’d like to be compensated for the design, which led Lab Zero to negotiate obtaining the character rights from him. They eventually worked out a contract that would give them the rights to the character, but only if the original fan didn’t reveal it until Lab Zero announced it themselves. The fan then posted about it on the Skullgirls forum the very next day, breaking the NDA immediately and making it so that Lab Zero couldn’t use the character at all.
• Don’t be (Red) Cross with me: One of the characters included in the base game of Skullgirls is Valentine. As you can tell, the two biggest features of her character are her being a nurse and a ninja - as such, her costume is decorated with red crosses. This was upsetting to the real Red Cross, which fights hard to prevent its trademark from being associated with violence - as such, when they came to the Skullgirls publisher demanding a change, all red crosses in the game had to be changed to magenta.
• #FucKonami: In November 2013, due to Konami barely helping at all with the publishing process for Skullgirls (they refused to greenlight any patch or DLC until Lab Zero tested it itself on their own time and money, they didn’t help with Microsoft’s certification process for Xbox, etc), Lab Zero dissolved their publishing agreement. This led to a massive snafu where, due to the dissolution, the original Skullgirls was taken down on consoles, and Lab Zero had to scramble to get a new publisher on the consoles side and then reupload the game as Skullgirls: Encore. It was a tangled web of issues which the above YouTube video relays, but required certification from both console storefronts and even the Japan storefront, as their publisher there was also coincidentally being dissolved at the same time without Lab Zero knowing.
• EVO 2014: During one of the largest fighting game tournaments of 2014, Skullgirls was promised a space for airing their tournament stream by controller distributor Madcatz. Lab Zero and Autumn provided a pot for the tourney, and everything was smooth sailing - until a multitude of delays made it so that the entire time Skullgirls had for streaming was replaced with Tekken tournaments. By the time these issues were fixed, only the final four matches were able to be shown.
• What’s the worst kind of ship? Censor-SHIP!: In April 2015, one of the patches of Skullgirls altered the animation of some characters, which according to Lab Zero themselves was because of their own artistic values (while they admitted that panty shots in a fighting game comprised entirely of girls is unavoidable, they didn’t want to go out of their way to show them). As you might expect, this led to a massive onslaught of negative Steam reviews and caustic tweets from people who abhor censorship of any kind. Funnily enough, this brigade started around October, six months after the changes were made, and only via word of mouth - people didn’t even notice there was a change until someone told them about it.
• Backer characters: As part of their Indiegogo campaign, some of the highest-paying backers could have their original characters put in the background of some custom stages. Lab Zero warned these backers that these stages would be a casino and a ballroom, respectively, so their OCs should ideally be designed with a formal flair. Some backers did follow this unspoken rule - ZONE, a notoriously NSFW Flash animator who helped work on the DLC characters, made a perfectly formal look for his mascot Zone-tan. As for the others, well...
• SonicFox: This isn’t included in the compilation video mentioned above as this occurred way after all the initial Skullgirls drama. Basically, SonicFox is a five-time EVO champion and one of the best Skullgirls players in the world. In May 2020, after Skullgirls was mostly complete, they were given a cameo in Skullgirls’ training stage. Of note is that SonicFox is black, non-binary, and a furry, and the character added to the game was their fursona, who has a trans rights flag in the inside of their jacket you can only see for like one frame. People reacted as you would expect. Also, one of the original backers requested to change their character as they were now transitioning, which didn’t get as much flak, so that’s nice I guess.

So as you can see, Skullgirls had a menagerie of problems and issues during its dev time. However, their Skullgirls curse seemed to have faded away, as they had a new game in store.
If I was Indivisible
Indivisible was a new project of Lab Zero, announced in 2015 as Skullgirls DLC production was nearing an end. Billed as a platformer RPG similar to games like Valkyrie Profile, it would tell the story of Ajna, a young girl whose town is stricken by tragedy and she finds out that she’s a portion of the god of creation, who has grown discontent with the world and wishes to remake it anew. Its Indiegogo campaign focused on Incarnations, party members who came from a variety of cultures, religions, and demographics not usually represented in popular culture. And as you can see by the fact that it got over two million dollars in funding, people were excited to see what Lab Zero could do. They even got enough funding to get Studio Trigger, of anime fame, to create the opening for the game.
Of course, it wouldn’t be Lab Zero without the occasional issue here and there. As shown above, some Incarnations were changed or scrapped during development, which irked some who backed because of that character specifically (not naming any names, but look in the incarnation list and see if you notice any). Backer characters were included again, and although there were more places to add them so they didn’t look out of place, you still had the occasional few that did. Critics liked the art and presentation of the game, but disliked some gameplay issues: the second half of the game became a cakewalk once you progressed far enough, it was a bit of a pain to go from one end of the map to another, especially for side quests, and a bunch of party members simply weren’t complete. Most egregiously of all, the Nintendo Switch version of the game was ported by a different company and released before Lab Zero was even aware of it - which forced them to scramble again to patch it up so it was on par with other consoles.
Still, it was a better situation they were in than when Skullgirls started. They had a legit publisher in 505 Games, people were satisfied with the base game, and Mike Z mentioned how the base game would continue to be refined with gameplay changes, small additions, and guest incarnations from other indie games. NBC even announced that Indivisible would be adapted into a television program for their Peacock streaming service. Things were looking up for Lab Zero.
Everything goes wrong... AGAIN
During the production of Indivisible, Alex Ahad was let go by Lab Zero. Not much is mentioned about it except that he was growing increasingly hostile, making it difficult to work with him, and his art was not meeting the standards for the game. He left, tried to sue Lab Zero, and eventually agreed to a sizable settlement. Mariel became the lead artistic director in his stead, and the art team had to be rearranged to compensate.
Now, as Lab Zero was preparing to transition from being employee-owned, Mike Z was made the temporary head of the studio. In June of 2020, Mike Z did an “I can’t breathe” joke during a Skullgirls livestream just days after George Floyd’s death - he later apologized for this, claiming he was trying to bring attention to the issue. Soon, more people provided proof that Mike Z has had a history of sexual harassment. Kinuko chimes in as well, noting that while she tolerated inappropriate behavior for years, when she talked to Mike Z about it, he blamed her for his actions. She talked with others in the team, who came to the conclusion that Zaimont had treated all of them like this. Some Lab Zero employees resigned on their own, while others pushed for Zaimont to resign. However, as Mike was still head of the studio, he dissolved the studio board and laid off the rest of the staff.
So where does that leave everyone?

• Ahad is still doing art on his own, and gets by with commissions and his Patreon.
• Kinuko, as well as the majority of Lab Zero, created a new studio called Future Club, which has promised to create new titles with the same art style they refined from Skullgirls and Indivisible.
• Autumn Games still own the rights to Skullgirls, and with the help of some former Lab Zero devs, created a mobile version of the game. It’s surprisingly not bad, although it’s of course stuffed with microtransactions. However, they’ve apparently made enough to fund a completely new character for the game for both the mobile and console/PC versions.
• After everything with Mike Z, 505 games put out a statement which signaled the end of all development of the game, leaving it unfinished. Mike Z has been suspended from Skullgirls streams and the like, making his future in the gaming world unclear.

There’s probably something I’ve missed in all of this, but yep. I backed them twice, both for Skullgirls and Indivisible. I don’t regret it, and I’m looking forward to whatever Future Club does, but I won’t lie - I’ll always miss what could have been.

The story I swore I'd never share..
It was a normal day in mid May of last year and I was feeling the urge to trip alone. I wanted to go deep and have an experience that I would remember forever, and while I'll remember this experience forever it won't be for the reasons I hoped.
It was gorgeous a Saturday and when I awoke I felt a little sick to my stomach. Not so sick that it kept me home, but this weird nagging nausea that seemed to persist. I swore I wasn't going to drop acid that night unless I felt better and thankfully by about 4 p.m. I felt almost 100%. ( it's important to remember set and setting doesn't just apply to mind set and safe setting, but getting physically healthy is important aswell if you don't want to hinder your trip.) Now that I was feeling well it was time to eat dinner and get to it.
I dropped my first 2 tabs around 8, turned on the new Tipper album, and cracked on Red Dead 2 while I waited for things to take effect. By 9:00 pm I felt incredible, my room was starting to sparkle and my body felt amazing, and at this point I was certain this was going to be a great trip so I said "fuck it" and dropped another tab and a half... this is where things started to take a turn.
Not even 30 minutes after dropping the additional tabs I started to have horrible stomach cramps. It was sort of like I needed to take a shit, but the cramps were a bit to high for that. I didn't get scared immediately, but when I left my room to head for the bathroom I knew I was in trouble, but how much trouble I could have never predicted. Strap in ya'll, shit's about to get super fuckin weird.
The lighting in my hallway is much brighter than my room and the visuals immediately kicked up about 10 notches. It looked like the floor was steamy and evaporating, and the white walls were swirling and splashed with rainbow watercolors. I had two voices playing in my head simultaneously, one that said "You're fine Travis, this is the point." but the other was much louder and it was screaming "Your stomach hurts because you took a weird research chemical and you're about to die here alone! There's no one here to help you man! This is it, this is the day you die! Get help! GET HELP!"
I stumbled my way to the bathroom to try to shit but I didn't have to. The hall was bad enough but I'd it even necessary to describe the terror I felt in the bathroom? At this point my stomach hurt so bad I was afraid I was going to throw up and I was growing more and more convinced that I had taken something that wasn't all LSD.
(Quick side note... I had taken this b4 and I never take anything that I haven't tested first with a reagent, and you shouldn't either if you care about your body.)
I decided to call my mom and let her know I was sick, mostly because I needed to hear her comforting voice. I thought just hearing her might make me feel better... it didn't.
Ring ring "Hey mom, I have the flu hella bad and I'm scared. "
My mom sort of laughed and said, "You have nothing to be afraid of if it's the flu. All you can do is relax and if you're still sick in the morning I'll get you some things from the store and sit with you for a bit. "
Out of my fucking mind I frantically replied, "No mom you don't understand, this isn't normal, I think I need to go to the hospital. If I get any worse I'm going to take an uber to the ER. "
At this point I could hear the concern in her voice and she said, "I'll be by the phone so if you feel worse later you can call me, but I think you need to give it time and just try and relax. "
I ended the conversation with my mom and trust me there'd be no relaxing from this point forward.
Sometimes when you take LSD your nuts get kind of tight and on really high doses it can even be hard to piss. I noticed when I was trying to shit for the third time that my bean bag was particularly tight, and for some strange reason I became convinced in my own mind that I had lost control of my muscles, and my testicles were about to disappear into my stomach. Eventually this would cut off circulation to my testicles and I'd become the world's most lit Eunuch of all time. I'd be the Basshead Varys!
At this point I'm in full panic mode and the ER is the only option in my mind. I'm looking at myself in the mirror and I'm thinking to myself "WTF Trav? You may have gained a third eye tonight but you've lost both your nuts man! That's a net negative as far as I'm concerned! Both your balls is way to high a price for a dash of enlightenment. "
Having no one there to tell me I'm fuckin stupid and to chill the fuck out, I called an uber and headed to Saint Joseph's hospital in downtown Tacoma. When I got there it was a packed house and by that time I was soooooo fuckin lit I could barely see or walk straight. I stumbled up to the front desk with complete desperation in my eyes and noticed that the nurses station was being manned by maybe two of the hottest nurses I've ever seen... of course!
They asked me "Hi sir, what brings you in right. "
I said with a shakey voice " I'm so sorry, I took a bunch of what I think is acid and my testicles are disappearing into my stomach. "
They first looked at each other, then back at me and the blond one said, "Oooookaaaaayyy? Go have a seat over there and we'll get you back right away."
Now there's a thing called testicular torsion and it's as serious as a heart attack, and when you come in complaining about testicular pain they cut you to the front of the line and take you back right away, so not even five minutes passed and I hear my name called and I head to the back.
I'm met by that same gorgeous blonde nurse and a female doctor. I'm there for my balls so the Dr tells me to drop my pants so she can take a look. I oblige and the doctors face goes from professional to the look of of complete annoyance.
She looked away from my nut sack and back up into my eyes and with a that same tone of voice your friend gives you when you're looking for your phone and it's your hand the whole time, and she says, "Sir, you'r testicles are right there! They're not going anywhere! "
I replied with the same fear I walked in with and said, "No but you don't understand, this isn't what they normally look like. They're gonna suck up into my stomach. I need these ma'am! I want to have another kid someday. "
With anger and disgust she replied, "Just sit on that bed and we'll order an ultra sound, and run some blood tests. You're going to be ok."
"Thank you so soooooo much. I wouldn't come here if I didn't have a problem. "
The Dr just shook her head and and walked out. I'd have been embarrassed if I wasn't already terrified.
Now Saint Joe's ER isn't comprised of separate rooms, but several large rooms broken apart by curtained off areas. The beeping, the sounds of screaming from patience that are truly in pain, and the smells were way too much for my heightened senses. At times the beige curtains over took my vision with splashes of colors that can't even be found in the largest box of crayons. I don't mind testing myself by tripping in weird places. I once tripped at a casino and saw Chris D'Elia and it was definitely an accomplishment I was proud of, but this was beyond anything I thought I could handle.
About an hour in and still no one had checked on me. I had to piss bad so I tip toed out into the main hall to find the bathroom, and as I did I prayed no one would see, me but I'm the kid that's high on acid that thinks his balls have lost circulation...I'm the star of this show tonight. All the nurses were staring at me and I knew I'd forever be the subject of many a drunken story in the future for these folks. I felt like DJ Qualls when he gets his dick broken in front of his high school in "The New Guy."
This story has gone on long enough but I have a couple more things to share.
Next to me separated by just a curtain was a man probably in his 40's that was in a wheel chair. He couldn't speak and appeared to be a quadriplegic. He was there for something quite serious and his parents had taken him in. They were eastern European and spoke very little English. I wasn't able to figure out exactly why their son was there, but they were devastated by what their son was dealing with. I can't begin to describe the sadness I felt for them. At one point I could hear the husband consoling his wife in a foreign language as she balled her eyes out. These were people who despite their sons illness never turned their back on him or each other. In my mind they were a testament to how strong true love really is. I too started to cry as I listened to them. I didn't know exactly what was being said but I could feel the combination of love and sorrow so strong the it tugged ferociously at every thread in my heart. I still hope one day I can find the same kind of love they shared with each other.
8 hours in and I've had my blood drawn, vitals taken over and over, and been thrown the dirtiest looks by two separate shifts of doctors and nurses and finally it's time to have an ultrasound done on my nut sack, which by the way was completely back to normal at this point. I was wheeled back by the ultrasound tech who immediately was a breath of fresh air. He had long salt and pepper hair, a massive beard and wire framed glasses. I've seen plenty and this man was a dead head fa sho!
He begins to do the ultra sound and asks me, "What brings ya in to the emergency room son?"
I didn't hold back at all and told him everything down to the most minor detail. He felt like the first person I could genuinely speak to without feeling like a piece of shit and it felt incredible, but he was about to make things even better by putting my mind at ease.
After listening to me with full attention he explained, "Well Trav I'm not a Dr and I can't technically tell you what happened, but I can tell you what I think happened. LSD is a vasoconstrictor and can make your testicles a bit tight. You have a muscle in your body called the cremaster muscle. This is the muscle that involuntarily controls the constriction of your penis and testicles with sudden temperature change, but also during times of complete stress. Sounds like you got pretty scared earlier and you likely triggered your fight or flight and lost some control of your cremaster muscle. From what I can see here you don't have to worry about your testicles disappearing, but you're not crazy. They were likely tighter than you ever felt, and I'm glad you decided to air on the side of caution and come down and see us tonight. Now... don't be a fuckin idiot and take acid alone ok?"
I was immediately relieved and aside from the walk of shame I had to make out the door to catch an uber home I finally felt comfortable. At this point 10 hours had passed and I only had some visual distortion but I wasn't exactly "trippin bruh."
When I finally arrived home it was close to 9 a.m. and I swore to myself that I'd never share this story, but I feel like it was time. I know this is a very peaceful and loving community, but trust me I don't mind if you think I'm a dumby for this one.
Some of you are likely wondering if I ever tripped again... Fuck yeah! Dantes Inferno baby! I crawled into the belly of the beast just one week later because I love LSD. Grandma always told me "Laughter is the best medicine" and if this is true (my granny was my George Washington) then I believe LSD can also be the best medicine.
TL;DR
I took an absurd amount of acid and ended up in the ER because I thought i was going to lose my testicles. If you think you've read this before, you probably have, I wrote it a year ago or so.

"Couples on Surviving Trauma and Loss: Five partners whose love has endured seismic changes, from refugees forced apart by war to a couple left with horrific injuries"
The first two stories in the article are legit: a couple in a terrible car accident and a couple separated by the Sudanese civil war. Then things start going to hell and get worse and worse. All of the things that FDS warns against are here: codependency, gaslighting, lying, cheating, excuse-making, blame shifting, martyrdom. Women continue to be conditioned to accept sub-par treatment by these kinds of narratives. The ladies of FDS refuse to help relationships "survive trauma" that is LITERALLY CREATED BY THE MAN IN THE RELATIONSHIP AND HIS SELFISH AND OVERALL TERRIBLE DECISIONS.

‘I was in prison for 2,192 days; she wrote to me almost daily’

Laure, 58, and Jerry, 62, survived his jail sentence for causing death by dangerous driving. They live in Alabama, and now run a support network for the families of prisoners.
Laure Jerry and I met in 1995 and married four months later. I tell him all the time I would marry him again, but faster. We’d both been married twice before and dating was the last thing I was looking for. But he ticked all the boxes.
I had two daughters and he had one. We moved our family from Tennessee to Alabama, to raise them in the country. We were living the dream. But on 17 March 2003, it was shattered when Jerry caused a head-on car collision which killed a young mother. He had been driving drunk.
I felt rage, betrayal. When we met, we were both recovering alcoholics, so I had only known him sober. Now a life had been lost. I didn’t want him dead, but I wanted him to hurt real bad. We lived in a small town, and I grieved for that family. I felt embarrassment. I had to get to the forgiveness part quickly so I could get through each day.
Jerry spent 10 days in the ICU. He pleaded guilty to manslaughter and was sentenced to six years in prison and 19 on probation. I was scared – emotionally, practically, financially, spiritually. I wanted to stay married but didn’t know how. I didn’t know what you do when someone you love is in prison.

His first year home, we argued all the time. I’d put my hand on his shoulder and he’d push it away

I wrote to him almost every night. I could afford one dollar-a-minute phone call a week and petrol for the 100-mile drive to visit every two weeks. I felt a lot of anger in those first years. I remember burying the cat, crying, saying, “This is a dad job.” I tried to experience the girls’ graduations for both of us.
His first year home, we argued all the time. I’d put my hand on his shoulder and he’d push it away; he was still in survival mode.
We’re grandparents now and enjoy our family immensely. We run a support network for prisoner families, called Extended Family. I started it six months into his sentence.
Jerry will still say, “You stayed with me all those years,” but I don’t think of it that way. I’m not going to make him do the dishes for the rest of our lives. We spent six years without each other; we don’t want to spend another minute apart.
Jerry On our first date, I took Laure and her daughters to see Cinderella at the theatre. When I got home, I wrote “She’s the one” on the back of the programme.
We had a good life. I had a small engineering business, work grew busy, and we moved cities. But I was in a mess. I got into narcotics but hid it from my family. The night of the accident, I had stopped at a liquor store. I was in a blackout. Moments later, a young woman was dead and I was airlifted to hospital. I was shocked, remorseful, disheartened.
My wife has a big and kind heart. I tried to protect her from the police investigation and the likelihood of prison. I didn’t want our girls walking around with the stigma of a dad who had killed someone.
In Alabama, incarceration is uncontested grounds for divorce, but there was never a question of Laure leaving me. On an early prison visit, I told her I wouldn’t blame her if she wanted to leave. She looked at me and said, “I’d be more miserable than I am now.” I’ll never forget it.
I was in prison for 2,192 days and she wrote to me almost daily. There were guys that got nothing. I felt blessed and honoured. She would arrive every two weeks and I would put on a smile. But I pitied myself; I felt useless, unable to provide for my family.
When I came home, I was harsher than before. Meanwhile, this woman I loved had blossomed. I had to adjust. There’s a not a day that I don’t pay for my disastrous decision in some way, shape or form. We worked through the mess I made together, and we’re closer because of it.

‘It was a form of gaslighting. He led a double life’

Keith, 59, and Claire, 57, survived his gambling addiction. They live in Sussex.
Keith Claire and I had known each other in the 80s, and reconnected online 20 years later. Claire was living abroad, and I was on my way to broke. She’d make short trips to the UK, and we’d laugh through days out and long lunches. She was intelligent, full of life; a better person than I was.
I first entered a casino at 16. By 18, I’d borrowed, conned and stolen from everyone I knew. I was an addict. Through adulthood, I’d made and lost small fortunes and entire businesses. I’d play Monopoly for real money, or sit in a room of the club I owned, drinking brandy, snorting as much cocaine as I could.
I wasn’t a constant drug user or gambler. When Claire visited, I’d try to keep it together; but then I’d get desperate and make excuses to go to London for “work”. When she moved to the UK with her three kids in 2009, I’d disappear into a room of the home we shared for days, in a heady state of gambling, drugs and porn, too embarrassed to re-emerge. I had intermittent spells in Gambling Anonymous, but I found it hard to ask for help.
Claire paid for the house and put food on the table. I never stole from her, but I’m still surprised she didn’t walk out. By 2014, I’d had a heart attack and was nursing my mother, who had cancer. I would drive her to the hospital every day, off my tits, bring her home, make her food, then shut myself in another room and gamble online.
I couldn’t see myself in the mirror any more. I wanted to die. On 28 June 2014, I logged on to a website for people seeking affairs and used it for porn. That decision would almost end us: when Claire discovered the website in her search history, she sent me a Dear John letter. The next day, she drove me to residential rehab. The only rule I broke there was asking her to spend one night. I had to save the relationship.
I’ve been clean for six years now; Claire is part of the reason why. People talk about languages of love. For me those are quality time, acts of service. Boy, were there acts of kindness and service from Claire. Without her, I could well be dead.
Claire I was 18, and a poor student, when I first met Keith. He seemed glamorous, exciting, funny, intelligent. He was also a known gambler, but when we reconnected years later, that appeared to be in his past. Yet, with hindsight, nothing about the start of our relationship makes sense.
When I visited, he’d urgently have work or disappear into a room for days at a time. I’d spend hours on edge, struggling to trust him, but he would rationalise his behaviour, omitting huge details, claiming he’d simply drunk too much. It was a form of gaslighting. He led a double life.

When Keith decided on residential rehab, I knew that if I didn’t support him, there was no future

The first time I confronted him, I’d found an empty drugs packet, but he lied his way out of it. I became scared to ask, although we both knew he needed help. When his mother was unwell, he had the perfect alibi. He was an addict but he was responsible – and he took exquisite care of her. I was fearful but I had to get on with life.
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When Keith decided on residential rehab, I knew that if I didn’t support him, there was no future. I didn’t want significant time apart, but when an addict is serious about making changes, you have to put your own needs aside.
The most soul-destroying moment came when I found the affairs website. I had been betrayed by gambling and drugs, but my belief in the purity of our love had kept me going. I wrote to him saying it was over. From rehab, Keith proved to me it was only curiosity (there was no activity on his account), and I was open enough to reconciliation to visit him.
Emotionally, we’re more independent now, although we share bank accounts and he supports us financially. I’ve grown, too. I used to tell friends that Keith felt like an addiction to me. I’d waited years for a stable home life together: eventually, he walked the most difficult path in order to truly change.

‘Friends saw us as the perfect couple, but it was a lie’

Maryam, 31, and Amir, 33, survived his affair. They live in California.
Maryam When Amir had an affair, I had a thousand reasons to leave but looked for the one to stay. Our relationship had started as an affair, too. We had been couple-friends in our previous marriages and used to hang out as a group of four. Then, in February 2017, Amir and his wife broke up and he came on a trip with my husband and me. One night, we were up late, talking, while my husband slept. Amir opened up about his marriage and I began to sense he had feelings for me. I had relationship problems, too, and we started an affair. I ended my marriage.
Over the next 18 months, friends came to see us as the perfect couple. They would comment on how loving our relationship was. But I couldn’t forgive myself for how we’d started, and his divorce was a mess. He spent nights with his ex. I broke up with him several times. Things looked great on the surface but we both carried unresolved pain.
By the end of 2019, I became suspicious of his relationship with a co-worker. She was too intimate at the Christmas party and he was jumpy when she called. Then I found a credit card charge to a cafe, clearly for two people.

I loved him deep down but anger overwhelmed me. He asked over and over for a chance to prove he could change

It took me 10 days to get the full details from him. It had been going on for months and they’d slept together six times. I couldn’t breathe; I felt stupid. Everything that had gone before felt like a lie. I left him.
Amir telephoned non-stop and showed up at my parents’. I loved him deep down but anger overwhelmed me. He asked over and over for a chance to prove he could change. Eventually, I agreed to give him three months. We started individual and couples’ therapy and talked through every detail of our relationship. I couldn’t bear to sleep in the same room as him, but I could look at his face again. I agreed to more time.
I see the consistency and changes Amir has made, his commitment. When I discovered his affair, I was ready to give up on our relationship, but we have both grown. No one knows what the future holds and I have my fears. But, right now, I love the way he loves me.
Amir Maryam was the first time in my life I felt real love. But we were both married and I told myself it couldn’t happen.
As time passed, my ex-wife had an affair and my marriage died. Maryam had problems, too, and I made my feelings known. I admired her looks, the way she thinks. This wasn’t a game that I’d started; it was coming from the bottom of my heart.
I was born in the Middle East, in a war zone. As a child, I experienced sexual and physical abuse at the hands of my teacher, but told no one. The human psyche finds soothing mechanisms to alleviate pain. For me, that was sex.
I was in the most loving relationship with Maryam. The sex was amazing. We bought a house, enjoyed travelling. But the foundations were shaky and I unconsciously sought more.
When I got close to a co-worker, it turned into an affair, starting in May 2019 and lasting several months. It was pure sexual desire. This wasn’t someone I wanted to change the course of my life. We were opportunistic and, in those moments, I became blind to the consequences.
When Maryam found out, I tried to lie. I was naive about how much I was going to hurt her. She wanted nothing to do with me. She blocked my calls and texts, and told our family and friends all the details. Everyone who loved me looked at me as a monster. For the first time in my life, I started to wake up.
I made fixing myself and our relationship my only priority. I promised Maryam she would see a change, and started intense therapy, twice a week. I addressed my childhood trauma and sought support for sex addiction. I realised how much I was willing to do for Maryam.
At the beginning, it was simply about keeping Maryam; but it transformed into strengthening our bond. She has made sacrifices for me, been my guide and love. Every day, I’m more appreciative.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/jan/30/couples-on-surviving-trauma-and-loss