Criminology - The Keddie Cabin Murders

Episode Date: June 6, 2020

In April 1981, a quadruple murder shocked the small resort community of Keddie, California. Known as "the Keddie Cabin murders" or simply the Keddie Murders, the horrific slayings of a young mother, her two children, and a teenage friend have remained one of California's most infamous cases. While officially still unsolved, two main suspects, a possible cover-up and a new investigation have kept the case alive. Now, with modern DNA technology, can the Keddie Murders finally be solved? Join Mike and Morf as they discuss this infamous unsolved case out of California.  You can help support the show at patreon.com/criminology An Emash Digital Production Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Hello everyone and welcome to episode 115 of the criminology podcast. I'm Mike Ferguson. And this is Mike Morford. Mr. Morford, what's going on with you? Trying to get a little work done, doing stuff around the house, waiting for my wife and kids to return home from Florida this weekend. I'm pretty excited about that. How about you?

Yeah, I mean, same. Just trying to hunker down and get work done, research, right? I mean, it's kind of the same thing that you and I do weekend and week out. I will say this. I've been ordering way too much Grubhub, DoorDash. I got to cut back, man. I am spending a ton of money to have food delivered.

Once you start down that path, it's like, this is way too easy. Yeah, I guess if there's a bright side about it is you don't have to go out and do that stuff yourself. You can do it right from the comfort of your home. I've been doing a lot of grilling on the grill, barbecuing with hamburgers, hot dogs, stuff like that. So I'm doing it easy, but not spending a lot of money and not having people deliver. Yeah, I'm spending way too much money. I got a,

I got to pull back. We continue to have an amazing amount of Patreon support. So let's give some shoutouts. We had Robert Blitz, Lisa Davies, Rachel, Josh Ramsey, S. Hunter, Dana Baldock, Jed Patton and Hannah. So a lot of new support and we really appreciate it. Yeah, thank you so much for that. It means a lot. And if there's anyone else that would like to support the show on Patreon, you can do so by visiting patreon.com slash criminology.

And don't forget about Stitcher Premium, the one spot where you can listen to every episode of ours that's older than six months. You get not only our stuff like GSK, Zodiac, Bundy, son of Sam, and more of our stuff, but also access to lots of other great content from other shows as well. And they have a 30-day risk-free trial. So you have nothing to lose by trying it out. All right, Morph, it's time to jump into this case. This is a very brutal and mysterious one that we're covering in this episode.

In April 1981, a quadruple murder shocked the small resort community of Keddy, California. Known as the Keddy Cabin murders, or simply the Keddy murders, the horrific slings of a young mother, her two children, and a teenage friend have remained one of California's most infamous cases. While officially still unsolved, two main suspects, a possible cover-up, and a new investigation have kept this case alive. Now, with modern DNA technology, can the Ketty murders finally be solved? Ketty is a small resort community in northern California, wedged between the railroad and Spanish Creek that's surrounded by vast wilderness and the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The town was named in honor of railroad surveyor Arthur Walter Kettie and established in 1910. Ketty Resort Lodge was a two-story log building, which was formerly known as Ketty Inn, and it housed railroad workers and a variety of travelers.

Kevin Fagan of San Franciscogate.com wrote in June 2001, The Lodge's restaurant was packed almost every night with customers, who came from as far as San Francisco to dine on barbecued bear ribs, sherry-based raccoon steaks, all shot locally, and fine wines. While out of the way, this was a destination for some people that made it a point to come here. In 1981, Ketty still had the lodge as well as a post office and a general. store, students from Feather River College stayed in a boarding house there during the school year. At the hotel, a guest could stay in the main building or one of the 30 cabins adjacent to it.

The cabins were about 100 yards from Spanish Creek and many guests would fish for trout. In the 70s and into the early 80s, community residents began renting the cabins as primary residences. Keddy once was a safe and thriving little community where everyone knew and trusted each other, but that all changed in April 1981. Glenys Susan Sharp, who went by Sue, wanted to make a fresh start in life. Born on March 24, 1945 in Springfield, Massachusetts, Sue married James Sharp at a young age, and by 20, she had her first child, a son named John. Four more children followed. two daughters, Sheila and Tina, and two more sons, Rick and Greg. James was in the military, and Sue was a stay-at-home mother.

The Sharp family resided in Connecticut before relocated in North Carolina. But their marriage was a troubled one, and James had allegedly been abusive. In 1979, Sue separated from James and left North Carolina, taking the kids cross-country to Quincy, California. That's where her brother, Don Davis, lived. She was hoping for a fresh start and a new environment. When she first arrived in Quincy, Sue and the kids lived in a small mobile home in the Claremont trailer park. James Sharp reportedly visited Sue and the kids once in 1979, but never

returned. Being in a new place, now only with one parent, that was very tough on the children, but they slowly got used to their new lives and began to settle in. In November 1980, Sue rented cabin 28 at the Keddy Resort Lodge. This was a step up from the mobile home, but it only had two bedrooms. John, who was 15, moved into a room in the basement that was accessible only from the outside. The entrance doors were usually unlocked so that John could gain access to the home's bathroom and upstairs. Sue and the two girls, Sheila and Tina, shared one bedroom, while Rick and Greg shared the other.

Sue Sharp struggled to make ends meet in California. Her income consisted of $250 from the Navy, a small stipend from the California Education Training Act program, food stamps, and a part-time job at the Quincy Elks Lodge. Sue didn't receive any child support money from James, but still managed to provide for her kids. She hoped that the future would be brighter, and that better opportunities would come her family's way, and that one day they could all live much more comfortably in a larger house. house, but that day would never come. On Saturday night, April 11th, 1981, 14-year-old Sheila Sharp and her 12-year-old sister Tina

went next door to the Seabolt family's cabin. Sheila was going to spend the night as she was friends with one of the Seabult children. Tina also wanted to spend the night. But around 9.30 p.m., Sue ordered her to come home. John Sharp's friend, 17-year-old Dana Wingate, was spending the night at the Sharp home. Additionally, Rick's friend Justin Eason, who was 12 years old, was also staying the night. So this was going to be a pretty full cabin of people. And the kids were going to be all hanging out and doing what kids normally do at a big sleepover.

The next morning, at around 8 a.m., Sheila walked home and entered the cabin. She wasn't prepared for what awaited her inside. She found the battered and bloody bodies of her mom, Sue, her brother John, and John's friend Dana on the floor of the living room. Horrified, Sheila ran back to the Seabolt's home and told the family what she discovered. The Seabolt family included James Sr., his wife Zanita, daughters Elisa and Paula, and one son James or Jamie as he went by. Jamie, Sheila, and Zanita went back to Cabin 28 and looked into the house through the windows. That's when they saw Greg, Rick, and Rick's friend Justin alive in one of the bedrooms. They opened the window and pulled all three boys out.

The boys were unharmed. Jamie later admitted to entering the cabin and may have unknowingly contaminated evidence. The Seabolt family didn't have a telephone, so someone ran to the lodge to report the Grizzly crime at 8.05 a.m. Jan Albin, co-owner of the Keddy Resort Lodge, phone the police to report the murders. The first person to arrive at the crime scene was Sheriff's deputy Hank Clement, followed by under Sheriff Ken Shanks, and then Sergeant Jerry Shaver. Plumas County Sheriff Doug Thomas arrived around 8.50 a.m. And then soon after that, two investigators, Al Brubaker, and Dennis Forsino, who were fishing together at Antelope Lake, arrived at the scene.

The experienced team of Lawmen were shocked by this crime scene. It was an extremely gruesome one. All three bodies were lying on the living room floor. The inside walls of the home were spattered with blood, which indicated the murders took place in that room. There were also slash marks on the walls. And Sheriff Thomas told papers shortly after the murders that these slash marks were, quote, like somebody jabbing knives into it. Three blood-soaked murder weapons, a butcher knife, a claw hammer, and a steak knife were laying side by side on a small wooden table near the entry into the kitchen.

The weapons were household items. The victims were bound with medical tape and electrical wire. Sue Sharp lying on her side near the sofa was nude from the waist. down. There was evidence that someone rearranged her from a different position. Her underwear and a blue bandana were stuffed in her mouth as a gag, and it was secured with medical tape. Her hands and feet were bound together. She had been hit in the head with the butt of a gun, possibly a Daisy Powerline 880 rifle. A yellow blanket covered her body, and there were defensive wounds on her arms. It's not known if Sue was sexually assaulted, despite being found half naked.

John Sharp's body was the closest to the front door. He was lying on his back with his feet bound by an electrical wire that was also wrapped around Dana's feet. His hands were tied together with medical tape. Dana was lying face down with his head resting on a couch cushion. He had been manually strangled. All the victims suffered brutal blows to the head with a hammer or multiple hammers and were stabbed repeatedly. Sue and John had their throat slit. Blood pools on the living room floor and sofa cushion indicated the boys' bodies were moved and staged. The soles on John and Dana's shoes and the bottom of Sue's feet were covered in blood,

indicating the victims were mobile and stepped in blood at some point during their horrific ordeal. Investigators found blood on both bedroom doors on some bedding and Sue's bedding. and outside on the handrail of the outdoor stairs at the back of the home. There were signs of a struggle, but no signs of forced entry. This indicated to police the family possibly knew their killer, or killers. Authorities removed pieces of floors and walls and inspected the bathroom and kitchen drain and obtained the contents they found. In total, investigators collected and cataloged more than 150 pieces of evidence.

The bodies were taken over 100 miles away, to the site. Sacramento County Coroner's Office where the autopsies were performed. Sheriff Thomas said this was so that Department of Justice criminalists could take evidence from the bodies. The autopsies determined that all three victims died from blunt force trauma as well as knife wounds. Authorities tested blood samples taken from the home and the results were typo. But that didn't help investigators because the entire Sharp family had typo blood. Investigators

initially said there were no drugs found in the system of any of the victims, but Sheriff Thomas later admitted that at least one of the victims was involved in some way with drugs. However, there were no drugs found in Cabin 28.

Incredibly, for unknown reasons, perhaps due to the shock and all the chaos, it took hour after the bodies were found for police to determine that 12-year-old Tina Sharp was missing. Once they realized that, an All-Points bulletin went out to Butte, Lassen, and Sierra counties in California, and to Reno, Nevada, asking if anyone had seen the girl. The APB stated Tina had long blonde hair, was slightly built, and wearing a blue shirt and blue jeans when last cited. The Bolton also asked police in these areas to check with local hospitals to see if anyone had come

during the previous 48 hours to receive treatment for knife cuts or wounds. At this point, the police were unsure whether the killers or killers had been injured when they attacked the family, but it was a possibility. Plumas County Search and Rescue scoured the area on April 12th, but they didn't find anything. Several cars were in the vicinity of the crime scene, but none were linked to any suspects. authorities conducted a two-day search of the Keddy area with four dog teams but turned up nothing. As the investigation continued, two members of the California Department of Justice, Harry Bradley and Mike Krimm, as well as two FBI agents, Dick Donner and Larry Ott of Chico,

California were called in. Sheriff Thomas called the FBI because he believed that the killer or killers abducted Tina Sharp. It seemed as if everything was being done that could be done to find Tina and the person or persons who had committed the murders. Police interviewed a man as a possible suspect. He had left Caddy shortly after the killings and went to Oregon. However, he took a polygraph test and passed. It turned out that he had gone to Oregon for a new job. Through the investigation, authorities were able to trace the Sharp family's last known movements. Sue Sharp stayed home all evening on Sunday.

Saturday, April 11th, while the girls were next door at the Seaboltz. Tina arrived home at 9.30 p.m. and reportedly went to bed right after that. Dana Wingate and John Sharp were seen hitchhiking that night toward Keddy from a Quincy intersection beneath the savings and loan sign where the clock read 10.16 p.m. But investigators weren't sure what time they arrived home. Years later, police tracked down a female driver who had picked up the boys and drove them to the cabin sometime between the last sighting and 11 p.m. The woman said the boys entered the home through the front door, not around back where John's bedroom entrance was.

There was no outside light on, but she saw a light from inside the home. She said that something about the scene was eerie, and she got a really bad feeling, so she left immediately. There was early speculation that the two boys had been at a party, but no one came forward to confirm it. One man in the neighborhood told police that he was up until about two-eastern, am. But he didn't hear anything unusual. Several people walked by the sharp home during the night and reported that they didn't hear or see anything unusual either. But not everyone recounted a

peaceful night. It turns out that a man and a woman were awoken by muffled screams sometime around 1.30 a.m. They sat up in bed listening to see if there was any more noise, but there was only silence. So when they didn't hear any additional sounds, the couple went back to sleep. And Morph, I'll be honest with you, man, this happens to me all the time. I don't know if it's a nightly basis, but it's darn close. I'll hear something and it bolts me up out of bed and I sit there listening for the next sound to come or an additional sound. I don't hear anything. Sometimes I'll get up, walk around the house, but eventually I'll go back to bed. Now, my first thought is not, oh my gosh, there's something really bad going on. It's more like,

okay, what is that? It's more curious, quizzical than anything else. I'm not really thinking that somebody next door is being heard or murdered or, you know, that really never enters my mind. Yeah, I wonder if that's happened to everyone at some point because it's definitely happened to me too. And you hear what you think is a sound. Of course, you're sleeping so you don't know if you're dreaming or whatever, but that feeling you get when you wake up, like, what was that? And you wonder if you were dreaming it or did you really hear something, but it's enough to make you wonder, I've got up and gone outside and looked around and brought the dog out just to calm my mind a little bit, that nothing was going on. Well, I don't usually make it outside, but sometimes I'll get up and

walk around the house. I mean, really, the only thing that I ever worry about is, is that the sound of somebody trying to break in? That's what I'm worried about. my mind naturally goes there. It really doesn't go to, you know, outside of my house, neighbors, something bad is happening. Now, if I heard a gunshot, I think that would be different. But normally I'm hearing a sound that, you know, I can't really identify. So, but a gunshot would be different for me. I think we've, we've talked about gunshots and other episodes. I remember, uh, you said maybe even a shot hit your roof. Um, But we live in areas that are sort of, I guess, off the beaten path, or at least I do.

And it's not unusual for people to shoot guns in the middle of the night every once in a while you'll hear a gunshot. And there's a lot of people that set fireworks off too. So you have to sort of learn to see if you can tell which is which sound. Well, and some every now, and, you know, depending on how congested the places where you live, you'll have a cartback fire. It doesn't happen, I don't think, as much as it used to years ago. but that can sometimes sound to some people like a gunshot. Investigators tried to piece together a likely scenario of how things unfolded in Cabin 28. They believe that the boys went to John's room, heard a scream, and ran up the back stairs to enter the home.

In all likelihood, John rushed to help his mother and was immediately attacked. Dana turned to leave the room, but the assailant or assailants struck him on the back of the head with a hammer. Newspaper articles from 1981 never even mentioned 12-year-old Justin Eason being in the sharp home on the night of the murders. They only mentioned Rick and Greg. Police initially thought the three boys had slept through the murders, but at the same time, they wondered how that was possible. Sheriff Thomas initially said that hypnotism was being used in the investigation, but he didn't really clarify it. Later, authorities verified that Justin Eason was hypnotized. but determining fact from fiction proved to be a real struggle for investigators.

Under hypnosis, Justin told of his activities on April 11th and said that later in the day, Sheila and Tina were visiting the Seabolds. Tina came home around 7.30 to wash dishes and then she went back to the Seabold home. Tina came back around 9.30 and went to bed. Justin, Rick, and Sue had watched the TV show. the love boat before going to bed at 10. But this is where Justin's story straddled the line between a dream and reality. Because Justin said he had dreamed that two men were involved in a fight with Dana Wingate and John Sharp on a boat and the boys were tossed overboard. One of the men

had a pocket knife in his right hand and cut Sue Sharp in the chest. He said that same man had a hammer in his other hand. He told the authorities that a man grabbed Tina and carried her through the kitchen and down the back stairs. The man returned to the others, removed a hunting knife that someone had jammed in one of the interior walls, picked up the blanket and fled the cabin. And I think from those details, you can understand why authorities had trouble separating what was real, what was a dream, because you have part of it taking place on a boat, and then you have some details that are taking place in the cabin where authorities knew that the murders occurred, no doubt, Morph, it would have been very tough for them to try to separate everything.

And I know that a lot of times investigators use hypnosis or polygraph test or things along those lines to help guide them in a certain direction. But I always wonder how accurate they are and if they can cause more confusion or lead them off the right path if they put too much stock into them. Yeah, I really don't know that much about hypnosis, to be honest with you. I mean, obviously investigators want every detail, every clue they can get. But to your point, if you're getting stuff that's not real, is it leading you, you know, in the wrong direction? And, wasting valuable time and all that stuff. In the suburbs of D.C., a woman fails to show up for work and is found brutally murdered.

I wonder what's emergency? We just walked in the door, and there's blood in the foyer. For the next two decades, the case remained unsolved until new technology allowed investigators to do what had once been impossible. A new series from ABC Audio in 2020, Blood and Water. Listen now, wherever you get your... Podcasts. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries

is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for Moms and Mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to Who Donuts, where you're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly touch.

Subscribe now to Moms and Mysteries wherever you get. your podcast. If you love chilling mysteries, unsolved cases, and a touch of mom-style humor, moms and mysteries is the podcast you've been searching for. Hey guys, I'm Mandy. And I'm Melissa. Join us every Tuesday for moms and mysteries, your gateway to gripping, well-researched true crime stories. Each week, we deep dive into a variety of mind-boggling cases as we shed light on everything from heist to who done it. We're your go-to podcast for Mysteries with a Motherly touch. Subscribe now to moms and mysteries wherever you get. your podcast. In May 1981, a sketch artist drew two composite sketches based on Justin's

descriptions of the two men. One was described as around 28 to 30 years old, between 5 foot 11 and 6 foot 2, medium build, and dark blonde hair, which was slightly curled out at the ends. The other man was in his early 30s, between 5'6 and 5 foot 10, with a medium build, a black mustache, and black hair greased and combed back. Both men were wearing gold-framed sunglasses. If they were able to be identified, the Plumas County Sheriff's Office wanted to question the men in connection with the murders. Several people came forward saying that they had seen two men closely resembling the composites in Quincy, but nobody knew their names. Authorities would eventually learn their names, but it wouldn't be until years later. In June 1981, Sheriff Doug Thomas decided to use the Secret Witness program

to gain information on the slings. And this is how the program worked. A caller would dial the county secret witness line or write a letter to the program. Then they'd be given a code name for identification purposes. The phone calls were not recorded or listened to anyone other than the people working in the witness program. The code names were used in case authorities needed to contact the witness if they wanted additional information. Investigators thought this might be a good way to get information, but it turned out to be fruitless. And in the end, not much of anything came in as far as Leeds went through this method.

The investigation into the Ketty murders and into Tina's disappearance slowed and eventually began to cool off. Authorities were at a loss as to what happened to Tina Sharp, but they believe she was likely no longer alive. The murders changed the town of Ketty. The community was scared. and suspicious of everyone. People began locking their doors at night, something they never did before. In December 1983, police briefly looked into the possibility that serial killer duo, Henry Lee Lucas, and Otis Tool may have been involved. The pair had traveled through the Feather River area in 1980, and they did not return until May 1981. And more if it's very interesting.

Somehow, some way, these two killers turn up in so many cases that, we discuss, either because they have inserted themselves into a case or investigators have thrown their names out as being potential suspects. I mean, Henry Lee Lucas especially has inserted his name into so many different cases. But it turned out that both Lucas and Tool were indicted in Florida on April 14th, 1981, and the murders happened in the early morning hours of April 12th, Lucas

and Toul did not fly around during their travels, so that made it pretty easy for the police to rule them out in the Keddy murders. There were no real strong suspects, at least none that police shared publicly, and the case went cold.

It wasn't until 1984 that something would once again heat the case up. On April 22nd, 1984, a man hunting for bottles found a human skull near a place known as Camp 18, a few miles from Feather Falls neighboring Butte County and 60 miles southwest of Keddy. Butte County authorities searched the area and also found the lower jawbone with some teeth in it. At first, investigators thought these were the remains of Kevin Collins, a 10-year-old boy who disappeared from San Francisco in February 1984.

but dental charts and x-rays disproved their theory. The remains were eventually identified as those of Tina Sharp. Police were hopeful that with the finding of Tina's body, they'd have something new to go on. But unfortunately, Tina's remains were devoid of any evidence or clues to help investigators, and they didn't have a direction to go in. Little took place in the Keddy Murders investigation for years. After the discovery of Tina Sharpe's remains,

in 1996, Robert Joseph Silveria, a former Plumas County resident and Chester Airport manager, admitted to a string of California killings, including the Keddy murders. But he later recanted his confession in the Keddy murders, and he was never charged. Sillaria was later convicted of killing 35 transient men and became known as the boxcar murderer. while interesting to investigators, it turned out that this man was just a rabbit hole for them. In 2008, a documentary on the Kettie Murders was released. It was called Cabin 28, The Kettie Murders. The film took four years to create and included interviews with family members, police, FBI agents, and witnesses. One person in the documentary was Marilyn Smart. She stated that she suspected her husband Marty Smart and his friend,

John, Bo, Boba day were responsible for the Keddy murders. Marilyn said that on the night of the murders, she left Marty and Bo at a local bar at around 11 p.m. She went home and went to bed. When she woke up at 2 a.m., Marty was burning something in the wood stove. She also claimed that Marty, quote, hated Johnny Sharp with a passion. But Sheriff Doug Thomas, who was also in the documentary, said Marty took and passed a polygraph test. Years later, the sheriff said he never believed Marty and Bo committed the murders. And Morph, I think this is interesting.

When you get into the area of polygraph tests, we know that many years ago or a number of years ago, polygraph tests were seen as very reliable. And I just wonder how many people were ruled out in so many different cases around the country, around the world based solely on the results of a polygraph test. Well, now currently today, we know that polygraph tests aren't that reliable. They're not admissible in evidence in almost all states in the United States. I think it's a very interesting question. I think we touched on that a little bit earlier when we're talking about hypnosis,

polygraphs. So, well, a polygraph may be a tool that. that investigators use as one of the many tools they should be using for them to rely on that solely seems irresponsible when they have more scientific ways. Of course, back then, they didn't know about DNA, but they still had fingerprints, palm prints, even hairs. They would use hairs and that kind of thing. So that kind of stuff seems like it would be more powerful than anything that a polygraph result would show. Well, and we know, right, investigative tools progress over time. I mean, you mentioned hairs.

Authorities used to use hair analysis as a very powerful weapon in a prosecution. Well, we know now it led to a lot of wrongful convictions, right? They would say that this hair is microscopically similar to the defendant or whatever term they used. Well, you know, it turned out that. that it wasn't a match, but it was relayed to the jury as though it was. So I guess my point is police have always used what they had available. And sometimes it's only, you know, years later that they find out that what they thought was incorrect. In 2013, during his third year of office, Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hadwood decided to relaunch the investigation into the Keddy murders. He brought Mike Gamburg out of retirement and hired him as his special investigator. Gamberg had worked all homicide cases for Plumas County from 1974 until his retirement in 1994, except for the Keddy murders. Both men had personal ties to the Sharp family. Sheriff Hagwood was

the same age as John Sharp and went to Quincy High School with John as well as Dana Wingate. The three teenagers had worked together during the 1983 Plumas County Fair. Additionally, Hagwood's mother was Tina Sharp's teacher. In 1981, while he was a Plumis County deputy,

Mike Gamburg also was a martial arts instructor who had taught both John Sharp and Dana Wingate. Dana was in Gamburg's home the day before his murder. Two weeks before the killings, Gamburg was fired by then-sharef Doug Thomas because Gamburg had disparaged the sheriff in the media. He was later reinstated, but specifically was not allowed to work on the Keddy investigation. Thomas left the department three months after the murders to work at the Department of Justice in Sacramento. According to the Sacramento B as part of the fresh dive into the caddy murders. Gamburg sifted through the evidence,

which included 12 plus boxes and a freezer full of stuff, all stored in various places around the Quincy area. He was also able to gain access to evidence collected in Butte County, where Tina Sharpe's remains were found in 1984. It didn't take long for Gamberg to uncover a botched investigation. He said in 2016, quote, it's not what was done. It's what wasn't. done. The police didn't bother to set up any roadblocks after Tina's abduction, and they didn't search vehicles. They also didn't follow up on leads and available evidence, as they should have done. The history log, which explained which investigator did what and on what date was missing. A lot of the physical evidence taken from the sharp home was still in storage, but all of it

had become disorganized. Some of the evidence was placed into a freezer to preserve it, but somehow the freezer got turned off. Gamberg had walked into one day. big mess of an investigation. But things were about to heat up due to advancements in technology. DNA technology was in its infant stages in 1981 when the Keddy murders happened. So it really couldn't be used back then. Armed with new DNA technology, high-tech voice analysis, internet chat groups, and other tools not available at the time of the murders. Gamberg tried to use these modern-day techniques to solve the cold case. He discovered several apparent confessions made by Marty Smart.

At the time of the murders, Marty and his wife, Marilyn, lived in Cabin 26, and John Bobaday lived with the smarts. On April 11, 1981, the night of the murders, Marty and Bo were at a local bar, just like Marilyn had said in the 2008 documentary, they were wearing three-piece suits. and sunglasses, and some people said that they were acting very strangely. They also closely resembled the two men that were depicted in the composite sketches, created after the murders. Both men had criminal records, and Boe allegedly had ties to the Chicago mob.

We mentioned earlier that Sheriff Doug Thomas had called in to California Department of Justice Special Agents. Gamberg said these two men were from DOJ's organized crime. unit, not from homicide, and for some reason they had an interest in Bo Bode. Gamburg has even suggested these agents may have protected Bo. Gamburg also found that Sue Sharp was taking a typing class at Feather River College as part of the education training program when she met Marilyn Smart. Marilyn had two children from a previous relationship, and after learning from Maryland that Marty was an abusive husband, Sue advised Marilyn to leave him, which could have been a motive for Marty

smart to want to harm Sue and her family. Not long after the murders, Marty Smart moved to Reno. And a couple of weeks after his move, he wrote a love letter to Maryland. In the letter, Marty wrote, I've paid the price of your love, and now I've bought it with four people's lives. Gamberg said the letter was somehow overlooked and never even cataloged his evidence. But that wasn't all he found. Smart had confessed to a Reno Veterans Administration counselor that he had killed Sue, John, and Tina Sharp, as well as Dana Wingate.

He said he killed them because Sue was encouraging Maryland to leave him, and that caused him to become enraged at Sue Sharp. The counselor reported the confession to the California Department of Justice officials working on the case with Sheriff Doug Thomas, but no report was made of the counselor's state. During several interviews with the DOJ, Marty Smart mentioned that he was missing a hammer. He described the hammer as an all-metal tool with a blue rubber handle. In March 2016, Gamberg received a report from a man who had found a rusty hammer in a pond near Cabin 28. Gamberg retrieved the hammer and sent it off to a DOJ lab for analysis. Around the same time, he received information that led to the recovery of a rusty knife with a six-inch blade near the old Kettie store. Gamberg also sent that off to be examined. While he awaited the lab results,

Gamberg continued digging through the case file and the evidence. That's where he found an unopened envelope with a 911 recording. When Tina's remains were discovered in 1984, they were initially unidentified, and Butte County investigators thought that they belonged to missing child Kevin Collins. But an anonymous male caller on this 911 tape said the remains were Tina's before police had even identified them. Gamberg believes that either the caller was told that the remains belonged to Tina or he was involved somehow. According to People magazine, the tape was turned over for voice comparisons with audio of earlier suspects, but it's not known how much, if anything, the voice comparisons reveal. Sheriff Hagwood told People magazine in 2016

that there are people in Plumas County who know more of them they've said about the caddy murders. He also added that they've identified some of them and know who they are. These people, possibly as many as six, either participated after the murders or they have firsthand information about them. Gamberg and Hagwood said the murders were well planned.

No physical evidence was left behind because they believe that the killer or killer, killers were gloves. They also believe that none of the participants were injured during the attack or left their blood at the crime scene. There was evidence that an 880 BB or pellet rifle was used during the murders, but it wasn't recovered at the scene. In 2018, Gamberg revealed DNA testing was done on a portion of medical tape found on the floor near Sue Sharp's body. The results match that of a known living suspect. But the name of the name of the name of the name of the of that suspect has not been revealed. Gamberg believes that Sue Sharp was the intended

target because Marty Smart was upset with her for trying to come between him and Maryland and the boys were collateral damage. But his theory does not explain why Tina Sharp was taken away from the crime scene and murdered somewhere else. Why didn't the killer or killers leave her body with the others. In similar cases where the child is removed from the home, that child is usually the intended target. And the motive is normally some type of sexual assault. One example was the Shasta Groney kidnapping in May 2005. Her mother, Brenda, Brenda's fiance Mark, and Shasta's 13-year-old brother Slate were brutally murdered inside their Idaho home by Joseph Edward Duncan. Duncan kidnapped. Duncan Shasta, who was then eight years old and her nine-year-old brother, Dylan.

He sexually molested and tortured both children for six weeks, and then he later murdered Dylan. Duncan was captured after a waitress at Denny's restaurant in Cordeline, recognized Shasta while they were eating breakfast. Authority said that Duncan killed the older family members to get to the children without any interference. Sheriff Hagwood told the Sacramento Bee in 2016, quote, If you kill three people in a front room and extract the little girl from a bedroom, a motive has to be attributed to her. There's no end to speculations on why.

Tina Sharp's ordeal between the time she was abducted from Cabin 28 and her murder is unknown. Both prime suspects, Marty Smart and John Bobaday, are now deceased. Marty died in Oregon in 2000 and Bo in Illinois. in 1988. In 2002, Sheila Sharp, who was then 35 years old, held a memorial for her lost little sister Tina at Quincy Cemetery. Rick Sharp was also in attendance, but Greg was not. After the murders, the three surviving children went to live with an aunt before being placed in foster care. Rick's adopted brother joined him at the memorial for support. Two years later, in 2004, all but one of the cabins at Kettie Resort Lodge were demolished, including Cabin 28.

The only one still standing is Cabin 26, where the Smarts lived. Sheila Sharp is now in her 50s with children and grandchildren of her own. She told People Magazine investigates in 2016 that she intentionally blocked out the memories of finding her loved ones murdered. Sheila said, quote, I guess I don't want to relive that. There's times I think, gosh, should I get hit? to see what I remember, but do I really want to remember? I want to remember the happy times. Man, you talk about tough, Morph, to walk in on a scene where the majority of your family was murdered.

And then to have to carry that around with you for the rest of your life, that's tough to imagine. So, you know, Sheila's saying that she intentionally tries to block out those memories, I don't blame her. I mean, that would be so tough to live with. Yeah, I could imagine being in that position, and hopefully if she's needed it, she's gotten some help or counseling along the way. On December 30th, 2019, Sheriff Greg Hagwood shared his last radio report to his team and then retired. The next day, Todd Johns was sworn in as Plumas County Sheriff.

It's unclear how the Keddy investigation will proceed with the new sheriff. The Ketty murders have been featured on a variety of true crime television shows and documentaries. There have also been a number of books written about the murders. Some people theorized that the Ketty murders were the inspiration for the 2008 film The Strangers. In 2017, the horror flick Cabin 28 was released based on the Ketty murders. So, Morp, this is an extremely infamous. unsolved case. I mean, this is one that the armchair detectives have been talking about for many, many years. I mean, what, we're going on 40 years now. But I also think it's one of those cases where

many people, if not the majority of people, believe that they know who was ultimately responsible for these murders. To me, that's one of the frustrating aspects of a case like this, when you think that you know who likely did it, but you just can't prove it. You could end a lot of speculation and answer a lot of questions and maybe give some healing to the survivors. But when you just can't make the case against someone, that's tough. It is tough. And I mean, even if they could make the case today, what would they do?

Other than come out and say that they believe beyond the shadow of a doubt that it was Marty smart or or beau, Bobaday that committed the murders. The men are both dead. So they can't do anything to them from a penalty standpoint. It might give the family some closure, but

other than that, I don't know what else can happen in this case. And this case, you mentioned at all those TV shows and documentaries and the online sleuth diving into this case. It's just something that's really captivating. I think part of it is because we don't hear of a lot of cases, or at least we didn't, where some people inside

of a house are murdered while other people inside the same house didn't hear anything or didn't see anything. And it sounds kind of far-fetched, and the police even thought that early on, but as we've seen, there have been cases where people are inside a house when an attack or something takes place, and they somehow don't know about it or don't realize it. Yeah, and I think that fact alone, right, makes it very tough on the surviving family members, the ones that were inside the cabin when it happened. Tough enough to find out that your members of your family were killed. But add on top of that the fact that they were killed in the same place that you were, you just didn't know what was happening. I mean, I do think that adds a very eerie, horrifying element

to the crime. Thanks goes out to Debbie Buck at TruecrimeDiva.com for writing and research assistants in this episode. If you love the show and you haven't done so yet, go out, give us a five-star rating. Keep telling your friends about criminology. That word of mouth goes a long way. If you want to find us on social media,

we're on Twitter with the handle at Criminology Pod. You can also find us on Facebook by searching for Criminology Podcast or by joining our Facebook discussion group, Criminology podcast discussion and fans. All right, Morph. So that's it for another episode of criminology. We want to make an announcement to everyone that we're taking next week off. This will be our first week off of 2020.

It'll probably be our only week off up until maybe the week of Christmas. But we wanted to let everybody know. So hopefully you've listened to the end. And you're not surprised when there's not a brand new episode out this Saturday, night. But we'll definitely be back a week from next Saturday with an all new episode of criminology. So until then, for Mike and Morph. We'll talk to you in two weeks. Take care, everyone.