Observations On Two Cold Cases

Or three... actually

For those of you that don’t know, the photograph is of Bill Curtis, who was the host of a television show called, Cold Case Files. Think, Unsolved Mysteries, but about cold cases that had been solved after years of remaining dormant.

None of the things that are going to be discussed in this post are pleasant. If you are the sort that gets upset by such things as cold cases and murder, you’re going to want to go ahead and skip this one.

During this last week, I have been listening to the usual things that I tend to listen to, things like, “Unsolved Mysteries” and Lazy Masquarade’s scary story narrations. While listening to the latter, I was reminded of something that I had just heard on the former and have thoughts about some of the cases that were presented. The first case was on an old episode of, Unsolved Mysteries. When I say “old” I mean from the first run of the show. This particular story was about a realtor names Mike Emert, from Washington State who was murdered. I am going to include the case summary below, because the episode of Unsolved Mysteries is being removed from Hulu today.

Details: Mike and Mary Beth Emert were prosperous partners in Seattle-area real estate and had been married for several years. They lived in Redmond, Washington, and seemed to have the perfect life. All of that changed on January 4, 2001, when he went to meet a man named Steven who was interested in buying a house that he had shown him the previous day. Steven apparently walked with a limp and carried a cane. They met at a local mall at around 11:30AM. They then went to the house, located in Woodinville. It was in its own private lot, far away from neighboring houses.
At 12:30PM, the house's owner returned from work to have lunch. She entered through the garage and was alarmed to find the front door ajar. She was also disturbed by the sound of running water upstairs.

She found a trail of blood that led to the bathroom, where she found Mike's body. He had been brutally murdered, stabbed nineteen times, and was placed in the bathtub with the shower running. His black Cadillac Escalade was later found abandoned at a nearby shopping center. His cell phone and wallet were found in Seattle. It is unknown why the killer left them there.
The police discovered the crime had been meticulously planned. They believe the house was chosen because it was far away from any others. They also believe that Steven may have been hired to kill him, with his handicap merely a ruse. This would explain how a "crippled" man would be able to take him down. Investigators believe that the cane he had might have had a knife in one part of it which was used to kill him. They also believe that the shower and sinks were left running so that the killer could get rid of trace evidence on Mike's body, his own hands, and his weapon.
Although Mike's diamond ring and expensive watch were taken from his body, investigators do not believe robbery was the motive. They also believe that the killer was a professional hitman. However, one question they were never able to answer was who would hire a hitman to kill him. Mary Beth and all of his coworkers were eliminated as suspects. Investigators looked back into his history but could find no one that may have wanted him dead. No motive for the crime has ever been identified. A $5,000 reward is being offered in the case.

Suspects: Police believe the man calling himself "Steven" was the killer. Mike told Mary Beth that Steven was in his fifties, walked with a limp, carried a cane, spoke in an East coast accent, and claimed to have been relocating from Northern California. Some believe that the cane was a ruse and possibly the murder weapon. Police believe he picked the house because of its secluded location. They also believe that he may have committed other murders. He has never been identified.

It’s an interesting case, specifically that the person that apparently committed the murder was a relatively young man, “in his fifties”, that walked with a limp and a cane. When I say relatively young, someone in their fifties is not who is tended to be thought of as having to use a cane. I think that Mike overestimated his age because of that cane as well.

Why?

The case of Oakey "Al" Kite. This is a man that was owned a home that he rented out half of. He was also murdered, by a man that walked with a limp, and used a cane.

In 2004, he had a renter that was long-term, but was moving out, so he advertised the unit at the local University.

One man responded to Al's advertisements for a roommate on May 19th, 2004.

This man, who identified himself as "Robert," wanted to move in almost immediately. He was willing to provide Al with a security deposit and the first month's rent in order to make it happen quickly.

Al told his girlfriend, Linda, about this potential tenant. Al stated that this man had just moved from the East Coast, that he had taken a job at Wells Fargo - in an unknown capacity - and was temporarily staying at the home of his sister's. Hence, why he now needed a place of his own.

Al's girlfriend, Linda Angelopulos, never saw this potential tenant's face. She later stated that the only time they were nearby one another, she had to duck in to use the restroom, and in the minute or two she was in there, this mystery man - "Robert Cooper" - found an excuse to leave.

In her words:

"He did not want me to see him at all."

Despite Linda being unable to get a look at this mystery tenant's face, she was able to describe the kind of clothing he was wearing. She said that he dressed very well, wearing a nice pair of pants and a suit coat.

In addition to details that she witnessed and/or gained from conversations with Al, this mystery man was described as being in his 40's; had dark, wavy hair; stood about five-feet-eight-inches tall; and weighed around 180 pounds.

Also, most uniquely, he walked with a limp. Likewise, he carried a cane to stabilize himself.

However, Linda gained most of this information in a brief glance of the mysterious man, as she exited the bathroom and looked out the window at his profile. She later said:

"I just saw him for an instant."

In addition to Linda's lone sighting, there were a group of unrelated witnesses that recall either seeing - or even encountering - the man named "Robert Cooper."

A local professor, from the University of Colorado, owned a property that she was renting out. A man matching the exact same physical description of this "Robert Cooper" met with her to discuss the property, however... this man did not have a limp, nor did he carry a cane. And, in fact, he even spoke to her with a Romanian accent. 

This man had apparently approached several potential renters in the days and weeks leading up to him responding to Al Kite's advertisement. At least three of these renters recall having encounters with this mysterious man, and - peculiarly - all recall him having different characteristics. He had different accents, mannerisms, etc. It was as-if he was putting different personas on-display, and was playing a new character for each potential witness.

One of these potential renters described this man as being in his mid-30's, while another described him in his early 50's... just to give you an idea of the range being displayed. In one case, a cane and a limp was present... whereas in another, he walked totally fine, without any needed assistance. In some cases, he had an accent... but in others, he spoke very sparsely and said little in a quiet American voice.

One of the renters, an older woman, recalled getting creeped out by the way this strange man moved throughout her home. She said that he seemed to examine the windows very thoroughly, but said very little. After a moment, she recalled getting an odd feeling from the man, and his very presence began to make her feel uneasy.

This is right around the time that "Robert Cooper" responded to Al Kite's advertisement, in May of 2004.

One of Al's neighbors recall seeing this man leave Al's home on May 19th, so police pinned that down as the first time he made contact with Al Kite.

Over the next day or two, at least two of Al's neighbors recall having odd encounters with the man: 
A male neighbor tried to approach this "Robert Cooper," but was completely and utterly ignored. In another case, a female neighbor said that she encountered this man on a nearby walking trail, but recalled him seeming to stare through her without talking. 

She also said that, when she encountered the man, he was walking without a limp. 

At the time these strange incidents were happening, hard-working Al Kite was totally unaware. Just a day or two after meeting Al Kite, the two reached an agreement: in addition to a security deposit, this man - named "Robert Cooper" - would provide half of the first month's rent and would move in shortly. 

I am going to skip the details of this particular case, as it involved some pretty in-depth torture. The first killing appeared to the police to be well-planned, and possibly a hit. They believed that the killer selected the house where the murder took place specifically because of its location and isolation.

The second killing was meticulously planned, and also have been theorized to be a hit. I think this is more of a serial killer situation, but a hit could be possible. If it was a hit what the reasoning was for the torture, I don’t know, but if you are a hitter, and that’s what’s ordered and you offer it, that’s what you do. The Iceman is an excellent example of torture/murder for hire.

I find the two cases to be far too similar to be coincidental. Perhaps I’m wrong.

Both killers walked with a limp and used a cane.

Both killers used real estate as their approach to their victims.

Both killers were described as similar in age. Mike Emert thought that “Steven” was in his fifties, and Linda Angelopulos thought that Robert was in his forties. However, there is ample evidence that his age was hard to pin down:

“One of these potential renters described this man as being in his mid-30's, while another described him in his early 50's... just to give you an idea of the range being displayed”

Which is why I think that Mike Emert might have overestimated his age. I think that he was younger than Mike believed at the time of his killing.

Both killers incapacitated their victims with a blow to the head.

Both killers ended their victims’ lives with stabbing.

The murders took place only three years apart, and only a few states separated.

Interestingly, when it comes to the Mike Emert case, there is a bit of a follow-up:

Unresolved. In May of 2011, DNA found at and near the crime scene was linked to sixty-two-year-old former police officer Gary Krueger. Investigators discovered that he had died several months earlier; he had drowned in Lake Washington after fleeing the scene of a home invasion. His motive for the crime is still a mystery. He was also linked to the three previously unsolved murders of Mario Vaccarino, Jim Barry, and Terry Dolan. He is also a suspect in the murder of Cheryl Grose. These circumstances imply he may have been hired as a hitman, but who hired him if anyone is unknown.

Another theory is that the murder was real estate related. After retiring as a police officer, Gary worked a short time as a real estate agent. One of his other possible victims, Jim Barry, was a real estate attorney. His crime partner, John Alan Bradshaw, had previously been convicted of arson and money laundering. Bradshaw also vanished after the home invasion and is believed to have drowned.

I think that they should add one more to the list.

The next one that I have been thinking about.

The Keddie Murders

Keddie is a tiny settlement in Plumas County on the outskirts of Quincy, California. Keddie had been a bustling resort town since its revival in 1978. At the centre of its hub was Keddie Resort, a collection of 33 rustic cabins which could be rented out long term for around $170 per month. The stream was perfect for fishing and the pine-studded trails were a favourite amongst hikers. However, on April 11, 1981, this quaint settlement was rocked by a brutal quadruple murder that still remains unsolved.

It was a bright spring morning on the 12th of April, 1981, when 14-year-old Sheila Sharp entered cabin 28 on Keddie Resort Road after attending a nearby sleepover. The Sharp family had been living in cabin 28 for the past five months after moving to Keddie from Quincy. Upon opening the front door, Sheila was met by a grisly scene. At some point during the night, somebody had entered cabin 28 and ruthlessly murdered Sheila’s mother, Glenna Sue Sharp, her 15-year-old brother, John Sharp, and her brother’s 17-year-old friend, Dana Wingate. Sheila ran screaming back to the neighbouring cabin where she had spent the night, cabin. A member of the Seabolt family in cabin 27 ran to the lodge at Keddie Resort and co-owner, Jan Albin, placed a call to police, alerting them to the murders. As police were on their way to the crime scene, Sheila remembered that her two younger brothers, 10-year-old Greg Sharp and 5-year-old Rick Sharp, were still inside the cabin along with their friend, 12-year-old Justin Smartt. Miraculously, all three boys were all unharmed. The Seabolt family and Sheila helped the boys climb out of the bedroom window. Seemingly, they had slept through the entire massacre.

Deputy Hank Klement was the first office on the scene. All three of the victims had been bound with electrical wire and medical tape before they were systematically bludgeoned to death with a claw hammer. The murders had been particularly vicious. In addition to being bludgeoned, Sue and John had been stabbed numerous times with a knife and their throats had been slashed. Sue had additionally been bludgeoned with the butt of a rifle and she had defensive wounds on her arms indicating that she had put up a fight. She was also found nude from the waist down with her underwear stuffed in her mouth. Dana’s autopsy concluded that in addition to the wounds caused by the claw hammer, he had been manually strangled. Discarded in the living room nearby the bodies was a knife which had been used during the attack. Chillingly, it had been used with force that the blade had bent.

It had been a violent and frenzied attack yet nobody had heard a thing

The blood at the scene wasn’t confined to just the floor or the victims. Blood was additionally discovered on the wallpaper, in one of the bedrooms, on the living room ceiling and spattered across the furniture. The bottoms of Sue’s bare feet and the soles of one of the boy’s shoes were also covered in blood which indicated that they were mobile at some point during the attack and had stepped in the blood. There had even been blood discovered on both of the bedroom doors and outside on the handrails of the back steps.

It was soon discovered that Sheila’s younger sister, 12-year-old Tina Sharp, was missing from the cabin. Tina had wanted to stay overnight at the Seabolt’s cabin with Sheila but Sue hadn’t allowed her. Members of the Plumas-County Search and Rescue team scoured the Keddie area for the missing child but to no avail. An all-points-bulletin was put out to Lassen, Butte and Sierra Counties and Reno, asking to keep an eye out for Tina. She was described as having long blonde hair and of slight build. She was wearing blue jeans and a blue shirt when she was last seen the night before. The bulletin also asked the same areas to check with local hospitals to see if anybody had come in during the last 48 hours with knife injuries. They had speculated that with such a violent attack, the killer or killers must have harmed themselves in the process.

The gruesome murders sent shockwaves throughout the quaint community. Investigators tried to piece together the last known movements of the victims. Witnesses said that they saw John and Dana trying to thumb a ride near the corner of Crescent Street and Lawrence Street in Quincy, near the Gold Pan Motel. This was at some time between 9PM and 10PM on the night of the murders. Their whereabouts afterwards is unknown. At some point over the next ten hours, however, the teenage boys ended up back at Keddie Resort where they were murdered. Early on in the investigation, robbery was ruled out as a motivation since nothing from the cabin appeared to be missing. Investigators had surmised that the murders had been somewhat planned and had been perpetrated by two or more assailants, one of which had brought along a claw hammer and then used an additional hammer and two knives found inside the cabin. What perplexed investigators most was that it had been a violent and frenzied attack yet nobody had heard a thing; not Greg, Rick, Justin or the neighbours who lived a mere 10 feet away.

While it was initially reported that Justin had slept through the entire ordeal, he later gave conflicting stories to investigators about that night. While first of all, he said that he witnessed nothing, he later claimed that he had witnessed the murders from the bedroom door. Later, however, Justin changed his story once again and relayed that he had just dreamt of the murder. Under hypnosis, Justin recalled his dream. He described two men in the home; one had a moustache and long hair while the other had shorter hair and was clean shaven. Justin recalled that one of the men had a pocketknife in his right hand which he used to cut Sue in the chest. In his dream, this same man had a hammer in the other hand. In another hypnosis session, Justin described Tina waking up and walking into the living room to see what was going on. According to Justin, a man then snatched Tina up in his arms and carried her through the kitchen and out to the back steps. Moments later, the man then returned on his own. A psychologist evaluated Justin’s description of the dream and came to the conclusion that Justin had witnessed the murders and then as a defence mechanism, he had converted what he actually saw into a dream.

For the first few weeks of the investigation, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Department had eight investigators working on the case around the clock. They implemented a Secret Witness program to try and gain leads. They subsequently released sketches of two men who were seen in Quincy the week before the murders. 'They’re still not necessarily suspects, but they were around the area and vanished shortly before the crimes. They were seen by more than one witness,' said Plumas County Sheriff, Doug Thomas. The two men were never identified and eventually, the tips dwindled to a trickle before diminishing almost completely. 'By the time a year had elapsed, we would react and investigate leads as they came in,' said Plumas County Sheriff’s Sgt. Steve Wright.

There was much speculation over the years that the killer or killers had wanted to get to Tina for sexual purposes. Some even clung to the hope that Tina was alive somewhere and being held hostage. Then in April of 1984, a bottle hunter stumbled across human remains near Feather Falls, northwest of Oroville, around 50 miles from Keddie. The remains were sent to a laboratory for analysis and identification. Using dental records, the remains were identified as Tina. According to the medical examiner, Tina had died sometime after 1 November, 1981, six months after the Keddie murders. Due to advanced decomposition, her cause of death could not be determined but it’s accepted that she too was murdered.

There are a ton of theories about this case, and you should check them out if you are so inclined, I just happen to disagree with them. I am fairly convinced that the killers of this group of people are Leonard Lake and Charles Ng. They were a pair of serial killers that are responsible for at least eleven murders, but the count may be much higher. They did not discriminate in their victims for murder, but they had a penchant for holding woman captive as sex slaves in an underground bunker. They also videotaped a number of their crimes.

I’m not going to spend a great deal of time speaking about their crimes because there would be far too much to cover. However, I think that they are the ones responsible for the murders in Keddie.

Why?

Well, I don’t have a lot of evidence on this one. Call it more a feeling that I have about it. I was familiar with the Keddie murders quite a while ago, but when I heard about Lake and NG, something just told me that they should be considered. Keep in mind that I didn’t recall when the Keddie killings were, where Keddie actually was, and when Lake and NG were operating, but for some reason, it made sense to me. Likely this is my brain subconsciously gathering information about the cases and making connections that I wasn’t particularly aware of. It is how I tend to think human instinct works. You don’t realize all the things that your brain has gathered, but it does, and is always working.

This last week, on the same Lazy Masquerade video that will be linked below, where I heard about the Oakey "Al" Kite case, he also covered the Keddie murders. It’s like a four-hour video, so fair warning before you go listening. There is a list of timestamps in the comment section, however, so that should direct you if you just want to hear about these cases. While listening to it I thought again about my Leonard Lake/Charles Ng hypothesis, and decided to look into it. Now I am even more convinced that I am correct about this.

Ng joined the Marines in October 1979 with the help, he claimed, of a recruiting sergeant and false documents attesting to his birthplace as Bloomington, Indiana. After less than a year of service, he was arrested by military police for stealing automatic weapons from the Kaneohe Bay base armory. Facing court-martial, Ng escaped custody in 1980 and made his way back to northern California, where he met Leonard Lake

Why is this important? The Keddie murders took place in 1981, and the location where they took place is also in Northern California about four hours from either location that the two killers were known to frequent, Ukiah Ca and Wilseyville Ca. They are both a four-hour drive from Keddie, but in different directions. Lake and Ng traveled to get their victims, the majority of which came from the San Fransico area. Keddie is almost exactly the same distance from Wilseyville as SF, but the time to travel there is doubled because of the different types of roads that have to be used. There are no major freeways, only backroads and a fair amount of forest.

Both Lake and NG were survivalist types. Spending time on the backroads of the area that they hunted would be something that I would expect. While they hadn’t met much prior to the Keddie murders, it is believed that Ng had killed previously to meeting Lake. While all of this is rather loose in terms of evidence, it is two things that convince me that they are responsible.

The first is the suspect composites for the Keddie killers:

Compared to Leonard Lake and Charles Ng:

The other thing that has me convinced is the girl that the killers took with them from the Keddie Cabin, Tina Sharp. Remember what I said these two wanted to keep women for? It is a lot easier to try and train a young girl than it is to subdue a grown woman.

If they were there playing survivalist, they might have been hiking in the backcountry and came across the Keddie cabin. Perhaps they saw Tina, thought that she would be a perfect victim, and went about kidnapping her. I think the killings were to obtain Tina. It didn’t seem that the killings were planned. The weapons used were obtained from the immediate area of the murders, they weren’t brought by the killers.

This would also explain why Tina’s body was found so far away from the first scene. If they hiked in, they would have to hike out, and now they had a child that they had to make hike out with them. She wasn’t prepared or trained for anything of the sort, and she likely wasn’t being cooperative either. It would have been a fifty-mile hike from where she was taken, to where her body was found. Perhaps she didn’t make it and succumbed to exhaustion. Perhaps she was too much trouble. Perhaps they changed their minds. who knows.

In the accounting offered by one of the witnesses to the crime, he described Tina walking in on the murders and being ushered out the door by one of the men. In other words, her kidnapping was spontaneous, not planned. This does not line up with the evidence found near her body. A blue nylon jacket was located. The coat was found alongside a blanket, a pair of Levi’s with a missing back pocket, and a used reel of medical tape. It sounds like she was with the murderers up until the time of her death, and they still had the medical tape that was used during the murders with them. It sounds like she died pretty close to when her family did.

Where she was found is more interesting. As I mentioned, it would have been a fifty-mile kile, but a one-hundred-mile drive from Keddie to Feather Falls. It is also possible that they happened across the area while driving. A strange van was apparently seen in the area on the night of the killings. Lake and Ng famously were known to be in possession of victims’ vehicles right after they went missing. Perhaps there is another killing in the area that hasn’t been discovered, or it has, but not linked. I had a look at where Father Falls would be on the map between Keddie and Wilseyville, and it is interestingly, right along the way as you can see here:

Keddie to Feather Falls to Wilseyville

If you had to get rid of a body, the detour isn’t very far.

The killings were vicious, but it seemed that there was a goal in mind, which was Tina. This would have been very early on in the Lake/NG serial killing story, so it is no wonder that it didn’t go to plan, if their plan was to kidnap and keep her. I have no proof that any of these cases are linked or related in any way, but they just seem to me that they are.

Perhaps I’m wrong, or perhaps I’m not. The last that I heard about the Keddie killings, they were testing the DNA of a suspect that was still living. All the suspects that are frequently turned over and over in the discussion groups are deceased. Leonard Lake is also deceased, he took his own life because he was afraid of prison. Charles Ng is still alive, however. Perhaps the DNA that they are testing, is his.

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Mike Emert

Oakey "Al" Kite

The Keddie Murders: California's infamous quadruple homicide

Leonard Lake

Unsolved Mysteries: The Murder and Corruption of Keddie Cabin