Post by armchairdetective on Jun 1, 2018 2:40:33 GMT
Hi all,
Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I have been researching an unsolved and mostly forgotten double-murder from 1981 that I think has a strong possibility of being the work of the GSK. It has been discussed here once or twice before but I believe I have found some new details that weren't previously known. I would like to share my analysis with all of you to get your thoughts and possibly some help in crowdsourcing the investigation. The Case # is 81-57755 and I am attaching here the little publicly available information I've been able to find. (If anyone can find other information, please let me know!) I have also attached some 3D imagery of the area from Google Earth. Here's a link: earth.app.goo.gl/QbbGh
Things that fit:
Things that don't fit:
Not enough information to determine (would love help tracking this down!):
Things that don't make sense if this wasn't GSK (or at least some other serial killer):
If anyone has thoughts or additional information to add, please reply here! Thanks!
Long-time lurker, first-time poster here. I have been researching an unsolved and mostly forgotten double-murder from 1981 that I think has a strong possibility of being the work of the GSK. It has been discussed here once or twice before but I believe I have found some new details that weren't previously known. I would like to share my analysis with all of you to get your thoughts and possibly some help in crowdsourcing the investigation. The Case # is 81-57755 and I am attaching here the little publicly available information I've been able to find. (If anyone can find other information, please let me know!) I have also attached some 3D imagery of the area from Google Earth. Here's a link: earth.app.goo.gl/QbbGh
Things that fit:
- Couple asleep in their bed in the middle of the night
- House was ransacked
- Personal items were taken, more valuable items were not (money, jewelry, rare coins, "other items of great value")
- Victims' hands were tied behind their backs
- Victims found face down on the bed
- Victims shot in the head at close range with a small caliber handgun
- The LVMPD mentioned "possible connections to other related investigations in other States"
- No suspects have ever been identified
- No signs of a struggle or forced entry
- Located right on the edge of a park (Sunset Park -- easily prowl-able from the park behind the house)
- Located next to train tracks
- Located next to a creek (Duck Creek, although today the part closest to the house appears to be filled with concrete. Unclear if this was the case in 1981.)
- Single-story home
- Second from the corner
- Mostly (but not perfectly) L-shaped house
- Quiet upper-middle-class suburban neighborhood
- Gated community (like the Harringtons less than a year earlier)
- Timeline fits (this was during a gap at the height of his ONS phase, and we know he killed in Goleta about a month later)
- Geographic location roughly fits (we know he was in southern California at this time)
- Near an airport and major highway (I-15, which also ends up near Orange County, where we know he was four months earlier)
- There were dogs and the dogs were unharmed (as in a handful of the other attacks)
- Front gate left open
- DNA never tested against GSK, as far as we know (possibly because the investigation was focused on the theory of personal or political motives, or possibly because the case hasn't been revisited since before DNA was well understood)
- Stole a car and abandoned it
- Car (white 1969 Lincoln Continental) was found at the airport indicating the suspect fled by plane. One theory is that that's just what he wanted us to think (4 months earlier GSK possibly staged the scene of the Witthuhn murder to look like a botched robbery -- TV in the backyard). The house is walking distance from the airport, so he could have driven the car there and then walked back to where his car was parked. But another theory is that he did actually leave by plane--Paul Holes has speculated that he might have had a plane because of the cab driver who picked up a man at Modesto airport and dropped him in a field near the attack, the tracks leading to the Davis airport, and the only 22 hours between those attacks. Perhaps GSK was in Vegas on some kind of business? If this is the case, it would explain why he picked this house--it’s on the edge of a park right near the airport. It would also explain why he needed to steal the victim's car--he wasn't from the area, needed a ride to the airport, and didn't have a car. We also know that JJD is a model plane enthusiast. JJD's step dad seems to have owned small planes. JJD may even have had a pilot's license himself.
- A third theory is that he simply parked his own car at the airport (like he possibly did in attack #35) and drove the victims' car to where his own car was parked.
- There is also a giant parking lot in the middle of the park behind the house, a quick straight-shot from the house, where a car could easily have gone unnoticed. The lot is even closer to the airport than the house, so it would have been easy to drop the victim's car at the airport and then walk back through the park to the lot to get his own car and drive off. Unconfirmed whether this lot was there in 1981.
Things that don't fit:
- Not in California (but close -- Sacramento and Irvine are farther apart than Irvine and Las Vegas. Also not far from Visalia and Bakersfield, if you buy those theories.)
- Age of victims (65 - 72, although sources differ on the exact ages) (Speculation: could this have been a response to the press reporting that the ONS only killed young couples? Another theory: in at least a few other crimes, he confused the victim with a neighbor. Is it possible that he didn't have the time to do his normal thorough reconnaissance on this quick business trip, and had the wrong house? When he discovered they were an elderly couple, he realized his mistake but he couldn't leave any witnesses alive, so he shot them.)
- Unclear if there was any evidence suggesting sexual assault, and seems unlikely given that the female victim was 72 (although there was also no sexual assault in the Offerman/Manning murder)
- Possible connection to political/immigration issues although that may be a red herring. (Many of the other GSK attacks, such as Witthuhn, were originally believed to have a different motive and/or suspect.)
Not enough information to determine (would love help tracking this down!):
- Whether dishes were used
- Whether any nearby homes were for sale or under construction at the time
- Whether footprints were found and whether they were around size 9
- Whether any of the victims' food was eaten
- Material used to tie up the victims
- Whether towels were found at the scene
- Physical profile of the perp
- Whether a bicycle was found near the house, park, or airport
Things that don't make sense if this wasn't GSK (or at least some other serial killer):
- If the motive was murder, why bother tying up the victims before shooting them? Seems unnecessary, especially given that the victims were elderly and the killer had a gun.
- If the motive was robbery, why were money, jewelry, rare coins, and "other items of great value" untouched?
- If the motive was robbery and there was no struggle, why kill the victims at all? Seems unnecessary given that by all indications, the victims were cooperating with the robbery--the safes were found open (not broken into).
- If the killer was someone local who knew the victims, why drive their car to the airport? Why not just leave in whatever vehicle he (or they) used to get there? Taking the victims’ car would be an additional risk.
- If the theory is that this was political and the killer fled to the USSR, why couldn't this person be identified from airline records? There couldn't have been that many flights to the USSR out of McCarran that day (at the height of the Cold War). And why was the murder weapon never found? Presumably they could not have brought a gun onto a plane, even in those days. I suppose they could have checked it in their luggage, but it would be an enormous risk given that it had just been used in a murder 10 minutes away. Also you need to declare a firearm in checked baggage, so if this was done there should be a record of it.
- If the murders were personal, what are the "possible connections to other related investigations in other States"?
- Why were the four barking dogs not shot as well?
- What are the odds that someone other than GSK just happened to tie up and shoot a sleeping couple in a one-story, L-shaped, second-from-corner house next to a park, creek, train tracks, and airport, near Southern California in 1981 without signs of forced entry, taking personal items and leaving money and items of much greater value?
If anyone has thoughts or additional information to add, please reply here! Thanks!
Attachments:
Case 81-57755 LVMPD.com.pdf (201.69 KB)
Las Vegas Review Journal 6-26-1981.pdf (677.68 KB)
Las Vegas Sun 6-26-1981.pdf (595.69 KB)