Every Town - The UNSOLVED Santa Rosa Hitchhiker Murders Has A Suspect

Episode Date: March 29, 2024

7 known victims of the Santa Rosa Killer though there are suspected to be much more….we’re going to hear about who exactly Jim Mordacai was and look to connect the dots between him and this madman just as his family continues to do at this very moment with the assistance from the authorities. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/scarymysteries 🎧 Our Other Podcast Scary Mysteries: https://open.spotify.com/show/3ZooEZMoZ421WdsOVJhVkT 💀 Exclusive Videos, Podcasts & Perks: https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries  👁 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg 👁 TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald 👁 Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial 🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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Every town has a dark side. Imagine going back on your family tree to try and learn about where you and your family comes from. For example, maybe you want to know what part of Italy your ancestors lived in, or if you are in fact 50% Irish or German or whatever. Maybe you just want to see who you're related to because, well, it's pretty cool to know. Whatever your reasons for looking back, well, you'd probably not expect to, find out is that someone, not too far down the line from you, was hiding a very dark secret, the darkest, in fact, that anyone can imagine. That's exactly what happened to Sierra Barter,

when she began taking a closer look at the man who was her step-grandfather. His name is Jim Mordecai, and the further she dug the clearer the picture became. His secret wasn't that he had another family hidden away in a different state, or that he ripped off. some people of their money. No, it appeared as though Jim might be a serial killer, the very person behind the sinister axe that we now call the Santa Rosa hitchhiking murders. Hey guys, it's Andrew,

thanks so much for tuning into this week's episode of Everytown. We really appreciate you being here, and today we have a very deep case to get into. We're checking out the seven known victims of the Santa Rosa killer, though they are suspected to be much more, We're going to hear about who exactly Jim Mordecai was and look to connect the dots between him and this madman, just as his family continues to do so at this very moment with the assistance from the authorities. So let's head over to Wine Country to Santa Rosa, California, where this whole disturbing story takes place. Santa Rosa is a beautiful little city that sits in the heart of Sonoma County.

It's a place most known for its lush wineries and quaint bed and breakfast. The city itself ranks among the top 25 most expensive places to live in all the U.S., which means that it's also generally a very safe place to live on with little to no crime. But as you know, every town has its dark side. In the early 1970s, there was a serial killer who came to the town of Santa Rosa, or more than likely already lived there. They were responsible for seven confirmed killings in the span of just 22 months. All the victims were young women and even girls.

They ranged between 12 and 23 years old, and they all had been seen hitchhiking near Highway 101 when they disappeared, only to be discovered dumped off the sides of roads that had steep embankments, so it was all that much harder to find them. And this killer really enjoyed what they did and liked to show off. He toyed with the authorities in ways that appeared to be strictly out of entertainment, as if it were all just one big game to him. Back in 1972, when this all began,

even though the general public was becoming aware of the risks associated with hitchhiking, it was still a normal way for people, especially young ones, who didn't have any money to get around. And they were simpler times back then. I wish we all could live in a world where grabbing a ride from a stranger was still cool, but those days are long gone. On February 4th of that year, 12-year-old Maureen Sterling and 13-year-old Yvonne Weber

made their way over the Redwood Empire Ice Arena to do some skating. They got there by sticking out their thumbs on the side of the road and grabbing a ride. You also have to remember that back then there were no helicopter parents and nothing really at home to keep you entertained, so as a kid, you just went out into the world

and found things to do. And parents may have expected you home, at a certain time, but it was up to you to find your way there. And what you did while you were out was not really all that important. As long as you came home and weren't injured, all was right in the world. Like a lot of middle schoolers, Maureen and Yvonne were trying to act a little older than they were because that's what you do to fit in. They dressed the part, and at some point, the young man approached them and asked if they wanted

to go out back and smoke some weed. They were talking with another friend from school at the time, and so she was, she was She witnessed this. She was even invited to go with them, but she didn't want to. So the two girls walked outside with this random guy and then disappeared. That friend described him as a white male who was clean cut and had short hair. She remembered that sticking out, the short dark hair part, because she would have expected someone who looked like him to not be a marijuana toker.

I was only reserved for the long-haired hippie types. This guy, according to her, looked like a t-y-a-old. teacher. He had a thin build, stood around 5'10, and a prominent nose, and was probably in his 20s. There was no elaborate search party for these two girls when they didn't return home that night. The town didn't canvas the area, again, a sign of the times they were living in. That's not to say the families and friends weren't worried, but police went around talking with their classmates to see what they could uncover, but ultimately they didn't find much and chalked it up to the girls just being runaways.

Exactly one month later on March 4th, 19-year-old Kim Allen, an art student at the Santa Rosa Junior College, who, used hitchhiking as her main means of transportation, was outside of her work at Larkspurr Natural Food Store. She was looking for a ride to get back to school, and two guys picked her up. They weren't headed all the way to the school, so they brought her about halfway

before dropping her off in San Rafael. where they last saw her with her thumb up, trying to get herself to where she needed to be. This was near the entrance ramp for the 101 highway, which she would take to go north. Santa Rosa's landscape is marked by a lot of rolling hills, which is ideal for their grape growing. That also means that what you'll find out there is a lot of winding roads that have falloffs along the edges of them. Not exactly cliffs, but more embankments. These areas are filled with thick brush and long grass. ass. Perfect place to hide something if you knew the area well enough. The following day on Enterprise Road in Santa Rosa, about 20 feet down, one of these embankments, where a creek ran along the bottom. Kim's body was discovered by a passerby. Her wrist and ankles had been bound by rope. She had been assaulted before she was strangled. The autopsy showed multiple ligature marks around her neck, which meant the killer took immense pleasure in the act he was performing. each time bringing her to the brink before releasing, letting her breathe again, only to do it again and again.

She was missing one of her gold hoop earrings, which is important because this seemed to be part of this killer's MO. Taking with them a trophy, which often was in the form of a piece of jewelry, and most of the time it was an earring. The two guys that picked her up were questioned by authorities, even took polygraph tests, which they passed, and so police didn't really know which direction to look. It would take more bodies turning up before they realized they were, in fact, dealing with one serious, sick, and twisted individual. Interestingly, 20 days after she was killed, Kim's checkbook was dropped into a mailbox at the Kentfield, California Post Office, which is about 40 miles south of Santa Rosa.

It's widely believed that the killer dropped it off, but why exactly is unknown. It does show, though, that the police were dealing with San Marcos. someone who enjoyed the cat and mouse game of it all, meaning this likely wasn't his first victim, and as they would find out, it wouldn't be his last either. In early November of 72, 13-year-old Lori Curza ran away from home. While she was reported missing by her mother, she would go on to be last seen officially on November 21st after visiting some friends. And sometime between then and December 14th, she crossed paths with the wrong person, likely while trying to hitch a ride.

It was actually reported by somebody that they had seen Lori hitchhiking on November 30th, but that could never be confirmed 100%. Regardless, on December 14th, her nude body would be discovered at the bottom of a 50-foot ravine off of Calistoga Road. She had bruising and scratches

across the side of her body, but these weren't from anybody inflicting them on her, and they appeared to be road rash. She also hadn't been assaulted, and it died. from a broken neck. The authorities speculated that she did everything she could to get out of the situation she was in. At some point, after getting into the car that picked her up, she was stripped of her clothes,

but she managed to open the door of the vehicle while it was moving and jumped out, spilling out onto the road. Afterwards, she likely fell over the edge, though she could have jumped or even been pushed if the assailant stopped and took chase. As a result of the fall, she broke her neck, which wouldn't have killed her right away. though it would have left her unable to move, causing her to eventually succumb to those injuries and the elements. And two weeks later, just ten miles away on Franz Valley Road, 65 feet down another ridge line, the skeletal remains of two young girls were discovered.

They belonged to Maureen and Yvonne, who had disappeared from that skating rink almost a year prior. They had been dumped there a while back, so likely they were killed shortly after their disappearance, because of the state of their bodies no official cause of death could be determined. However, there were ropes found near them, suggesting they were bound with no other clothing nearby. It appears they had been left there naked, very similar to the way Kim Allen's crime scene looked. There was also one earring with orange beads found next to the skull, but the other one was nowhere to be seen. That earring was confirmed by Maureen's mother to have belonged to her and ultimately denounced. dental records were used to determine their identities.

News coverage in the area about the crimes were everywhere. Despite all the warnings, people still chose to thumb rides. Three more girls would soon fall victim. The 15-year-old Caroline Davis was a runaway who was last seen hitchhiking a few blocks away from Highway 101. Her body would be found on July 31st of 73, in the exact same spot where Maureen and Yvonne were found. Different from the others, she had been killed by strychnine poisoning, which once again points to a predator who enjoyed what he did and was perhaps experimenting.

It's either that or he deliberately wanted to change up his MO, though that doesn't really fit in this case because he literally left the body in the same place as the others. That move is more of a direct taunt to authorities. He was making a statement, enjoying the game of it all, telling them, I can play his body. body's right on top of one another, and you can't do anything about it. Caroline didn't have her ears pierce, but it appeared that on her right earlobe, the killer had attempted to pierce it himself. A 23-year-old Teresa Walsh had left town and was hitchhiking in the winter of 73. Her body would be discovered in the Mark West Creek in Sonoma County by kayakers about a week later.

There had been a lot of heavy rain, so who knows where she was originally dumped in? The body could have traveled a long way, but she too was bound by ropes, hog-tied in fact. And in 1979, a Jane Doe's skeletal remains were discovered just 100 yards away from where Lori Curse's body was found, the girl who had jumped out of the car back in 72. And this Jane Doe had been bound in the same manner as Walsh, and it was thought that she was killed somewhere between 1972 and 74. There is a long list of possible other victims, 16 in total, but it's hard to tell for sure if they are connected to one single individual. You have to remember that at the time, none other than the Zodiac Killer was very active.

For some time, he was at the top the authorities list as to who could have done all this. Not only was he active around that time in that very same area of California, mainly in Vallejo, which was about an hour away, but he also loved to talk to, taunt the police. Writing letters and coded messages, half the fun for him was showing that he was smarter than the cops, which seemed to be what the Santa Rosa hitchhiking killer was doing in his own way. The Zodiac even wrote one of his letters that he intended to change up his MO just to toy with them. In a 1969 message to the San Francisco Chronicle, he stated, I shall no longer announce to anyone. When I commit my murders, they shall, look like routine robberies, killers of anger, a few fake accidents, etc. But in the end,

there was one major factor that didn't add up with associating the Zodiac killer with the crimes happening in Santa Rosa. The Zodiac never did anything to his victims that was sexual in nature at all. Meanwhile, all the hitchhiking murders, at least as far as they could tell, had the victims being assaulted. And that's not something that just changes in a person committing the types of acts, not even if they're trying to change the M.O. As mentioned, there were possibly other victims that stretched up into the year of 1975, but as the cops never found any real suspects or leads to follow, over time the case grew cold. Certainly somebody committed these acts, which meant they were just out there now in the world living their lives, likely even still killing. To find out

who it was, it would take decades and bring us all up to the present day. And 32-year-old, Sierra Barter is a name not historically linked to this investigation in any way, but her and her family lived in the San Francisco Bay Area. Sierra had a bit of a tough upbringing, and as she got older, she started to go to therapy to work on herself, and in doing so, realized, probably like many of us, that she really didn't know much about her family members and who they were in their day-to-day lives. So she figured she should probably find out. By learning about them, she could in turn better understand herself, know who she was and where exactly she'd come from.

Her step-grandfather, Jim Mordecai, was a well-respected agriculture teacher in the Bay Area. He also worked as a landscaper picking up jobs here and there. To most people, he encountered in the day-to-day world he appeared to be a good guy, but back at home he was somebody else entirely. He was a man with the dark side, prone to physical violence against a good guy. his family, and Sierra had heard many horrible stories about things he had done while she grew up. Now, that doesn't make him a killer by any stretch. A bad person, yes, but not a killer.

However, the following possibly does. Jim's family had a nice little ranch up in none other than Santa Rosa that he liked to spend a lot of time at. This man, he knew the area very well, like the back of his hand. He knew, for example, all the back roads, all the ravines. And Sierra began her quest of understanding. She talked with people who had known Jim. She heard all sorts of things about his violent temper and the way he mistreated women. He loved to make threats.

And on more than one occasion, he specifically told people that he'd hog-tie them. Jim passed away in 2008 at the age of 66 due to cancer, which would have put him at age 30 back in 72, which somewhat fits the description of that eyewitness at the skating rink all those years back. He had short, dark hair, was clean cut, stood 5'10, and she said that the man looked like a teacher. Well, Jim was a teacher. Sierra at this point wasn't even thinking about connecting Jim to the hitchhiking killings. But after his passing, all his stuff was stored away, and she decided to go take a look through it. That's when she uncovered a box, where he kept a stash of old newspaper clippings about the Santa Rosa hitchhiking murders.

Also in there were cryptic notes hidden in the chest that he had kept in his attic for years. References to secluded areas that matched the crime scenes. It was like a little homage to all the killings, but with his own personal touches. And that's when it hit her. Maybe Jim might be the person who did all this in the first place. His ranch was located very close to where several of the murders took place. And talking with his old friends and relatives, She discovered that back in the day, whenever the news was covering the story of the killer,

he was riveted. He had some sort of unhealthy interest in this case that he just couldn't seem to help. She also found the gym owned a vehicle matching descriptions given by witnesses of a car seen near several of the hitchhiking sites. But what really blew her away was her family members talking about how after his death They went through his belongings and found an old jewelry box filled with mismatched earrings. No one in the family claimed the pieces, and they had never seen them before, and they were mostly cheap items. Things say a teenager would wear in the 1970s.

Sarah's mother remembered and described a piece she saw. It was a hoop-style earring with orange beads. Very similar to the one found on Maureen Sterling all those years back. The family at the time, not knowing these pieces of jewelry, could hold all the answers, threw the box away. But all this was more than enough to make everyone start to question if Jim might be the guy. On with this info, Sierra reached out to the police, who had long since moved on from the Santa Rosa Cole case. While skeptical at first, detectives could not ignore the coincidences and patterns she presented.

Her findings reignited interest in the case, leading to a reexamination. of evidence with modern forensic techniques, including DNA analysis, which was not available during the initial investigations. And so, right now, that's all ongoing. And while the direct involvement of Jim remains a subject of investigation, Sierra's efforts have certainly shed a new light on a case that may have been forgotten forever. Because after all, somebody committed these crimes, and they likely lived in the area, so they very well could be Jim Mordecai.

So that's it for this week's episode of Everytown. Hope you guys enjoyed it. If you like listening to us, want to get an additional exclusive podcast each and every week sent your way. Go check us out on Patreon where now you can get the audio exclusive versions for just 75 cents per episode.

It's free to check out, so go to the link below. Thanks for tuning in today. And remember to come back next week for another episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories. Because you never know. Beirtown will be next.