Dark Downeast - The Murder of Anita Piteau, The Huntington Beach Jane Doe (California)

Episode Date: July 3, 2023

On March 14, 1968, kids playing in the oil fields of Huntington Beach, California discovered the brutally beaten body of a young woman. Investigators scoured the scene for clues, finding shoe imprints, marks from tires, and a cigarette butt, but it had rained the night before and so any other evidence left behind had likely washed away.Police labeled the woman a Jane Doe and set out to investigate her identity and her death, but the woman found there would not have her name returned to her for more than half a century.Anita Louise Piteau, an Augusta, Maine local, finally came home after over 50 years, thanks to advancements in DNA technology.View source material and photos for this episode at darkdowneast.com/anitapiteau Dark Downeast is an audiochuck and Kylie Media production hosted by Kylie Low.Follow @darkdowneast on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTokTo suggest a case visit darkdowneast.com/submit-case

Daylight was fading on March 14, 1968. Though the sun was sinking fast, a few young boys were still out playing, exploring a large dirt field at the corner of Newland Street and Yorktown Avenue in Huntington Beach, California. Today, that intersection is covered by rows and rows of single-story houses with terracotta-tiled roofs. But in March of 1968, there wasn't a house in sight. Instead, it was oil field after oil field, with drainage ditches in between. On that day, as the boys played, they spotted something unusual in one of the ditches. The boys later said that they had believed they were seeing a scarecrow fallen from its post into

the ditch. But as they approached, the truth of what lay there between oil fields was made clear. It was the body of a young woman. The woman appeared to have been dead for just a few hours and had been brutally attacked. Investigators scoured the scene for clues, finding shoe imprints, marks from tires, and a cigarette butt. But it had rained the night before, and so any other evidence left behind had likely washed away. Huntington Beach police labeled the woman a Jane Doe and set out to investigate her identity and her death. But the woman found there would not have her name returned to her for more than half a century. I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is the case of Anita Louise Pateau on Dark Down East.

The 1960s in the United States represented significant cultural upheaval as the country faced tensions between more traditional conservative values and newer non-conformist lifestyles. The tensions between these beliefs were all bookended by the war in Vietnam. For many young people in the United States during the period, the decision to enter the Vietnam War highlighted the importance of peaceful values and sparked many anti-conflict protests. These years were also full of youth living a nomadic lifestyle and exploring the world.

In 2016, speaking retrospectively, Huntington Beach Police Chief Robert Handy told the Daily Pilot that quote, "...if you think about that era, there was a lot of hitchhiking, there was a lot of cross-country travel. It was kind of a free spirit time, and during the height of the, there was a lot of hitchhiking, there was a lot of cross-country travel. It was kind of a free spirit time. And during the height of the Vietnam era, a lot of people were traveling and living this free spirit lifestyle. End quote. The music of the period further defined the 1960s, with a soundtrack provided by The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, and The Melding of Blues and Rock.

People think of the Summer of Love of 1967 of Woodstock in 1969. The artistic movements and festivals of the time period represented the common ideal of peace and love, leading hundreds of thousands of people to seek connection with one another. In the small cities of Maine, change was afoot too. The state that is still known for its tremendous tracts of undisturbed pine trees, its blueberry fields, and its oceans was just beginning to develop as its population slowly increased. Its capital city of Augusta had once been primarily farmland, but in 1967, the department store giant Sears had finally moved in. Maine also elected its youngest governor, Democrat Kenneth M. Curtis, who was just 35 years old. The state that is,

and was in many ways, slow to veer away from its history and traditions, was open to trying something new. The so-called hippie movement, represented in the most popular music and in the more risque films coming out of Hollywood, was also making its way to Maine, impressing new ideas on teenagers and young 20-somethings in the state. For Anita Louise Poteau, these years were woven into the fabric of her identity. Born on March 9, 1942, in Augusta, Maine, Anita was in her 20s during the 60s. She was discovering herself. She had dark eyes and styled her short dark hair in tall ringlets that were reminiscent of old Hollywood. She frequently wore brightly colored and patterned clothing. But beyond her appearance,

Anita's energy simply set her apart from her surroundings. Anita had grown up in Central Maine and was one of seven children of Rena and George Pateau. Throughout her childhood and into her adulthood, she was extremely close with her family. Anita's niece, Lori Querion, later described Anita to WGME as always very fun and happy. And she may have been a free-spirited person even as a young teen. A December 1, 1955 article in the Kennebec Journal details Anita's recurrent absences from school. According to the report, 13-year-old Anita had missed 18 days of school in just the month and a half since she had been enrolled in her middle school class.

That was almost two-thirds of the days that Anita should have been in class, and it was not acceptable to the school district. This resulted in her mother, Rina, being fined for her daughter's truancy. Meanwhile, Rina claimed that she didn't know her daughter was not attending school. Even as a young teen, Anita seemed to not like to be tied down. She was a wanderer, and that trait stuck throughout her life. This free-spirited, wandering soul and adventurous essence, combined with the backdrop of the 1967 summer of love and the Hollywood glamour after which Anita styled herself, drove 25-year-old Anita Louise Pateau to search for herself on the other side of the country, away from her small hometown and rural home state. Anita Patel left for Los Angeles in 1967, which was about as far away from Maine as she could get without leaving the continental United States. Though far away, she wrote to her family often,

describing her new life, the people she met, and the things that she learned. Her family in Augusta enjoyed hearing of these new experiences, looking forward to each new letter. But one day, in February of 1968, the letters suddenly stopped. When the Pateau family stopped receiving letters from their daughter Anita, they began to worry. While Anita had always been a free spirit, she was also deeply loyal to her family. Ever since her cross-country road trip had landed her in California, where her dreams of adventures in Hollywood lived, she had been sure to stay in touch with her loved ones. It was not like her to stop all communication. As time went on, their worry compounded. The family debated flying across the country in search of Anita,

but Rena and George did not have a lot of excess income, and they needed to support their large family in Maine. And where would they even begin? So they stayed home, and they waited, hoping Anita would call, that she would write, waiting for any news at all. When the young boys playing in the oil fields of Huntington Beach found the deceased woman in March of 1968, she had been dead for only a few hours. Sometime between the night of March 13th

and the early evening of March 14th, 1968, Anita had been assaulted, severely beaten, and her throat had been slit. She was left in that ditch wearing disheveled clothing, with bruises covering her body and face. When police arrived on the scene, they carefully collected every bit of evidence they could find. They noted her appearance, her clothing, her shoes, and her jewelry. According to police reports, detectives speculated that she was between 20 and 30 years old, white or Latina, between 5'3 and 5'4 in height, and approximately 140 pounds in weight. She had dark, shoulder-length hair and distinctive teeth that would have formed a memorable smile.

When the woman was found, she was wearing a floral blouse and purple pants, clothing that police noted was in style during that time period, along with a silver-colored ring with a large blue-green stone and Owego loafers. Her appearance and her clothing actually led investigators to speculate that their Jane Doe was from outside of Southern California, judging in particular by her brand of shoes. Owego shoes were made by the Endicott Johnson Shoe Company, which was a New York-based brand located upstate. The brand only made that shoe available in New York at the time, leading detectives to believe that she may have been from the state of New York originally. This observation was extremely important, especially because there was little other evidence to follow.

While there were faint shoe prints and tire tracks at the site, it had rained in Huntington Beach the previous night, wiping away any vulnerable clues that could have aided in the early investigation. But they did find a few key pieces of evidence. They located a used cigarette near the scene, which they collected and filed away. Police were also able to gather biological evidence from another human from the examinations of Anita's body. Although there were few advancements in technology at the time, and detectives had no way of knowing that they would eventually be able to use DNA to solve cold cases, investigators saved everything. On the same afternoon, not far from Anita's body,

two other children from the neighborhood made another discovery. In a different field, approximately a quarter of a mile away from the crime scene, they found a white purse with a matching white wallet. The wallet didn't have any money or identification in it to help in getting the purse back to its owner, but it did have six black and white photographs inside, with a seventh photo found near the purse in the field. They looked like family photos. The subjects were attending graduations and spending time with young children. While investigators were uncertain that the purse or photographs were related to their Jane Doe, they noticed that the tire tracks near the purse were similar in appearance to those at their crime scene.

They added these findings to the file as they continued their investigation. With minimal evidence and limited technology, the Huntington Beach Police Department was unsure where to begin. Just days after her body was found, the Los Angeles Times published that efforts to identify the young woman had been unsuccessful. The woman had no identifying marks or scars on her body, and when her fingerprints were run with both the FBI and Mexican authorities, no matches were found. Police told the LA Times that they planned to further examine the shoe prints and tire marks found at the scene as a

next step. They noted that the tire marks matched a late model American car, and they suspected that that same car had brought the woman to the scene and left her body there. The tracks indicated that the vehicle had come from a main road onto a dirt path into the field, stopping near where the woman's body was later found. Investigators speculated that after abandoning the woman's body in the ditch, the tracks continued further into the field, making a U-turn, and then returned to the road. During the investigation, police continued to attempt to identify the woman by interviewing residents of the area to see if they recognized her. According to reporting by Steve

Emmons for the LA Times, the bartender of a nearby establishment had initially told the police that he thought he did recognize her, saying that he had seen the woman in the bar with a man earlier the previous night, and that she explained she was new in town and had come from New York. He had also noted that she had walked to the bar, she didn't drive and wasn't dropped off, and she didn't come to the bar with anyone in their car. All of these anecdotes aligned with what the police believed they already knew about their Jane Doe, given that her loafers were only sold in New York and that it appeared she was in someone else's vehicle before or at least after she died. The department sent 20 different police officers to canvas the area neighborhoods. They went from house to house,

knocking on each door within walking distance from the bar to ask whether the residents knew the identity of the victim. The chief of detectives at the time, Captain Earl Robitill, shared with the LA Times, quote, they referred us to about 125 persons who they thought might be the victim. None of the tips paid off, end quote. Regardless, it seemed that the bartender's story had been a dead end from the beginning. The LA Times shared that after this extensive search and canvas effort,

the woman he saw in the bar that night walked in again, alive and well. With all tips leading nowhere, the Huntington Beach police cast a wider net. They searched for matches to the woman's fingerprints, sent flyers with her description, photograph, and fingerprints to every police department in the country, and fielded many phone calls. Investigators worked to collect as much evidence as possible from the body, compiling a record of hundreds of photographs, x-rays, tests, and dental descriptions.

But it didn't lead anywhere substantial at the time. With no further leads or answers, the story of the unidentified woman in the oil field disappeared from the local consciousness for about a month. But then, ongoing strange events in the Huntington Beach area brought up her story at least once more, in mid-April of 1968. Less than three weeks after the woman's body was found, a 41-year-old Marine named Cecil T. Caldwell was shot by a sniper while standing outside his station in Huntington Beach. Before Caldwell passed away, he told detectives that he had not seen anyone prior to the shooting and that he didn't know anyone with a motive to kill him.

Police found a second bullet by the station, leading them to believe that the shooting had not been accidental. However, despite many searches and a canvassing of the station, leading them to believe that the shooting had not been accidental. However, despite many searches and a canvassing of the area, they were unable to find any witnesses or suspects. Captain Robitill told the LA Times that he did not believe the two cases to be related. However, the death of two individuals so close to one another, both with unidentified perpetrators and both without known motive, left the city feeling uneasy and unsafe. The Huntington Beach Police Department's energy around the case had slowly begun to fade as answers proved elusive. Investigators told the LA Times that they were hoping for a break. Robatil saying, quote, we're hoping some dense landlord around here finally calls the marshal's office and says the woman he rented his room to hasn't been around, that she's

left all of her stuff in the room. Then we'll have something to start on, end quote. Despite the evidence, the diligence, and attention to detail, and the public discussion of the crime, the case of the 1968 Huntington Beach Jane Doe went cold. For a long time, that was the only name the woman had. After nearly a month of tests and searching for answers, the woman was buried in an unmarked grave in Newport Beach, just six miles from where her body had been found. It would be decades before police and the woman's family would learn that she was laid to rest more than 3,000 miles away from home. Though the case had gone cold, Huntington Beach Police did not give up on their 1968 Jane Doe.

Chief Robert Handy later shared with the Daily Pilot, quote, I think if you were to look at it from a statistical standpoint, the odds are against us certainly, but we never give up. We still believe there is a chance, no matter how small it is, that someone could give us a piece of information that could help us identify her and then work the case a little bit further and identify a suspect, end quote. In 2001, more than 30 years after the murder, advances in DNA technology allowed the department to develop a DNA profile from evidence at the scene, a profile of the perpetrator, that is. The blood on her clothing and the evidence obtained from the assault kit were processed to create a complete genetic profile of their suspect.

Unfortunately, though, investigators were unable to match the DNA with any records in the Combined DNA Index System, known as CODIS, managed by the FBI. In 2010, police were able to obtain an additional partial DNA profile of a male person from the cigarette butt. While they were able to match this to the profile created from the biofluids in the case in 2001, they were still not able to identify a suspect. Nevertheless, this break in the case brought hope to Huntington Beach. In 2011, the Huntington Beach Police Department shared a press release prepared by Lt. Russell Reinhart covering known details about the homicide and asking for assistance from the public. It was that same year, more than 40 years later,

that the department released scans of the photographs that had been found in the white purse just a quarter mile away from the woman's body. They'd long been sitting in an evidence locker, with their relevance and usefulness to the investigation unknown. And police did hear from the subjects in those family photos, but they had no relation to their Jane Doe. Still, the increased attention and coverage did generate new leads. About a week after the publication of the press release, a resident of Los Angeles went to the police to share that she had recognized the person in the police sketches of the victim. Though she was in her 70s, she believed that the sketches bore a resemblance to a friend she had in 1968,

who had gone by the name of Rosie. Police told CBS News that the witness said Rosie wore similar clothing and shoes. The witness also believed that her acquaintance had been from the Bronx or Brooklyn, again, explaining the origin of the woman's footwear. The witness was unable to remember her acquaintance's last name, though, but she believed it was Italian. Huntington Beach Police shared this information in an additional press release, asking for further information about a woman named Rosie. They noted that the witness had known Rosie for only a few months prior to her disappearance. After those few months,

the woman known as Rosie had stopped showing up for work as a waitress at a bar called the Circus Room. The witness had not known her acquaintance's home address and had been unable to locate her, assuming that she had simply moved on. In the press release, police noted that they believed Rosie had lived in the area surrounding Long Beach for a few months in late 1967 and early 1968. Unfortunately, they were unable to confirm that a woman by this name had worked at the circus room, as the bar's employment records had not been kept after the bar closed. Police asked the public for any additional information on the potential identity of their victim, sharing that they believed they were getting closer to identifying the 1968 Huntington Beach Jane Doe. The search efforts for the identity of Jane Doe had also reached the East Coast during this time period. With the potential identification of Rosie and the Owego shoe connection, Huntington Beach Police partnered with the Missing Persons Agency of the New York Police Department.

Local newspapers in New York also began to publish information on the missing person, who is believed to be from their state. In mid-January of 2011, Nancy Dooling of the Elmire State Gazette published an article entitled 1968 Murder Victim May Have Owego Ties. The article shared a sketch of the victim and a photograph of her shoes, noting that the loafers may have been produced by the Endicott Johnson Corporation in upstate New York, which had since gone out of business. Police were unable to find additional production records from the company, and though Dooling acknowledged that the Endicott-Johnson Corporation also had retail locations across the country, for whatever reason, many believed that these particular shoes had only been sold in the New York area. A visual ID from the photographs published in the paper would certainly progress the case forward,

but investigators were working other angles for learning Jane Doe's identity too. Throughout the years, police continued to submit genetic information from both their victim and suspect to CODIS and to additional missing persons databases. The science around DNA and genetic profiles was constantly improving, and police hoped that new evidence would be added to a database and would enable them to find the woman's name. Biotechnology companies where individuals voluntarily shared their genetic information with large companies had been around for several years and were beginning to gain popularity. But no results came from these search

efforts. Not yet. After myriad attempts to reach the public, 10 years of persistently searching for a DNA match for the 1968 Jane Doe, and more than 50 years of looking for answers, a breakthrough finally came for the Huntington Beach Police Department, as well as for the Pateau family across the country in Augusta, Maine. In July of 2020, a DNA match was finally identified for the woman at the center of the oldest cold case in Orange County. As genetic technology continued to advance

and more cases found resolutions using genealogical ties, officials within the Huntington Beach Police Department decided to lean into this method for their 1968 Jane Doe case. The technique had solved the case of the Golden State Killer just two years earlier, and officers held out hope that it could help this case too. Earlier that year, the department had hired genealogical investigator Colleen Fitzpatrick to search for the identities of the two people at the center of the case. After much searching, Fitzpatrick was able to locate a relative of the Jane Ngo in Maine. She shared with Fox News, quote,

We contacted him, his name was Steve, and we asked him about his family. He had found an obituary that listed a cousin that died, survived by Anita Pateau, who hadn't been seen since 1970. I was like, oh my God, end quote. With this revelation, investigators learned that their 1968 Jane Doe indeed had family and loved ones who had been searching for her. Anita Pateau's family in Maine had been missing her for 52 years, and the cold case that had haunted Huntington Beach police for so long finally had some answers.

Anita Pateau finally had her identity back. Learning the identity of the 1968 Huntington Beach Jane Doe was just part of the story, though, a major key part, but there was still more to uncover. How did she end up in that ditch, and who put her there? Thankfully, in the same year, the same research technique uncovered the second part of the case as well. In 2020, the suspected murderer of Anita Pateau was identified as Johnny Monroe Crisco. Crisco was originally from Merced, California, more than 300 miles away from Huntington Beach. Crisco had never been a suspect in the case. The man had no known connection to

Anita or to the area where her body was found, and he had never even been questioned. At the time of the murder, Crisco was 24 years old. He had been discharged after three years spent in the United States Army following poor results from a psychological exam. In 2020, the Kitsap's son shared that the exam revealed Crisco had a, quote, pattern of being quick to anger, easy to feel unjustly treated, chronically resentful, immature, and impulsive, end quote. Once discharged, Crisco returned to California, but he spent the latter part of his life in Kitsap County in Washington State. In 2015, he died after a battle with cancer. Though he would never face justice for the murder of Anita Poteau while alive, the Kitsap son shared that those who knew Johnny

were unsurprised by the news that he was suspected of committing the act so long ago. A woman named Cynthia, who had previously dated Crisco, told the Kitsap's son that their relationship ended after allegations of abuse and threats. A judge ultimately ordered Crisco to stay away from her. While other acquaintances and friends of Crisco expressed surprise, they acknowledged that he had been known for his temper and had been known to, quote, talk about slashing throats when he was irritated and never went anywhere without packing two pistols, end quote. Though Crisco died before facing consequences for the death of Anita Pateau, the court of public opinion, even posthumously, was fierce. The online obituary of Johnny Monroe

Crisco is covered in comments, but few of these comments include fond memories of him. Rather, they consist of notes and thoughts for Anita. One user wrote, quote, remembering the life of Anita Louise Pateau, as another commented, you may have escaped earthly justice, but there is no escaping gods. While many answers were uncovered in 2020, many questions still remain. To this day, neither Anita's family nor friends of Crisco know how the two may have known each other, or the circumstances surrounding Anita's last night alive. Huntington Beach authorities are still

asking for leads to put the final pieces of the puzzle into place. Anita Pitot's case had a long and significant impact on the police officers in California. Years later, one of the boys who had found her body joined the force in Huntington Beach. In fact, her identification took so long that he had retired before the case was ever solved. For Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer, having answers was not enough. In a public statement, Spitzer said, quote, the death of Johnny Crisco prevented the full imposition of justice for Anita's murder, and that is a wound that will never heal. But it prevented the full imposition of justice for Anita's murder, and that is a wound that will never heal.

But it was the dogged pursuit of justice that ensured that it was not if, but when, we would finally be able to tell Anita's loved ones who killed her, end quote. Nevertheless, Rob Handy, the Huntington Beach police chief, credited the investigators who refused to let the case stay cold. He shared with the Bangor Daily News, quote, although the suspect was no longer alive to face the consequences, providing the family with the information of what happened to Anita and allowing them to properly lay her to rest is of tremendous importance, end quote. Handy highlighted how truly important this case was to his force by encouraging Huntington Beach investigators to remain alongside Anita Pateau until the very end. Handy told Fox, quote, our detectives went last weekend and took remains

back to Maine and had a private burial service with the family so that they could properly say End quote. Anita Pateau, after 52 years, was finally laid to rest in Waterville, Maine. The 52-year span of Anita Pateau's story really goes to show the challenges of solving these cases across state lines and across decades. Many people talk today about the lack of communication that occurred in the mid-20th century between police jurisdictions, but it can be easy to forget how challenging that communication can even be today. In the case of Anita Poteau, her family was looking for her from the other side of the continental United States. And while Huntington Beach police suspected that their Jane Doe was not from their immediate area, it took a long time for the news to reach the other coast.

Plus, the few key pieces of evidence that police had, Anita's loafers being produced in New York State, got the investigation spinning into a direction that had no real connection to her identity. Learning the name of the 1968 Huntington Beach Jane Doe and returning Anita Poteau's identity was the most important piece of the investigation. Nevertheless, police argue that the resolution of Orange County's oldest cold case should send a message to those who would commit these crimes. As Handy told WGME,

quote, it may not be today, but we are not going to give up and you are not going to get away, end quote. Today, a great deal of the story of Anita Poteau has been resolved. After more than 50 years, Anita has been returned home to Maine to her final resting place. However, questions still remain. Huntington Beach Police are still trying to determine how the victim and suspect knew each other and other details of the crime. If you recognize either Anita Pateau or Johnny Crisco,

they ask that you please contact the Huntington Beach Police tip line at 714-375-5066. You can see photos at darkdowneast.com. In Augusta, Maine, more than 3,000 miles and a world away from where Anita's body was laid to temporary rest, the Pateau family waited. For 52 years, the family sought answers and information about Anita. They worried about what had happened to their daughter, their sister, their aunt, their friend. When Anita's niece, Lori Querion, heard that her aunt had been identified, she was emotional. She expressed that she was joyful and shocked and grateful all at once.

She told Fox, quote, At first I was stunned. I couldn't believe this was actually happening. Of course, everybody's emotional. Querion didn't believe that the family would ever know the truth about what had happened to her aunt Anita. The resolution to the story of the woman who Querion had known as a small child brought a sense of finality. Although answers eventually came for Anita, some of those who loved her the most passed away before they knew the truth. In January of 1982, George Poteau passed away from a long illness at the age of 55. At the time of his death, the Kennebec Journal shared that George was survived by his wife, his children, and his daughter, Anita Poteau. They continued to assume the vest, hoping that Anita was alive in California, continuing to enjoy her free-spirited, untethered life. Rena Poteau, Anita's mother, lived another 24 years without knowing where her daughter was. She passed away in April of 1996

after a lengthy illness at almost 83 years old. Again, the morning sentinel included her daughter, Anita Poteau, as having survived her mother. We know now that Anita had been deceased for nearly 20 years when her mother died. Neither George nor Rena survived long enough to know what happened to their beloved daughter. For them, their grown child had traveled across the country in search of the stories of Hollywood and the freedom of the time period. While they worried, and they hoped, they were never able to rest without answers. When the story of Anita Poteau found its resolution, it was in some ways bittersweet. Many members of Anita's immediate family did not live long enough to know what had happened to their daughter and sister. Her parents had already passed away, and only two of her six siblings had survived the 50 years needed to hear the truth of her story. Nevertheless,

Anita Louise Poteau is not, and will never, be forgotten. She is remembered by her surviving family, her niece, and all who knew her as a joyful person and a free spirit. Lori Querion shares that, though she was only a young child when Anita left for California, she does remember her aunt. Quote, She was always very fun and happy. I have fond memories of her. End quote. Now, laid to rest in her home state,

the free-spirited Anita Poteau is finally, truly free. by Natalie Jones with additional writing and editing by me, Kylie Lowe. Please follow Dark Down East on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you're listening right now. The best way to support this show is to leave a review on Apple Podcasts and share this episode or any episode with your friends. If you have a personal connection to a case I should cover, please contact me at hello at darkdowneast.com. Thank you for supporting the show and allowing me to do what I do. After almost three years, I remain honored to use this platform for the families and friends who have lost their loved ones and for those who are still searching for answers in cold missing persons and homicide cases. I'm not about to let those names or their stories get lost with time.

I'm Kylie Lowe, and this is Dark Down East.