2004 Jenner, California double-murder

The Jenner, California double-murder of 2004 came to the public's attention on August 18, 2004, when the bodies of Lindsay Cutshall, 22, and her fiance Jason S. Allen, 26, were found on Fish Head Beach, between Russian Gulch and the mouth of the Russian River, in the small coastal hamlet of Jenner, California. Both Cutshall and Allen were killed with a .45-caliber Marlin rifle as they slept in their sleeping bags on the beach. The Sonoma County Coroner's Office estimated that the couple was slain on either the night of August 14, 2004 or in the early morning hours of August 15, 2004.

In the days following the murders, the case received considerable attention from the national media. As of September 2011 the crime remains unsolved.

Weapon

The weapon used was an 1894 Marlin .45 caliber long rifle. A relatively uncommon gun considered too high caliber for most ranchers and most likely would've required hand loaded ammunition. Shell casings were not found at the scene of the crime suggesting perhaps the killer retrieved them.

Background

Both Cutshall and Allen grew up in the mid-western United States. Cutshall was from Fresno, Ohio and Allen was from Zeeland, Michigan. The couple met in 2002 while Cutshall was a student at Appalachian Bible College in West Virginia.

Prior to their murders, Cutshall and Allen had been working as counselors at Rock-N-Water, a Christian summer camp in El Dorado County, California. According to acquaintances at Rock-N-Water, Cutshall and Allen had left the camp on a road trip several days before they were killed. Credit card receipts placed the duo at Fisherman's Wharf in San Francisco on August 14, 2004. Witnesses also reported seeing Cutshall's 1992 red Ford Tempo in the towns of Guerneville, Sebastopol, Forestville, and Jenner before the murders.

On Saturday - the probable night of the murder - the couple went to a local motel and restaurant called Rivers End but were unable to rent a room. There they were told about the beach where they ultimately went and met their untimely end. The beach is less than a mile from the restaurant. They were said to have been in the area before dark when they set up camp. Logic dictates they wouldn't have stayed at the beach after the first night because camping is illegal there. They would've most likely sought lodging further up the coast but surely left the beach if they were able to on Sunday.

The bodies of the slain couple were not discovered until several days later on Wednesday, August 18 when the Sheriff's helicopter was dispatched on a call of a man who fell off the cliff above Fish Head Beach. The helicopter spotted the bodies and authorities were called in.

Investigation

Homicide detectives from the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department launched an investigation into the deaths of Cutshall and Allen. The detectives quickly eliminated murder-suicide as an explanation to the killings. They also confirmed that none of Cutshall's or Allen's belongings had been taken, ruling out robbery as a motive, and that neither of the campers had been sexually assaulted.

Camping is prohibited on the rural stretch of beach where Cutshall and Allen met their deaths, but drifters and hitchhikers on State Route 1 (which runs alongside Fish Head Beach) are known to use the oceanfront site for sleeping. Initially, it was postulated that a drifter had murdered the young couple and then left the area. Despite an exhaustive effort by detectives, this avenue of the investigation never yielded any solid leads.

Similarities to other murders

In the weeks following the murders of Cutshall and Allen, similar cases in the United States and Canada came to the attention of detectives. On October 19, 2003, Brandon Rumbaugh, 20, and Lisa Gurrieri, 19, were shot to death in their sleeping bags while camping in Yavapai County, Arizona. No suspects were ever identified in this case. Additionally, detectives looked into a double-murder which occurred on Vancouver Island, British Columbia in 1972.

In 2005, detectives in Lane County, Oregon contacted the Sonoma County Sheriff's Department to compare a double-homicide in their jurisdiction with the Jenner double-murder of 2004. On July 1, 2005, the bodies of middle school counselor Stevan Haugen, 54, and his girlfriend Jeanette Bauman, 56, were discovered at a remote campground outside Oakridge, Oregon. Haugen's dog was also found shot to death at the scene of the murders. There were key similarities between the Haugen-Bauman killings and the Allen-Cutshall killings which piqued the interest of investigators. First, ballistic evidence confirmed that both couples were murdered with a rifle. Second, both couples were killed in their sleeping bags while camping in a secluded area. Third, neither of the couples were the victims of sexual assault or robbery, although authorities in Lane County have confirmed that the license plates on Haugen's vehicle (Oregon plate number CL47763) were stolen. To date, no suspects have been arrested for the murder of Stevan Haugen or Jeanette Bauman.

Persons of interest

Police investigated James Robert Zook who was convicted of first degree murder for the murder of Daniel Nathan Bloomfield with a .22 caliber revolver on August 18. In this case, an old west-style revolver of the same era as the Marlin rifle was used and Zook shot Bloomfield three days after the morning when Cutshall and Allen are approximated to have been killed. The murder of Bloomfield took place around the outskirts of Sebastopol, California, about 30 miles from the Jenner crime scene.

Zook was a resident on Bloomfield Road - along with the man he murdered - the property consisted of a house owned by Zook's cousin Mike Astin and several outlying buildings. The residents were methamphetamine users. Zook and Bloomfield frequently argued and fought with one another. Zook stole the revolver from another cousin with whom he was staying on August 16. He was recovering from a motorcycle accident which he blamed on Bloomfield and factored in his motive for the murder. Zook's cousin, Frank Giampoli, returned from a hunting trip on the 16th and allowed Zook to help him clean his rifles and gain access to the .22 caliber Old West Style Colt revolver. Zook joked with his cousin about "hunting the two-legged kind." Zook had also insinuated to fellow drug users on an occasion in August that he had murdered someone and that Bloomfield "was going to end up just like those other people. The crabs were going to be eating him also."

Zook's parents owned a house on Muniz Ranches where he was ultimately arrested walking barefoot down Muniz Ranch Road on Thursday, August 19. The crime scene at Fish Head Beach is only a mile from that dirt road where it meets Hwy 1. At the scene of the crime where Bloomfield was murdered, his body was discovered under a tarpaulin sheet along with a bottle cap of Camo beer; the beer bottle was found nearby. The beer is no longer made and was an uncommon Wisconsin beer in California. Camo beer was found at the scene of the crime in Jenner as well.

Zodiac killer

Perhaps the most tantalizing theory on the Jenner murders is that they were the work of the infamous Zodiac killer. Between 1966 and 1969, the Zodiac was responsible for five murders in northern California and possibly one murder in Riverside, California. The Zodiac is also strongly suspected in another double murder that occurred on June 4, 1963 on a beach in Santa Barbara County, California. The murder of Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards bears some extremely striking similarities to the Jenner murders as well as those of the Zodiac and is being considered as another possibly related murder. This has also led to some speculation that Joseph Henry Burgess might be, in fact, the Zodiac killer. In addition, some observers believed the Zodiac was responsible for other unsolved homicides in the San Francisco Bay Area. During his reign of terror, the Zodiac wrote numerous letters to the media, taunting them with his willingness to kill and the ineptitude of the law enforcement agencies which were pursuing him. Despite an investigation which spanned decades, the Zodiac was never brought to justice. To this day, the identity of the Zodiac remains a mystery.

Joseph Henry Burgess was killed in a police shootout on July 16, 2009. It was then that Sonoma County Investigators traveled to New Mexico to compare DNA samples with the DNA left at the Jenner crime scene and no match was found. Sonoma County detectives still consider Burgess a person of interest in the case. Burgess was known to be a nomadic drifter and often stole to make his living. Before he was killed he hid in the mountains of New Mexico and earned the nickname the "cookie bandit". His motive and means have yet to be established in relation to the Jenner case. A man in his late fifties at the time would've taken a considerable effort to travel as far as Jenner unseen and left again for New Mexico presumably; he was known to be in the New Mexico mountain area since 2003 and possibly before. Also the beach in Jenner is not a campground and signs read: "closed to the public after dark." Nor is the beach visible from the road making it all the less likely anyone could have simply wandered into them late at night with a long rifle.

There was a connection established between the fingerprints of Burgess and those taken from the Vancouver murders of Leif Carlsson and Ann Durrant in 1972. The young couple were camping on Vancouver Island when they bumped into Burgess who apparently took offense at their sleeping together. Their IDs were handled by the killer and the fingerprints entered into the system at the time. Burgess has been named as the presumed killer in this case.

Police release information 2006

In May 2006, twenty-one months after Cutshall and Allen were slain, Sonoma County Sheriff's detectives released new evidence in the case, which they hoped would generate new leads. Several pieces of evidence were released, including poems which were found near the crime scene, an empty 40-ounce bottle of "Camo" beer, and drawings which were inked onto pieces of driftwood near the site of the killings. They also found a distinctive hat on a turnout above the beach on Hwy 1, and police said they wanted to know how the hat and beer bottle came to be in the places they were found.

There were also writings contained in a journal left for visitors to write entries in found inside a driftwood hut near where the murders took place. Additionally there were drawings on driftwood near the scene.

Besides these pieces of evidence, detectives also disclosed that a possible DNA sample from the killer had been recovered from the crime scene. Nevertheless, this promising piece of evidence had been tested against California's database of DNA samples (which are taken from people who are convicted of felonies), but no match was made. Police would not elaborate on what the DNA evidence found was.

2009 Developments

On July 21, 2009, the Los Angeles Times reported that Sonoma County Sheriff's detectives had named Joseph Henry Burgess as a suspect in the Jenner slayings. Burgess, who fled to Canada during the Vietnam War and joined a cult, is also a suspect in the murders of two campers on Vancouver Island in 1972.

Burgess grew up in New Jersey and began drifting around the United States and Canada as a young adult. He was known to carry a .22-caliber rifle. Furthermore, Burgess was alleged to have a hatred for unmarried couples who slept together. Detectives believe this could have precipitated the attack on Cutshall and Allen.

On July 16, 2009, Joseph Henry Burgess was killed in a shootout with law enforcement officers in Sandoval County, New Mexico. Over the last several years, home owners in Sandoval County had been experiencing problems with a serial burglar in their community who would break into homes and steal food and valuables. Surveillance of several homes in Sandoval County was set up in an attempt to catch the burglar. On July 16, Burgess broke into a Sandoval County home which was being watched by sheriff's deputies. After entering the residence, Burgess and Sandoval County Sheriff's Sergeant Joe Harris got into a gun battle. Burgess mortally wounded Sgt. Harris, but Harris shot Burgess twice in the head, killing Burgess instantly.

After further analysis it was determined that DNA samples did not match Burgess with the Cutshall and Allen murders. Sonoma County Sheriff's department investigators traveled to New Mexico to compare evidence with DNA and a spent bullet in the case of a police shooting there with an unidentified piece of DNA found at the Jenner crime scene but there was no match.

Aftermath

The murders of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen have yet to be solved. Cutshall's father, Chris Cutshall, an evangelical minister in Ohio, believes that the devil was responsible for the deaths of his daughter and her fiance. In a 2006 interview, Chris Cutshall stated that he believes the murders are linked to satanic activity. However, there is no substantive nor conclusive evidence which links the murders of Lindsay Cutshall and Jason Allen to satanists, the Zodiac killer or any other specific suspect. Anyone with information on the case is encouraged to contact the Sonoma County Sheriff's department.

External links

• San Francisco Chronicle May 3, 2006 "Tantalizing Clues In Pair's Slaying" Jim Doyle
• San Francisco Chronicle August 29, 2004 "Retracing Doomed Couple's Steps" Demian Bulwa
• San Francisco Chronicle August 22, 2004 "Link Between Jenner Slayings, Arizona Sought" Bill Wallace
• San Francisco Chronicle September 4, 2004 "Weapon ID'd, But Not Found, In Jenner Slayings" Peter Fimrite
• Zodiac Robert Graysmith Berkley Books, New York, NY 1986
• Sonoma County Sheriff's Department's Jenner Homicide Investigation Update May 2006