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True Murder with your host, 53 00:02:38.439 --> 00:02:50.639 journalist and author Dan Zufanski, Good Evening. 54 00:02:51.680 --> 00:02:55.960 On July eighth, nineteen seventy nine, two skeletons were found 55 00:02:56.120 --> 00:03:00.960 off a remote highway in Mendocino County, California. The skeltons 56 00:03:01.000 --> 00:03:05.080 belonged to a pair of murdered teenagers. For thirty six years, 57 00:03:05.439 --> 00:03:09.680 the teens identities remained a mystery. The teens killer was 58 00:03:09.719 --> 00:03:13.400 never brought to justice. In the fall of twenty fifteen, 59 00:03:13.439 --> 00:03:18.560 the Mendocino teens were identified through DNA testing. The identifications 60 00:03:18.680 --> 00:03:22.120 raised a number of questions in the community. Who murdered 61 00:03:22.120 --> 00:03:26.039 the Mendocino teens? Why did the teens go unidentified for 62 00:03:26.080 --> 00:03:29.240 so long? Were their murders linked to a series of 63 00:03:29.319 --> 00:03:33.840 unsolved homicides in the neighboring county, filled with gripping interviews 64 00:03:33.840 --> 00:03:38.280 and previously unreleased details about the Mendocino murders. Lost Coast 65 00:03:38.360 --> 00:03:44.280 Highway is the inside story of a shocking, multi generational tragedy. 66 00:03:44.360 --> 00:03:47.319 It is the story that the media won't tell you, 67 00:03:47.840 --> 00:03:51.360 and the bureaucrats didn't want you to know. The book 68 00:03:51.360 --> 00:03:54.159 they were featuring this evening is Lost Coast Highway with 69 00:03:54.280 --> 00:03:57.840 my special guest, journalist and author Gray George. Welcome to 70 00:03:57.879 --> 00:03:59.759 the program, and thank you very much for agreeing to 71 00:03:59.800 --> 00:04:04.400 this interview. Great George, Hi Dan, thank you so much 72 00:04:04.400 --> 00:04:07.639 for having me on tonight. Thank you very much. We 73 00:04:07.680 --> 00:04:11.439 had a great time last time with Black Knight Gold Coast, 74 00:04:12.199 --> 00:04:16.160 so welcome back. Let's talk right away because this is 75 00:04:16.199 --> 00:04:19.920 such an involved story and such an incredible tale. Let's 76 00:04:20.240 --> 00:04:25.600 start with how you came to write this book. You 77 00:04:25.639 --> 00:04:29.040 talk about writing Black Knight Gold Coast, and then you 78 00:04:29.079 --> 00:04:32.040 were doing some research and the Dough Network. Tell us 79 00:04:32.079 --> 00:04:37.279 how you came to this story and Lost Coast Highway. 80 00:04:38.920 --> 00:04:43.959 Absolutely, so. Last time we talked about my first book, 81 00:04:43.959 --> 00:04:46.519 which was Black Knight, Gold Coast, and that one of 82 00:04:46.560 --> 00:04:52.040 the central features of that book was familial DNA testing. Anyway, 83 00:04:52.160 --> 00:04:55.839 as part of researching Black Knight Gold Coast, I interviewed 84 00:04:55.879 --> 00:05:00.040 a law professor at UC Davis named Elizabeth Joe, and 85 00:05:00.079 --> 00:05:02.839 during the course of our interviews, she started talking about 86 00:05:04.240 --> 00:05:08.480 a new forensic procedure that had really come into vogue 87 00:05:08.480 --> 00:05:12.600 in the past few years called familial DNA screening, which 88 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:17.199 allows law enforcement agencies to look for genetic similarities between 89 00:05:17.279 --> 00:05:20.600 DNA recovered at crime scenes and DNA profiles that are 90 00:05:20.639 --> 00:05:24.360 stored in the National DNA Data Bank. Anyway, I didn't 91 00:05:24.399 --> 00:05:27.279 know that much about familial DNA screening before speaking with her, 92 00:05:27.480 --> 00:05:30.079 so after our interview, I decided to look into the 93 00:05:30.079 --> 00:05:31.839 matter a little bit more, and I found out that 94 00:05:31.920 --> 00:05:35.839 familial DNA screening really has two applications in the arena 95 00:05:35.879 --> 00:05:40.079 of law enforcement. One of those applications is suspect identification 96 00:05:40.360 --> 00:05:45.439 and the other is identifying unknown bodies. And before I 97 00:05:45.480 --> 00:05:49.120 started researching the subject of familial DNA screening, I really 98 00:05:49.120 --> 00:05:53.519 had no idea just how pervasive the problem of unidentified 99 00:05:53.519 --> 00:05:57.600 decedents is. Every year, from coast to coast and around 100 00:05:57.639 --> 00:06:00.959 the world, law enforcement agencies find the remains of human 101 00:06:01.000 --> 00:06:05.079 beings whose identities they don't know, and because I had 102 00:06:05.120 --> 00:06:07.160 no idea of the scale of the problem, I decided 103 00:06:07.160 --> 00:06:09.319 to start researching it a little bit anyway. To make 104 00:06:09.319 --> 00:06:11.240 a long story short, my research led me to this 105 00:06:11.279 --> 00:06:14.399 website called the Dough Network, and the Dough Network features 106 00:06:14.519 --> 00:06:20.160 just tens of thousands of profiles of unidentified decedents. Some 107 00:06:20.199 --> 00:06:23.040 of these decedents were small children, some were elderly people, 108 00:06:23.120 --> 00:06:25.439 some were middle aged people. Some of these people were 109 00:06:25.480 --> 00:06:27.480 found in big cities. Others were found out in the 110 00:06:27.519 --> 00:06:29.920 middle of the desert, were out in the middle of forests. 111 00:06:30.800 --> 00:06:34.000 So as I was as I was writing Black Night, 112 00:06:34.040 --> 00:06:37.480 Gold Coast, I spent a considerable amount of my downtime 113 00:06:38.000 --> 00:06:41.040 just reading through the various profiles on the Dough Network. 114 00:06:41.079 --> 00:06:44.600 They were horrific in their detail, but at the same 115 00:06:44.639 --> 00:06:48.000 time they were really fascinating. They really opened my eyes 116 00:06:48.079 --> 00:06:52.240 to a sort of an esoteric side of the American 117 00:06:52.240 --> 00:06:56.000 criminal justice system. So as I was reading these profiles 118 00:06:56.040 --> 00:06:58.480 on the Dough Network, some of them just really stood 119 00:06:58.480 --> 00:07:00.600 out to me. And one of the profiles that hit 120 00:07:00.639 --> 00:07:04.560 me the hardest was this profile that concerned teenage boy 121 00:07:04.639 --> 00:07:07.360 and a teenage girl who were found up in Mendocino 122 00:07:07.439 --> 00:07:10.759 County back in the summer of nineteen seventy nine. These 123 00:07:10.759 --> 00:07:15.639 were two white kids. One was estimated the boy was 124 00:07:15.800 --> 00:07:18.240 estimated to be about twelve or thirteen years old, the 125 00:07:18.319 --> 00:07:21.480 girl was about thirteen or fourteen years old. And I 126 00:07:21.519 --> 00:07:23.480 spent a lot of time myself when I was young 127 00:07:23.560 --> 00:07:26.800 up in Mendocino County, and as I when I read 128 00:07:26.800 --> 00:07:31.519 that profile, it just immediately hit me that how strange 129 00:07:31.560 --> 00:07:35.879 that case was, how unusual it was that two children 130 00:07:36.000 --> 00:07:38.360 that age would just disappear without a trace, and then 131 00:07:38.399 --> 00:07:42.199 over the course of thirty five thirty six years would 132 00:07:42.199 --> 00:07:45.279 no one would have uncovered their identities. So that's how 133 00:07:45.319 --> 00:07:48.879 I originally got involved in researching Lost Coast Highway. It 134 00:07:48.920 --> 00:07:51.160 was actually an extension of the research I was doing 135 00:07:51.160 --> 00:07:55.240 for Black Knight Gold Coast. Now you say you. 136 00:07:55.240 --> 00:07:58.680 Developed the list of questions about the case just naturally 137 00:07:59.319 --> 00:08:04.040 and do called in the countryside proud small towns, even 138 00:08:04.079 --> 00:08:07.240 inspected the site where the bodies were found, and eventually 139 00:08:07.360 --> 00:08:12.759 began cultivating sources within the local law enforcement community. So 140 00:08:12.800 --> 00:08:18.319 tell us how you went about your research and your investigation. Sure, so, 141 00:08:18.439 --> 00:08:20.480 when I first read about the two teens who had 142 00:08:20.480 --> 00:08:22.600 been murdered up in Mendocino County in the summer of 143 00:08:22.680 --> 00:08:25.480 nineteen seventy nine. I really wasn't at Liberty at that 144 00:08:25.600 --> 00:08:28.040 time to investigate the case in all that much detail. 145 00:08:28.079 --> 00:08:30.040 I mean, I knew the case was tragic, and I 146 00:08:30.079 --> 00:08:32.200 had certain questions about it, but I was obviously I 147 00:08:32.200 --> 00:08:34.000 was in the middle of writing Black Night, Gold Coast 148 00:08:34.039 --> 00:08:36.639 at the time. I had to finish that project. So 149 00:08:36.799 --> 00:08:38.679 when I finished Black Night, Gold Coast, I ended up 150 00:08:38.679 --> 00:08:42.080 taking a week off, and during that week, thoughts about 151 00:08:42.159 --> 00:08:45.360 the Mendocino case came flooding back into my mind, and 152 00:08:45.480 --> 00:08:47.240 I decided to take some time that week and just 153 00:08:47.320 --> 00:08:49.320 explore the case in a little more depth. And as 154 00:08:49.360 --> 00:08:52.000 I was exploring the case and reading old newspaper clippings 155 00:08:52.039 --> 00:08:54.960 about it and so forth, I just began to wonder 156 00:08:55.039 --> 00:08:57.879 more than ever why these teens had not been identified. 157 00:08:57.919 --> 00:09:00.600 I mean, wasn't someone out there, wasn't a or a 158 00:09:00.639 --> 00:09:04.519 sibling or someone in their community aware that they'd gone missing. 159 00:09:05.279 --> 00:09:08.080 I just I couldn't fathom the circumstances under which two 160 00:09:08.159 --> 00:09:11.440 children that age would go missing and no one would notice. 161 00:09:12.240 --> 00:09:14.679 I couldn't figure out why there were no missing persons reports. 162 00:09:14.679 --> 00:09:19.240 I couldn't figure out why they'd never been identified. So anyway, 163 00:09:19.320 --> 00:09:21.919 the upshot was, after I did as much research as 164 00:09:21.919 --> 00:09:23.840 I could on the case from here at home in 165 00:09:23.879 --> 00:09:28.159 Los Angeles, I wanted to know more and I had 166 00:09:28.200 --> 00:09:31.080 these questions they had to be answered, and so I 167 00:09:31.080 --> 00:09:33.320 got in my car, I drove up to Mendocino County 168 00:09:33.759 --> 00:09:36.600 and I just started beating the bushes for any information 169 00:09:36.639 --> 00:09:39.879 I could find on the case. And literally, in some 170 00:09:40.080 --> 00:09:43.360 cases that meant just, you know, driving down a street 171 00:09:43.360 --> 00:09:45.360 and residential community and looking for a guy who's out 172 00:09:45.440 --> 00:09:48.039 mowing his lawn and pulling my car over to the 173 00:09:48.120 --> 00:09:51.039 curb and getting out and talking to him. Other times 174 00:09:51.039 --> 00:09:54.039 it was striking up conversations with people in local coffee shops. 175 00:09:54.080 --> 00:09:56.919 But at the end of the day, after going up 176 00:09:56.960 --> 00:09:59.279 there and after really beating the bushes as hard as 177 00:09:59.279 --> 00:10:02.720 I could, I did start to develop contacts with people 178 00:10:02.720 --> 00:10:06.240 in that area, and one contact leads to another, and 179 00:10:06.279 --> 00:10:08.919 eventually I did start to meet people in the local 180 00:10:09.000 --> 00:10:11.960 law enforcement community, a couple of whom we were willing 181 00:10:12.000 --> 00:10:14.080 to go on record with me in the book and 182 00:10:14.080 --> 00:10:17.440 not just give me information on background. So uh, that 183 00:10:17.559 --> 00:10:20.279 was that was really the genesis of my research for 184 00:10:20.360 --> 00:10:23.159 Lost Coast Highway. 185 00:10:25.360 --> 00:10:30.720 Now tell us the first information that you garner from 186 00:10:30.759 --> 00:10:38.080 this investigation that contradicts the information that that you had researched. 187 00:10:41.919 --> 00:10:46.720 Well, I should point out that the kids in Mendocino County, 188 00:10:46.720 --> 00:10:48.840 there were there were a number of problems with the 189 00:10:48.879 --> 00:10:55.919 investigation itself. But I should probably start by giving a 190 00:10:55.919 --> 00:10:59.440 couple of background details on the on the Mendocino case. So, 191 00:10:59.639 --> 00:11:04.600 these two kids were found about halfway down this almost 192 00:11:04.799 --> 00:11:09.200 vertical ravine on this very very remote highway west of 193 00:11:09.240 --> 00:11:12.399 the small town of Willets. So for your listeners who 194 00:11:12.399 --> 00:11:15.639 aren't really familiar with the geography of northern California, we're 195 00:11:15.679 --> 00:11:18.720 talking about an area that's about one hundred and forty 196 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:22.440 one hundred and forty five miles north of San Francisco, 197 00:11:22.600 --> 00:11:24.759 north of the Golden Gate Bridge. This is a very 198 00:11:24.799 --> 00:11:29.440 sparsely populated area of our state. It's a part of 199 00:11:29.440 --> 00:11:33.639 the state that's covered by really dense, heavy coastal forest. 200 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:37.320 So the victims in the Mendocino case were discovered almost 201 00:11:37.399 --> 00:11:41.080 by chance out on this very very remote highway called 202 00:11:41.159 --> 00:11:45.639 Highway twenty when their remains were found about halfway down 203 00:11:45.720 --> 00:11:51.879 this vertical thousand foot cliff. Only one item was found 204 00:11:51.919 --> 00:11:55.480 with their bodies, and that item was a single earring. 205 00:11:55.519 --> 00:11:57.519 It was shaped like a little bird. It was made 206 00:11:57.559 --> 00:12:01.240 out of a tortoiseshell material, and for years and years 207 00:12:01.240 --> 00:12:03.360 and years, that was the only clue to the identities 208 00:12:03.360 --> 00:12:05.440 of the two Mendocino victims. Well, when I was up 209 00:12:05.519 --> 00:12:08.840 there beating the bushes up in Mendocino County, you know, 210 00:12:08.879 --> 00:12:11.600 prowling around Yukayah and Fort Bragg and Willetts and these 211 00:12:11.639 --> 00:12:14.799 various towns up there, I started talking to some of 212 00:12:14.799 --> 00:12:17.679 the locals and one of the cases they remembered was 213 00:12:17.720 --> 00:12:22.320 this case of a number of female hitchhikers who had 214 00:12:22.360 --> 00:12:25.840 been murdered in Sonoma County back in the nineteen seventies 215 00:12:25.840 --> 00:12:29.320 as well, just a few years before the Mendocino murders happened. 216 00:12:29.919 --> 00:12:32.720 And so I started researching the Sonoma County case. I 217 00:12:32.759 --> 00:12:35.159 should point out that Snoma County is the county directly 218 00:12:35.279 --> 00:12:37.919 south of Mendocino County along the one oh one corridor. 219 00:12:38.600 --> 00:12:43.080 So as I was as I was researching that case, 220 00:12:43.120 --> 00:12:47.720 I discovered that in several of those cases in Sonoma County, 221 00:12:47.960 --> 00:12:52.480 the only item found with the victim's remains was a 222 00:12:52.519 --> 00:12:55.240 single ear ring. And as soon as I saw that 223 00:12:55.320 --> 00:12:58.360 in this report that had been generated by the Snoma 224 00:12:58.399 --> 00:13:01.879 County Sheriff's office back in the early seventies, that's when 225 00:13:02.759 --> 00:13:04.679 that's when the light bulbs sort of went off over 226 00:13:04.720 --> 00:13:07.840 my head, and I realized that some pretty critical information 227 00:13:07.879 --> 00:13:12.279 has probably been missed in the Mendocino investigation. And as 228 00:13:12.320 --> 00:13:14.799 I was talking to various law enforcement people up there, 229 00:13:15.039 --> 00:13:17.519 I was more or less able to substantiate that. In 230 00:13:17.600 --> 00:13:21.720 other words, I think that Mendocino County law enforcement probably 231 00:13:21.919 --> 00:13:24.720 had the clue they needed to at least connect those 232 00:13:24.799 --> 00:13:29.360 unidentified victims on Highway twenty to Sonoma County. And of 233 00:13:29.399 --> 00:13:32.279 course when the Mendicino County, when the Mendicino teens were 234 00:13:32.279 --> 00:13:35.279 finally identified, it did come to light that they were 235 00:13:35.480 --> 00:13:37.799 from Sonoma County. 236 00:13:39.159 --> 00:13:44.720 Now, you talk early how this investigation went sideways, and 237 00:13:44.919 --> 00:13:51.279 you talk about identific identifying adolescent bodies and the difficulty 238 00:13:51.639 --> 00:13:55.840 therein so tell us what happens with the emmy or 239 00:13:55.879 --> 00:13:59.799 the person responsible for doing that autopsy and the conclusions 240 00:13:59.799 --> 00:14:03.240 that that time over these two victims and their identity. 241 00:14:05.000 --> 00:14:08.360 Sure, so when the Mendocino teens were found in July 242 00:14:08.480 --> 00:14:12.320 of nineteen seventy nine. They were just skeletons. They were 243 00:14:12.399 --> 00:14:16.759 just skeletal remains that were found down this huge cliff. 244 00:14:17.240 --> 00:14:20.600 So the Mendicino Sheriff's Department hauled the remains up the cliff, 245 00:14:20.799 --> 00:14:25.000 took the remains back to the morgue in Ukiah, and 246 00:14:25.039 --> 00:14:28.759 an autopsy was performed. The problem was the medical examiner 247 00:14:28.840 --> 00:14:32.240 couldn't really glean too many details about the teen's identities 248 00:14:32.320 --> 00:14:35.600 because they were so young, and because they were just 249 00:14:35.720 --> 00:14:38.000 skeletons by the time they were found, and because no 250 00:14:38.120 --> 00:14:41.200 clothing or anything was found with their remains. So the 251 00:14:41.200 --> 00:14:45.559 Mendicino Sheriff's Department decided to bring in an anthropologist a 252 00:14:45.559 --> 00:14:48.960 forensic anthropologists to examine the remains and to try and 253 00:14:48.960 --> 00:14:53.080 ascertain additional details about the identities of these two unidentified teens. 254 00:14:53.799 --> 00:14:58.440 And so the anthropologist goes to Ukaiya and he examines 255 00:14:58.480 --> 00:15:01.639 the remains and he said, as okay, one of the 256 00:15:01.759 --> 00:15:03.960 bodies in this case belongs to a boy. He was 257 00:15:04.000 --> 00:15:06.399 about twelve or thirteen years old at the time he died. 258 00:15:06.480 --> 00:15:10.159 He was white. The other skeleton in this case belongs 259 00:15:10.240 --> 00:15:14.120 to a girl who was about thirteen or fourteen years 260 00:15:14.159 --> 00:15:17.759 old at the time of her death, and those were 261 00:15:17.759 --> 00:15:23.039 the initial conclusions reached by the anthropologists. So, of course, 262 00:15:23.120 --> 00:15:25.840 for years and years after that, the detectives in the 263 00:15:25.879 --> 00:15:28.519 Mendicino County Sheriff's Department, through no fault of their own, 264 00:15:28.799 --> 00:15:32.120 were looking for a boy and a girl who had 265 00:15:32.200 --> 00:15:37.039 gone missing from some other jurisdiction in the late nineteen seventies. 266 00:15:38.120 --> 00:15:41.519 Of course, by twenty fifteen, when the bodies were finally discovered, 267 00:15:41.559 --> 00:15:44.360 it came to light that one of the victims, the 268 00:15:44.399 --> 00:15:47.240 one who had been identified as a boy, was actually 269 00:15:47.519 --> 00:15:51.200 a girl. So all the time the Mendicino detectives had 270 00:15:51.200 --> 00:15:53.120 been looking for a boy and a girl who had 271 00:15:53.159 --> 00:15:56.039 gone missing, they should have been looking for two girls. 272 00:15:56.720 --> 00:15:59.519 And I wanted to know why that mistake was made. 273 00:15:59.559 --> 00:16:04.519 Obviously that was a pretty egregious error, so I researched 274 00:16:04.759 --> 00:16:08.559 how forensic identifications are made on adolescent skeletons. My research 275 00:16:08.639 --> 00:16:11.399 ended up leading me to one of the one of 276 00:16:11.480 --> 00:16:13.399 the top people in the field right now. He's a 277 00:16:13.399 --> 00:16:17.440 professor at Western Carolina University, and he told me, in 278 00:16:17.440 --> 00:16:22.960 no uncertain terms that anthropologists should never attempt to estimate 279 00:16:23.080 --> 00:16:27.480 the sexes of skeletal victims. He said, the reason is 280 00:16:27.519 --> 00:16:32.240 because until about the age of sixteen or seventeen, possibly 281 00:16:32.320 --> 00:16:35.919 even eighteen or nineteen, male and female skeletons are virtually 282 00:16:35.960 --> 00:16:39.279 identical in terms of the contours the pelvic girdles, the 283 00:16:39.320 --> 00:16:43.000 structures of the rib cages, and so forth. And during, 284 00:16:43.399 --> 00:16:46.759 you know, during our exchange, I asked this anthropology professor 285 00:16:46.799 --> 00:16:50.039 and researcher back at Western Carolina University whether or not 286 00:16:50.120 --> 00:16:52.759 that was sort of the standard operating procedure back in 287 00:16:52.840 --> 00:16:56.759 nineteen eighty when the anthropological assessment was done on the 288 00:16:56.759 --> 00:16:59.039 Mendocino teens. And he said, yeah, he said, you know, 289 00:16:59.120 --> 00:17:01.080 we've done this for a long time. We've known for 290 00:17:01.080 --> 00:17:05.799 a long time that adolescent skeletons are hard to distinguish 291 00:17:05.839 --> 00:17:08.359 by gender and that that should not be attempted. So 292 00:17:08.559 --> 00:17:11.960 he was really pretty flabbergasted that the anthropologist back then 293 00:17:12.000 --> 00:17:17.319 had even attempted to make definitive gender assessments of the 294 00:17:17.319 --> 00:17:18.759 Mendocino teens. 295 00:17:21.880 --> 00:17:26.279 Now, what is the police response to this in terms 296 00:17:26.359 --> 00:17:30.279 of reaching out to media and is there any leads 297 00:17:30.319 --> 00:17:33.720 as a result of the concerted police effort to reach 298 00:17:33.759 --> 00:17:36.160 out and seek information from the community. 299 00:17:38.400 --> 00:17:40.519 Do you mean at this point or back in the 300 00:17:40.599 --> 00:17:42.000 nineteen seventies. 301 00:17:42.359 --> 00:17:45.160 In the seventies, Yeah. 302 00:17:44.720 --> 00:17:48.480 In the seventies. Well, in the seventies, the sheriff of 303 00:17:48.519 --> 00:17:51.720 Mendocino County was a guy named Tom John Doll, and 304 00:17:52.279 --> 00:17:56.200 I have every confidence that he was a very conscientious 305 00:17:56.599 --> 00:18:00.440 professional in the field of law enforcement. But the thing is, 306 00:18:00.920 --> 00:18:05.519 when they couldn't identify the Mendocino teens initially, he ended 307 00:18:05.599 --> 00:18:07.759 up going to the media, and he ended up making 308 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:12.319 some guesses about who the victims were in the case. 309 00:18:13.240 --> 00:18:17.039 And so he does this interview just a few days 310 00:18:17.079 --> 00:18:19.720 after the Mendocino teens were found, before they had even 311 00:18:19.759 --> 00:18:23.440 been assessed by the anthropologist yet, and the sheriff of 312 00:18:23.480 --> 00:18:26.880 Mendocino County tells this reporter for I think it was 313 00:18:26.920 --> 00:18:30.920 the Yukaya Daily Journal that the best quote unquote, and 314 00:18:30.920 --> 00:18:34.680 I'm quoting here, the best guess of his detectives is 315 00:18:34.720 --> 00:18:37.640 that the remains of those two teens belonged to a 316 00:18:37.680 --> 00:18:41.119 boy and a girl. Now, I doubt that that is 317 00:18:41.519 --> 00:18:44.319 a problem with that. I doubt that the same mistake 318 00:18:44.359 --> 00:18:47.279 would be made today. But obviously, making public on the 319 00:18:47.359 --> 00:18:51.279 record guesses to a reporter about the genders of two 320 00:18:51.839 --> 00:18:57.200 unidentified homicide victims posed enormous problems for the investigative trajectory 321 00:18:57.240 --> 00:19:00.359 of this case. And it also, I believe might posed 322 00:19:00.400 --> 00:19:05.839 problems with that anthropological investigation. Maybe the anthropologist was eager 323 00:19:06.039 --> 00:19:09.160 to confirm the guesses of the sheriff. Maybe he wanted 324 00:19:09.200 --> 00:19:12.000 to favor with the sheriff. I'm just guessing there. I 325 00:19:12.000 --> 00:19:14.960 don't know that for a fact, but it seems sort 326 00:19:14.960 --> 00:19:17.319 of suspect to me that the sheriff makes this off 327 00:19:17.319 --> 00:19:21.680 the cuff guess about the genders of the Mendocino murder 328 00:19:21.759 --> 00:19:25.119 victims being a boy and a girl, and then suddenly, 329 00:19:25.720 --> 00:19:28.680 you know, a couple months later, an anthropologist reaches the 330 00:19:28.680 --> 00:19:30.880 conclusion that the remains do belong to a boy and 331 00:19:30.920 --> 00:19:33.160 a girl. It seems suspect to me, at least, and 332 00:19:33.200 --> 00:19:35.480 I try and go through that in a pretty significant 333 00:19:35.480 --> 00:19:36.599 amount of detail in the book. 334 00:19:38.400 --> 00:19:41.759 There's another issue that further complicates that, and that is 335 00:19:41.799 --> 00:19:48.160 the conclusion, wrongful conclusion that there was a familiar connection 336 00:19:48.440 --> 00:19:51.240 between the two victims. 337 00:19:53.000 --> 00:19:55.880 Right, that's exactly right. I guess I had not mentioned 338 00:19:55.920 --> 00:20:00.119 that earlier, But when the anthropologist assessed the remains the 339 00:20:00.160 --> 00:20:04.079 Highway twenty victims, the Mendocino victims in early nineteen eighty 340 00:20:04.559 --> 00:20:09.240 he concluded that the remains belonged to two children who 341 00:20:09.279 --> 00:20:13.079 were biologically related. So the detectives in the case were 342 00:20:14.400 --> 00:20:18.200 for more than thirty years looking for two children who 343 00:20:18.240 --> 00:20:20.599 shared some sort of biological relationship. They weren't sure if 344 00:20:20.599 --> 00:20:22.160 they were a brother and a sister, or if they 345 00:20:22.160 --> 00:20:24.799 were maybe two first cousins or something like that, But 346 00:20:26.079 --> 00:20:28.720 it finally came to light in two thousand that the 347 00:20:28.799 --> 00:20:33.519 children were not biologically related. A forensic dentist re examined 348 00:20:33.519 --> 00:20:37.279 the remains in two thousand and he determined that the 349 00:20:37.359 --> 00:20:41.160 children were not biologically related. So that completely changed again 350 00:20:41.279 --> 00:20:44.640 the trajectory of the investigations, and now no longer were 351 00:20:44.799 --> 00:20:47.839 Mendocino detectives looking for two kids who were related to 352 00:20:47.880 --> 00:20:49.839 one another. They were looking for two kids who were 353 00:20:49.839 --> 00:20:52.200 not related to each other. And I should also point 354 00:20:52.240 --> 00:20:54.680 out that the forensic dentists with lucky landslods. 355 00:20:54.880 --> 00:20:57.559 You can get lucky just about anywhere. 356 00:20:57.319 --> 00:21:00.720 Really beloved, we are gathered here today. Has anyone seen 357 00:21:00.720 --> 00:21:01.519 the bride and broom? 358 00:21:02.039 --> 00:21:03.680 Sorry, sorry we're here. 359 00:21:03.880 --> 00:21:05.720 We were getting lucky in the limo and we lost 360 00:21:05.759 --> 00:21:06.279 track of time. 361 00:21:07.000 --> 00:21:09.799 No Lucky Land casino with cash prizes that add up 362 00:21:09.880 --> 00:21:11.119 quicker than a guess registrator. 363 00:21:11.400 --> 00:21:14.559 In that case, I pronounce you Lucky Hiks for. 364 00:21:14.599 --> 00:21:18.000 Free at lucky land slots dot com. Daily bonuses are waiting, 365 00:21:18.160 --> 00:21:20.559 no purchase necessary. Board were prohibited by Law eight team 366 00:21:20.599 --> 00:21:23.200 plus terms and conditions of the flag. See website for details. 367 00:21:23.640 --> 00:21:26.119 Just to examine the remains in two thousand was right 368 00:21:26.160 --> 00:21:28.920 on the money. He is now a legislator up in Sacramento. 369 00:21:29.240 --> 00:21:32.079 His name is Jim Wood, and he really helped break 370 00:21:32.119 --> 00:21:34.480 this case open in a very significant way by making 371 00:21:34.519 --> 00:21:37.400 that that discovery that the two victims were not related 372 00:21:37.400 --> 00:21:37.960 to one another. 373 00:21:40.599 --> 00:21:44.960 A big part of this is the attitude of law 374 00:21:45.039 --> 00:21:49.559 enforcement at that time and looking at runaways that are 375 00:21:49.559 --> 00:21:53.960 not runaways. Pardon me, missing people as runaways, stereotyping as 376 00:21:54.640 --> 00:21:57.880 they did that most people that went missing ended up 377 00:21:57.920 --> 00:22:02.319 coming back home. But you talk about July eighth, nineteen 378 00:22:02.359 --> 00:22:05.279 eighty nine, there was a ten year anniversary, and we're 379 00:22:05.319 --> 00:22:07.960 going a little bit forward in terms of this case 380 00:22:08.000 --> 00:22:11.359 goes cold. Five years pass. The case is handed to 381 00:22:11.400 --> 00:22:14.440 the FBI. They examined the case, They examined the case 382 00:22:14.480 --> 00:22:18.279 and the facts are very odd, but again no progress. 383 00:22:18.680 --> 00:22:21.279 And then you talk about July eighth, nineteen eighty nine, 384 00:22:21.880 --> 00:22:24.640 this ten year anniversary of the discoveries, and a local 385 00:22:24.720 --> 00:22:28.960 news station does a story and the viewers were shown 386 00:22:29.119 --> 00:22:32.559 this what we mentioned, the bird shaped ear ring now 387 00:22:33.039 --> 00:22:36.039 and the broadcast was across the North coast, and one 388 00:22:36.079 --> 00:22:40.319 of these viewers was a seventeen year old girl named 389 00:22:40.400 --> 00:22:43.759 Kelly Graham. Tell us about Kelly Graham, what she recognizes 390 00:22:43.799 --> 00:22:45.960 and what is her response? What does she do? 391 00:22:48.000 --> 00:22:51.119 Absolutely so, you're exactly right. So just to make sure 392 00:22:51.119 --> 00:22:54.880 everyone understands the chronology here, the Mendocino teens were found 393 00:22:54.920 --> 00:22:59.160 in July of nineteen seventy nine. The anthropologic inspection of 394 00:22:59.160 --> 00:23:02.519 the remains was done in early nineteen eighty and then 395 00:23:02.599 --> 00:23:04.759 the case was handed off to the FBI in nineteen 396 00:23:04.759 --> 00:23:06.880 eighty five. The FBI couldn't do anything with it, so 397 00:23:06.920 --> 00:23:09.720 they handed it back, after a short period of time, 398 00:23:09.880 --> 00:23:13.920 to the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department. Well by nineteen eighty nine, 399 00:23:14.200 --> 00:23:18.960 ten years after the discovery of the teen's bodies or 400 00:23:19.000 --> 00:23:23.680 the teens skeletons, the Mendocino County Sheriff's Department has still 401 00:23:23.720 --> 00:23:27.119