Sue had just divorced her husband and brought her children from Connecticut to Keddie in Northern California. The murders took place in cabin 28, during the late evening of April 11, 1981 and/or early morning of the 12th. In 2016, Gamberg located a hammer believed to be one of the murder weapons in a dried-up pond in Keddie. While the Seabolts tried to calm the distraught girl, their teenage son, Jamie Seabolt, went to Cabin 28 to see if anyone was still alive. As reported by ABC10, John Boubede died in 1988, and Martin Smartt died in 2006. Then, see if you can solve any of these six inexplicable, unsolved murders. When the DOJ was alerted to this confession in 1981, they dismissed it as hearsay.. The results of the analyses and tests are unknown. Plumas County Sheriffs Office Cabin 28 at Keddie Resort, 1981. However, an anonymous call to the Sheriffs office reported the remains as belonging to Tina Sharp. As reported by Timber Creek Talon, Marty also purportedly confessed to the murders during a therapy session. Police arrived at around 8:00 am and began their investigation of the murders. However, he did not have any involvement in the case at the time. Sue and John had suffered similar types of wounds. A domestic violence survivor herself, Sue reportedly advised Marilyn to leave her husband. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. It was later confirmed that Martin was close with this Sheriff. The oldest boy, John, got the ground-floor basement all to himself. We sheltered them, she says about her brothers in the aftermath of the murders. On the night of the Keddie cabin murders, Marilyn, Boubede (or Bo as they called him), and Marty had been out together at the local bar. "[24] In addition to interviewing the Smartts, detectives interviewed numerous other locals and neighbors; several, including members of the Seabolt family, recalled seeing a green van parked at the Sharps' house around 9:00 pm. [29], In a 2008 documentary on the murders, Marilyn Smartt claimed that she suspected her husband Martin and his friend John "Bo" Boubede (erroneously reported as "John Boudee" by author Robert Scott)[a] were responsible for the murders. Where is the Body of the Legendary King Gorm of Denmark. The police never admitted this letter as evidence. The Keddie Cabin murders is one of the most gruesome and mysterious unsolved cases in American history. Did Genene Jones Kill As Many As 60 Children As A Pediatric Nurse? It's debated whether it was the murders themselves that led to less interest in renting in the once-busy area, or if it was the allegedly poor management of the cabins themselves that led to fewer people being willing to live there. Further, the home did not indicate forced entry, though detectives did recover an unidentified fingerprint from a handrail on the back stairs. Investigators theorized that someone might have interrupted the murders taking place before the culprits had a chance to kill the younger children in their bedrooms. The trio had been stabbed, bludgeoned, and strangled to death. The date was April 11, 1981, when Cabin 28 saw the horrors that crowd it and to this day, the case remains cold. Various weapons were found at the scene, including a table knife, a butcher knife, and a bloody hammer. [24] Around 2:00 am on April 12, she stated she awoke to find the two burning an unknown item in the wood stove. A butcher knife and claw hammer, both also bloodied, were side-by-side on a small wooden table near the entry into the kitchen. Eliminated as a suspect, despite actually confessing to the Keddie murders, was Robert Joseph Silveria Jr., the so-called "Boxcar Killer". Tina was missing from the scene. [24], According to a 2016 article published by The Sacramento Bee, Martin had left Keddie and driven to Reno, Nevada, shortly after the murders; from there, he sent a letter to Marilyn ruminating on personal struggles in their marriage, which he concluded with: "I've paid the price of your love & now I've bought it with four people's lives. It would have been intentionally put there. Dmac does not agree on this point. Sue's two younger sons, Rick and Greg, as well as their friend Justin Smartt, were also in the house but were unharmed. Considering the level of violence that took place, this seems impossible. It would take the police hours to realize that a fourth victim, Tina, was missing. covered it up, is the way it sounds. He alleges that Bo and Martin fit into a larger drug-smuggling scheme that involved the federal government. One theory is that they really wanted people to notice them. Tina remained a missing person until April 1984, when her skull and several other bones were recovered at Camp Eighteen, California, near Feather Falls in Butte County. ET) on Investigation Discovery. Nevertheless, Gamberg says that six people may have been involved. Please note that there is a lot of misinformation published online about the Keddie murders. Blood patterns indicated that her legs were initially splayed apart, but someone moved her and covered her body with a yellow blanket after the murder. 12-year-old Tina Sharp is missing. The clues suggested that the perpetrators abducted her. Silveria Jr. is believed to have killed between 9 and 14 people while living a transient lifestyle on freight-trains throughout the United States. With that, the remains of Tina Sharp had been found, which made the crimes committed on April 11 or 12, 1981, a quadruple homicide. Inside The Unsolved Shooting Of Brooklyn's Hip-Hop King. Sheilas mother had been covered partially with a blanket though that had done little to hide her gruesome injuries. 35 Years Later, New Clues May Solve Keddie Murder Mystery. In September 1980, Sharp found a larger home in the former resort town of Keddie, California. That's the hope of Sheila Sharp, who discovered the bodies of her mother, brother and a friend at her family's cabin in Keddie, California, in 1981, in a mystery re-examined this past Monday in. This was a couple years ago. Three dead: Sue (36), John (15), and John's friend, Dana Wingate (17). Published October 18, 2021 Updated November 1, 2021 Between April 11 and April 12, 1981, Glenna "Sue" Sharp and three others were brutally killed in the resort town of Keddie, California. Circleville, Ohio - The Unsolved Mystery of the Circleville Letters by Every . Determined to find more survivors, Jamie crept up the back stairs. Tina had briefly joined her sister at the neighbors before returning home to her mother, two younger brothers, and one of the neighbor boys, Justin Smartt. It was true that investigators failed to log numerous pieces of evidence and overlooked leads. On the after show, Dennis asks Sheila how the crime affected her surviving younger siblings, and about the role Sheila played as their protector in later years. 27 min listen. The girls shared one, and the younger boys shared the other. Of the suspects who are still alive, Gamberg said: They better batten down the hatches because were coming. Justin recalled that both men wore glasses and that the two older boys, John and Dana, came home while Sue was talking to the men. As she opened the door, she discovered three bodies on the living room floor of the infamous Cabin 28. It would not have been accidentally misplaced." On the morning of April 11, 14-year-old Sheila Sharp stepped into Cabin 28 to a . . They had planned to return home later that night. Blood was everywhere. The sheriff at the time of the murders, Doug Thomas, and his deputy. It wasnt until three years later on April 22, 1984, when Ronald Pedrini reported that he was in the woods about 90 miles southwest of Keddie when he stumbled upon something suspicious. All of their injuries happened after the killers tied them up. . In 2016, a hammer, which could have been the one Smartt reportedly said he lost, was found in a pond near where the Keddie cabin once stood. Blog. Around 1:30 pm, Sue and her oldest daughter Sheila went to pick up John and Dana in Quincy. At least one other person was killed that night: her teenage brothers friend, whose body also was found by then 14-year-old Sheila on the living room floor of Cabin 28 in Keddie, California, on the morning of April 12, 1981. However, none of the evidence helped the investigators find the killers or determine how she died. While under hypnosis, he described the killers as a tall man with blond hair and a mustache and a short man, who was clean-shaven with dark hair. It was evident that Sue had put up a fight during the attack, as she had defensive wounds on her arms. Two suspects, Marty and Bo, died. The murders had been notably violent. A fourth victim, Sheilas younger sister, was missing. The crime scene of the quadruple murder. It is unclear when this happened or who did it. He was placed under hypnosis in an attempt to recall any details of the night. KEDDIE, Calif. It has been 40 years since what is known as the Keddie Murders took place in rural Plumas County. It also provides an explanation as to why the two lead suspects were seemingly given a free pass and told to leave town by Sheriff Thomas. The strangest thing is that there is no apparent motive. Oct 15, 2021. Listen Now For our friends in the Deaf and Signing community, you can view an ASL version of this episode HERE. All three returned home later, but Marty and Bo went out again. Between them lies the forgotten tape of the anonymous phone tip left in 1984, rediscovered in 2013. called the Sacramento Department of Justice. In July 1979, Glenna Susan "Sue" Sharp (ne Davis; born March 29, 1945 in Springfield, Massachusetts),[3] along with her five children, left her home in Connecticut after separating from her husband, James Sharp. Accept Read More, The Disappearance of the Five Sodder Children, Brutal Murders on Germanys Hinterkaifeck Farm, Burke and Hare: Merchants in the Cadaver Market, John Paul Gettys Ransom: When Money Trumps Family. Gamberg was a young deputy when the Keddie cabin murders occurred. Keddie28reported Sue Sharp began dating a man named Dareyl approximately one week before she was killed. The Keddie Murders is an unsolved 1981 American quadruple murder that took place in Keddie, a former resort town in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada. Corona, Marcella. 5 Things to Know about the Keddie Cabin Murders and the Hunt for the Killers, 'People Magazine Investigates' : Inside Decades-Old Disappearances of 5 People Along the Snake River. According to Historic Mysteries, Justin said Sue was talking to the men when John and Dana arrived home. His throat had been slit. Immediately, the two lead suspects were Justin Smartts father and the Sharps neighbors, Martin Smartt and his houseguest, ex-convict John Bo Boudebe who was known to have connections to organized crime in the area. John and his 17-year-old friend Dana had hitchhiked to a nearby town of Quincy for a party and returned sometime later that evening. Unfortunately, many hours passed since her disappearance, and the chance of anyone finding her nearby was slim. Probable murder weapons for the Keddie slaying discovered and submitted as evidence in 2016. Disturbingly, the motive for those murders is still unknown, as the Keddie police department never caught the real-life killer (s), and the case remains unsolved. On the night of April 11, 1981, four people were brutally murdered in Cabin 28 of the Keddie resort in Northern California. The case involves the murders of members of the Sharp family while they were vacationing at Keddie Resort in 1981. On her side, the mother of five was naked from the waist down, tightly gagged with a bandana and her own underwear secured with medical tape. "[27] A grid pattern search of the area covering a 5-mile (8.0km) radius around the house was conducted with police canines, but the efforts were fruitless. [27], On April 22, 1984, three years and eleven days after the murders, a bottle collector discovered the cranium portion of a human skull and part of a mandible at Camp Eighteen[17] near Feather Falls in neighboring Butte County,[28] roughly 100 miles (160km) from Keddie. The Keddie Murders Unresolved. The murders took place in house No. Local authorities confirmed she was not known to law enforcement and did not have a criminal record. As reported by Keddie28, she returned to her family's cabin, which was only 15 feet away, at approximately 7:45 Sunday morning to get her outfit. In addition to confirming Sue, John, and Dana were dead, the officers concluded they were murdered. One of them was tall with blonde hair and a mustache, while the other was shorter, dark-haired, and clean-shaven. They happened upon John and his friend, Dana Hall Wingate (born February 8, 1964),[3] hitchhiking at the mouth of the canyon from Quincy to Keddie and picked them up, then driving about 6 miles (9.7km) away to Keddie. Investigation Police arrived at around 8:00 am and began their investigation of the murders. In press releases accompanying the sketches, the suspects were described as being in their late 20s to early 30s; one stood between 5feet 11inches (1.80m) to 6feet 2inches (1.88m) tall with dark-blonde hair, and the other between 5feet 6inches (1.68m) and 5feet 10inches (1.78m) with black, greased hair. Electrical cording and medical tape bound their wrists and ankles. She had injuries consistent with a struggle and had an imprint of the butt of an .880 pellet gun on the side of her head. [6] Blood spatter evidence from inside the house indicated that the murders of Sue, John, and Dana had all taken place in the living room. It matched the description of the one Marty gave in his interrogation. Marilyn later said in a 2008 documentary that she believed Marty was the perpetrator and that he had even confessed in writing to her. Once a busy railroad terminal in the Sierra Nevada mountains, Keddie had lost much of its population after the railroad closed down. Sue Sharps surviving children left California to live with an aunt. Although authorities believe they were both involved in the Keddie cabin murders, they think they may have had help. They also found a bloody fingerprint on the handrail leading down from the back door. I was told the suspects were told to get out of town, so to me, that means it was covered up, Sheila Sharp told CBS Sacramento in 2016. The Keddie Murders On the morning of April 11th, 1981, 14-year-old Sheila Sharp was returning from a neighbor's house following a sleepover. This would account for Marilyn leaving her husband the day of the murder discovery. A fight ensued,[24] after which Tina entered the room and was taken out of the cabin's back door by one of the men. As she opened the door, she screamed as she discovered the bodies of her mother, Glenna "Sue" Sharp, older brother John Sharp . But the memory of those murders has also stayed with the community and especially with the investigators who have re-opened the case of the 1981 attacks on Sue Sharp, her son Johnny, her daughter Tina, and family friend Dana Wingate. Sue's two younger sons, Rick and Greg, as well as their friend Justin Smartt, were also in the house but were unharmed. As reported by Historic Mysteries, Justin was placed under hypnosis and questioned about the content of his dreams. Many people believe that the police were either incompetent or corrupt and covered up the crime for some reason. Plumas County Sheriffs OfficeComposite sketch of the Keddie murder suspects. 28 of the Keddie Resort. A person matching the description Justin gave became a primary suspect in the investigation Justins stepfather, Martin Smartt, also known as Marty. Marty, his wife Marilyn, and Marilyns two sons lived in Cabin 26 near the Sharps house just across the lane. [28] Near the remains, detectives also discovered a blue nylon jacket, a blanket, a pair of Levi Strauss jeans with a missing back pocket, and an empty medical tape dispenser. Its my belief that there were more than two people who were involved in the totality of the crimethe disposal of the evidence and the abduction of the little girl, Hagwood said. According to the story, Marty said he was angry that Sue had convinced Marilyn to leave him. Unsolved 1981 American quadruple homicide in Keddie, California, Victims, clockwise: Sue Sharp, John Sharp, Dana Wingate, and Tina Sharp, The house's front door and living room interior, Several news sources use the name "John Boubede", though Robert Scott claims in his book, "Keddie murders revisited part 2: Following the clues", "Inside the Search for the Keddie Cabin Killers 35 Years After a Family Was Slaughtered", "A Daughter's 35-Year Fight For Justice: Sheila Sharp Longs to Know Who Murdered Her Family in Their Cabin", "5 Things to Know about the Keddie Cabin Murders and the New Hunt for the Killers", "Plumas County Sheriff seeks pair in Keddie tripple slaying", "13-year-old Keddie murders still plague sheriff", "Investigator closer to solving Keddie murders", "Plumas County's Keddie murders revisited Part III", "Keddie murders revisited part 1: New evidence discovered links living suspect to grisly scene", "Plumas triple murder investigation continues", "The Keddie Murders: 20 years have passed since four lives were taken in a brutal slaying", "Sheriff seeks pair for questioning in Keddie murder investigation", "New evidence revives Plumas County quadruple murder case", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keddie_murders&oldid=1134819132, Deaths by strangulation in the United States, Unsolved mass murders in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Tina Sharp (remains recovered April 1984), This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 21:19. Unfortunately, there is no record of this ever happening. At the centre of its hub was Keddie Resort, a collection of 33 rustic cabins which could be rented out long term for around $170 per month. Dana had multiple head injuries and had been manually strangled to death. It read: Ive paid the price of your love & now that Ive bought it with four peoples lives, you tell me we are through. In 2013, he located the recording of the anonymous 911 phone call that came in after Tinas remains surfaced. The three had been bound by medical and electrical tape and had either been viciously stabbed, strangled, or bludgeoned. The following fall, she moved to house #28 in the rural Sierra Nevada railroad town of Keddie. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Authorities also interviewed Marty's close friend, John "Bo" Boubede, who lived with Marty and his wife, and was out with Marty on the night the murders occurred. The prevalence of blood suggested to investigators that the victims had been moved and rearranged from the positions in which they were murdered. Although the story is intriguing, Justin may have gotten information about the case from the media during the four weeks since the murders. The bodies of Sue, John, and Dana were found on the morning of April 12 by Sue's 14-year-old daughter, Sheila, who had been sleeping at a friend's house. And I know I always look around. The Keddie murders are an unsolved quadruple homicide which took place over the night of April 1112, 1981, in Keddie, California, United States. There were some bloodstains on her bedding, which suggested that she might have been kidnapped from her bed after the murders. Episode Info [25] Both wore gold-framed sunglasses. The murders tooks place in Cabin 28 of the Keddie Resort. Sheila had spent that night at a sleepover next door. People Magazine Investigates continues with new episodes that air Mondays (10 p.m. Were convinced that there are a handful of people that fit those roles who are still alive.. [24][11] It was never explained why, with access to the Justice Department's and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) top forensic artists, law enforcement chose to use an amateur who sometimes volunteered to help local police. Further, it came to light that Marilyn Smartt, Martys wife and mother of Justin, had left her husband on the day of the murder discovery. Boubede told authorities he was a former Chicago police officer and that Marilyn was his niece, which were both later revealed to be untrue. Sheilas 12-year-old sister Tina was missing, while her two younger brothers, Rick and Greg, and their friend Justin were left unharmed during the violent ordeal. Amid his interview with police, authorities learned Smartt and his wife were enrolled in a class with Sue. The murders at Keddie Cabin 28 appeared to be random acts of cruelty. Great! On the floor lay her mother Glenna (Sue) Sharp36, her brother Johnny Sharp15, and Johns friend Dana Wingate17. ET) on Investigation Discovery, One of the main things I have a hard time with is getting close to people, for fear that somethings going to happen, Sheila says in an exclusive clip from the after show. Some sources claim that Boubede had a crush on Sue, who supposedly rejected him twice. The six of them: 36-year-old Sue, her 15-year-old son John, 14-year-old daughter Sheila, 12-year-old daughter Tina, and 10-year-old Rick and 5-year-old Greg, were friendly with their nearby neighbors at the Keddie resort. with a handwritten letter sent to her and signed by her estranged husband. Despite the multitude of evidence and a few suspects, no arrests took place. Originally established as a stop along the railroad, the area was in the middle of a total transition when the Sharp . [6] Upon discovering the scene, Sheila rushed back to the Seabolts' house, whereupon Jamie Seabolt retrieved Rick, Greg, and Justin through the bedroom window. Nevertheless, authorities were determined to follow any possible leads. Tips or information about the Keddie murders can be given anonymously by calling the Plumas County Sheriff's Office at 530-283-6360; the Secret Witness program at 775-322-4900; sending a text. When it was eventually discovered that Tina Sharp was missing, the FBI arrived on the scene. A daughter was kidnapped and her remains were later found. The Keddie family about four years before the murders. All victims had suffered blunt-force trauma by hammer or hammers. PEOPLE Magazine Investigates After Show: Survivor Sheila Sharp on the 1981 Keddie Cabin Murders of Her Family For 35 years, Sheila Sharp has tried to repress the memory of finding the. Therefore, it appears they did not have a chance or chose not to fight back. His handling of the case in retrospect would be considered disastrous at best and corrupt at worst. Keddie Cabin 28 Police Documents Keddie Cabin 28 Crime Scene Photos Things People Have Said Over the Years The Keddie Cabin 28 Investigation Suspect: Martin Smartt Other Possible Keddie Suspects General Hal Snook Welcome! Both Gamberg and Hagwood said they believe authorities are getting closer to solving the case. He also told authorities he had a hammer, which went missing around the same time the murder occurred. All rights reserved. Allegedly, a lot of potential evidence was collected at the scene but because this was pre-DNA testing, very little helpful information was found at this time. The town was later promoted as a resort town, with opportunities for camping, hiking, and other recreation. Smartt moved to Reno, Nevada, shortly after the conclusion of his police interview and was also never arrested or charged in the Keddie cabin murders. It's an unsolved murder of a mother, two of her children and her son's friend. [25], Rumors regarding the crimes being ritualistic or motivated by drug trafficking were dismissed by Plumas County Sheriff Doug Thomas, who stated in the week following the murders that no drug paraphernalia or illegal drugs were found in the home. This might explain why the Sacramento DOJ sent two allegedly corrupt organized crime special agents instead of agents from the homicide department. From the ground level in the back of the house, a flight of stairs led up to the main living area. The murders took place in house No. ("dmac" to his enemies.) From the front door, their small wooden cabin opened to the living room. A fourth victim, Sheila's younger sister, was missing. Due to the chaos, it took police quite a few hours before anyone realized that Tina was nowhere to be found. [24] Investigating these sounds, he saw Sue with two men: one with a mustache and short hair, the other clean-shaven with long hair; both wore glasses. Gamberg is on a special mission to solve the 37-year-old murder case, where four people were brutally murdered, and probably all within the tiny railroad town and former resort community called Keddie. [6] The house's telephone had been taken off the hook and the cord cut from the outlet, and the drapes were closed. The Keddie Cabin murders was a case that involved a triple-slaying as well as a missing child whose remains were later discovered. Although Dana also suffered trauma to the head, she was strangled to death. The artist won the Doug Moran in 2011 for his portrait of Baz Luhrmann, and he has won the Archibald people's choice four times - once, in 2013, for another portrait of Keddie. In one of the bedrooms, authorities found Rick, Greg, and their friend Justin Eason Smartt, unharmed. However, many of the residents left, and the town fell into disrepair when the railroad terminal was closed. Keddie Case Cabin 28. keddie28.com.Little, Jane Braxton. Everyone called her Sue. Most descriptions of Marty say that he was an unsavory individual with a criminal record and a mean demeanor. [19] Autopsies[21] determined that Sue and John died from the knife wounds and blunt-force trauma, and Dana died by asphyxiation. Police were called to the scene at around 8:05 that morning, having been alerted by the Seabolt family . Near her bones in the woods, detectives also discovered a pair of jeans with a missing back pocket, a blue jacket, a blanket, and an empty surgical tape dispenser. Keddie, California.Sue Sharp, her teenage son John, and his friend Dana Wingate are found brutally murdered in the Sharp family's cabin at Keddie Resort in the Sierra Nevada. On the morning of April 12, 1981, Sheila Sharp returned to her home at Cabin 28 in the Keddie Resorts in California from the next-door neighbors house. A recording of this call was found at the bottom of an evidence box at some point after 2013 by a deputy who was assigned the case. Geography [ edit] According to the United States Census Bureau, the CDP has a total area of 0.6 square miles (1.6 km 2 ), all of it land. Keddie is a small town in the Sierra Nevada mountains, located roughly halfway between Redding and Reno. Tina is believed to have been present at the crime scene of the Keddie cabin murders. [6] Sheila departed house #28 shortly after 8:00 pm to sleep over at the Seabolts, which she had never before done. which Jamie had already done by entering through the cabin's back door to check for any survivors. Plumas County Sheriff's Office Cabin 28 at Keddie Resort, 1981. It has also been suggested that he was asked leading questions during hypnosis. The Keddie Cabin Murders took place on April 12, 1981; Sue Sharp, two of her children, and her son's friend lost their lives. Everyone loves a good mystery.But what about those good unsolved mysteries that don't have that satisfying ending like Scooby-Doo pulling off the mask of the culprit and are just downright spooky? Im not as I guess Im more cautious of my surroundings., That night Sheila, now 50, a married mother of three and grandmother of two, lost her mom Sue, 36; brother Johnny, 15; and sister Tina, 12, along with Johnnys friend Dana Wingate, 17. Interesting history topics are just a click away. On the morning of April 11, 1981, 14-year-old Sheila Sharp returned from a neighbors house after a sleepover and stumbled upon the most disturbing and gruesome scene that she and the rest of Keddie, California, had ever seen. Marilyn and Marty happened to be taking the same typewriting class that Sue was enrolled in. Justin also claimed that Tina came out shortly after, and one of the men abducted her out the back door. Sues ex-husband was in the military when they divorced, and the Navy gave her $250 a month to start her new life. This letter was not treated as a confession nor was it followed up on at the time. They lived in a trailer park for a short time, but then Sue decided to move just five miles from Quincy into the mountains to a place known as the Keddie Resort.