Keddie Murders
The Keddie Murders is an unsolved 1981 American quadruple-murder that took place in Keddie, a former resort town in the foothills of Northern California's Sierra Nevada mountains. The murders took place in cabin 28, during the late evening of April 11, 1981 and/or early morning of the 12th. The victims were Glenna Sharp, known as Sue, (age 36), her daughter Tina (age 12), her son John (age 15), and his friend, Dana Wingate (age 17).[1][2] Tina, the final victim, was missing when the crime was first discovered. Her skull and some other bones were recovered in 1984 in Feather Falls, in Butte County.[3] Sue's oldest daughter, Sheila, had stayed with next-door neighbors in cabin 27 that night and discovered the murders the morning of April 12.[4] Sue's two youngest sons and their friend, who were having a sleep-over at cabin 28 that night, were found, uninjured, in the boys' bedroom that morning.
No arrests have been made in connection with the Keddie murders. The cabin in which the murders took place was demolished in 2004.[5]
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[edit] Details of the crime
Glenna "Sue" Sharp, 36, and her five children had been renting the cabin since October 1980. On the night of April 11, 1981, Sue was home with her daughter, Tina, her two youngest boys, and a young friend of the boys, Justin, who was staying the night. Her oldest son, John, and his friend Dana Wingate, had spent the day in nearby Quincy and were also going to stay the night at cabin 28. John and Dana were last seen hitchhiking from Quincy to Keddie. The crime may already have been in progress when they arrived at the cabin.[1]
On the morning of April 12, Sue's 14-year-old daughter, Sheila, discovered the bodies of Sue, John and Dana in the cabin's living room upon returning home from her sleepover next door. All three victims found in the cabin had been bound with electrical wire and medical tape. Later, Tina Sharp was determined to be missing from the cabin.[1]
Examination of the bodies determined that each of the victims had been bludgeoned with a claw hammer, and Sue and John had been stabbed repeatedly. Dana Wingate was also manually strangled and bludgeoned with another weapon. One of the knives discovered at the scene had been used so forcefully that the blade had bent approximately 25 degrees.[6]
The case grew cold, but in 1984 the cranium portion of Tina Sharp's skull was recovered near Feather Falls, roughly 32 miles from Keddie. After this discovery, no new information regarding the crime surfaced. The murders remain unsolved to this day.[6][7]
[edit] Media
Cabin 28: The Keddie Murders and Cabin 28: The Keddie Murders Part II are documentaries about the murders, directed by California college English teacher Josh Hancock, who has also authored a book on the murders.[8]
[edit] References
- ^ a b c Kristal Hawkins. "Keddie Resort, Calif.: The Unsolved Nightmare in Cabin 28". Tru TV. http://www.trutv.com/library/crime/notorious_murders/classics/haunted_places/2.html. Retrieved 2010-12-24. "On the morning of April 12, 1981, 14-year old Sheila Sharp left a next-door sleepover and returned to Cabin 28 at the popular Keddie Resort, where her family had been living for the past two months. ..."
- ^ "Brutal 3-Year-Old Triple Slaying Still Haunts Quiet Plumas Resort". Sacramento Bee. June 22, 1984. http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=SB&p_theme=sb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=0EB0D56958255017&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM. Retrieved 2010-12-24. "... By coincidence, it was the day Plumas County sheriff's deputies announced human remains discovered near Feather Falls in Butte County were those of a 12-year-old girl who disappeared from Cabin 28 more than three years ago. ..."
- ^ Steve Gibson. "Bones Found are Those of Girl Linked to Triple Slaying in Plumas county." Sacramento Bee June 21, 1984.
- ^ Kim Janssen (20 April 2008). "Tinley Lane Bryant killing among nation's worst unsolved murders". Southtown Star. http://www.southtownstar.com/news/904011,042008unsolved.article. Retrieved 13 May 2010.
- ^ Unsolved Mysteries Part I: Cabin 28; 15 May 2009 (obt. 23 June 2009).
- ^ a b Kevin Fagan (writer) (10 June 2001). "Exorcising ghosts of past New owner hopes to reopen resort haunted by 20-year-old slayings". San Francisco Chronicle. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2001/06/10/MN128511.DTL&hw=Keddie+Sharp&sn=001&sc=1000. Retrieved 23 June 2009. "Sometime between 9 p.m. and 10 p.m. that day, 15-year-old John Sharp and his buddy, 17-year-old Dana Wingate, were seen hitchhiking from Quincy to Keddie Cabin #28. John had been living there for months with his 36-year-old mother, Glenna Sue Sharp -- and once the two boys walked through the door, police say, the horror began. A pair of killers either went in with the boys or were waiting with Glenna Sue Sharp, and they tied up all three with medical tape and electrical wire. Soon after, John's 12-year-old sister, Tina, showed up and was bound, too. ..."
- ^ Similar murder case still baffling
- ^ www.keddiemurdersfilm.com
