Mona was my sister who was taken in such a brutal way, her murder changed my life, forever. It has taken me all these 35 years to try and cope, move on, life goes forward etc, with a part of your heart gone, for no good reason. We had a harsh childhood, we thought when we grew older we get out from the hurt and pain we endured, she was dumped in a ravine, just 22 years old. Who killed her? Why? I will not forget her and pray for all the families who suffer the same type of loss. I can not remember what my sister voice sounded like, but I will finish the book I have written in her honor-she will not be forgotten. I miss you Mona, I love you.
Ms, My deepest sympathies to you and your family. I hope writing this book helps you both in the settling of your mind and soul as well as hopefully finding more information in finding your sister's killer. Welcome to our strange, screwed up, disfunctional family. Sometimes we cannot stand each other, but we would not trade each other for the world. Well, maybe some, make me an offer? ;D
Welcome Mona's sister. My greatest condolences for you and your families loss. Please write your book, and tell us what you can about what you want to. Some cases have stuck in my head for years, and your sisters is one of them. I cannot imagine the heartache and grief and sense of unknowing that must have been lived in the years since her disappearance and murder. Once again, I am glad you found us, and welcome.
If anyone can help me as i was married and living in Florida when she was found newspaper that is posted said something about the Zodiac killer, I thought it was Ted Bundy but since their not "talking" I guess I will never know, I was surprised about the Zodiac mention, my mother never told me about what detectives told her, or how often she'd call and ask about the investigation. But I was grateful my sisters remains were found, what about the other parents that still have a ray of hope-no remains, maybe their child is still alive. Anyone with anymore info, I'd be grateful!
MS, I noticed from the board that San Bernadino is listed in the first article, and that your sister was found in Riverside County. The first challenge that I see is that you have two different jurisdictions to deal with. I am assuming that this is still a cold case, but which jurisdiction was your mother dealing with? Has it been determined where your sister died? Is it being treated as a kidnapping/homicide from San Bernadino County, or is it being handled from Riverside? This is not unusual in that the jurisdictions often did not share information, thus making it more difficult to investigate. Were there similar homicides committed within two years on either side of your sister? While we tend to look at the infamous murderers, California had numerous other serial killers roaming SoCal at approximately that time. This will help to determine if your sister's killer was a single act, a random act, or an onging spree. What do you know about your sister's background at the time? Friends, associates, activities she was involved in? Many times parents do not want to accept that their child could have been anything other that an innocent victim. Often they are, but you must eliminate all possibilities. For example, in the 70's & 80's, San Berdoo had a significant amount of motorcycle activity from clubs such as the H.A.'s and other lesser groups. Anything there? You may find yourself working backwards, determining the agency handling your sister's case and going from there.
Hello, and thank you for your response, this is what I was told by my mother over the years (both her and my father are now deceased) : Mona went to see a man about a car, he was the last person to see her alive, but he was "cleared" by LA detective's said LA detectives were investigating her case. My mother also told me that her phone rang once that night but when she answered it no one was on the other end. Highway patrol did not see anything and no passing motorists came forward with any pertinent information, and there had to be some traffic-like I said I was in Florida shortly after she disappeared and my parents were not even together at the time (as the paper refers to Mona's parents) so getting any information from my mother was impossible, she was angry at the world. My sister was known to drink and from time to time get rides (60's & 70's) but her car ran out of gas and it was locked. I sent for a copy of her death certificate and it states that she was found in Riverside, cause of death undetermined skeletal remains, date of death: 6/19/1975 (approx.) unknown or a few days later. Suspect homicide, where-unknown-cause undeterminable remains of subject found in ravine. i I
Hi Monas sister, very sorry for all you've had to deal with and your sisters tragedy. If she broke down and in a short time frame was intercepted by a homicidal type that seems just so so unlucky. A locked car suggests she trusted whoever enough to go with them. Dilligaff from the news articles it appears it had to be a random stranger as they say she had left a friends and the car was found locked out of gas a few hours later after - but despite there being emergency call boxes and a service station nearby she never used them - suggesting a passerby stranger intercepted her for foul play by offering help after she exited the car. The ph call with no sound is disturbing and that the body had no clothes. The only alternative to a stranger that I can see is that it was the man with the car whose place she left or someone she visited after leaving his place at a suspicious time for viewing cars of 1am (unlikely though as she intended heading home), and they put the car on the freeway after siphoning the gas off as a diversion to make it look like a stranger - that level of planning stretches cred a bit. I'd question how adequately Police cleared the car selling man perhaps Monas sister. We had a murder in my country last year with the m.o. of someone offering to sell a car to a young girl. She was deaf and the track back was on her text messages which is how they eventually found and convicted the killer as the cellphones signal routing showed he was in the proximity of the body dump site (good ole modern tech) some miles from where he met the victim to show the car. Why is Monas case down as possibly Manson connected here? An unburied and stripped body at that late date seems dissonant. It sounds like even her jewellery was taken.
Alas, TooLate, Mona and a few others are in the Suspicious Death category-not so Manson related but yet troubling. There was jewelry found near Mona. There was a series of abductions done on stretches of highway in the 70's. (see http://truthontatelabianca.com/index.php?topic=1290.0 ). The article states a possible connection and similiarities between all these cases. Is it another case of placing all these together by the police, just as they tried to clear other cases by checking the Manson clans whereabouts or is there something to this? I sure would like to find out.
Its a bit overwhealming all these killings. My sense is that the Ms did the 2 scientologists, but that these other killings are unrelated. I mean what motive - CM liked women alive to serve him. Possible that a sociopath attached to or with family contact was involved, but Occams razor kind of says that is an unnecessary association to make. Others have far less tenuous links like LVs lawyer, possibly Pugh, zero and represent cleaning up potential squeaky wheels, but random strangers would more be seen as candidates to enlist or people to rort - not to kill for a quick buck or thrill?
On the Doreen Gaul and James Sharp murders-I have had the honor to have had contact with one of Doreen's siblings. The feeling I get from it is that it is more biker related and a girlfriend of one of the GYpsy Jokers that hung with the family (Victor Wild) was questioned about this and some other murders according to the police report. Also with the Scientology. and then the Process link thru Victor Wild aka Brother Eli, and the bike chain marks found on Doreen, amongst other things, tends to make me lean toward the bikers or something along those lines. Pugh, see Simon Wells' book for info on that. Joel's family even agrees that he committed suicide. John Haught, aka Zero, I think was murdered. The family even didnt give him a name and he laid as a John Doe for a few weeks, only with the name Zero, according to the police reports. Do I think the Manson clan had anything to do with these others? No, but there is some kind of link between the Mull. Dr. site where several bodies were found and the abductions on the highway that went on for years. Robin Graham looks like someone who could have been a "Bundy" victim. But that is all I can find to tie her to him. Someone was hunting on that stretch of highway, I believe. There are clues somewhere to this person. They just need to be found.
To break it down even more-what if the Mull. Dr. was one operating serial, and the highway killer another? With the positioning of Mona in a ravine, and the case of the 2nd Jane Doe (see: http://truthontatelabianca.com/index.php?topic=3827.0)maybe it was another killer. There has to be clues somewhere, perhaps in something that was overlooked.
Oh thanks for that. It's clearer now. The idea of highway hunters is more scary to me than home invaders (which I survived one myself just), as it is just so brazen and obnoxious - to approach in a public space where you are just going about your life that is not their business. Think I'd invest in a gun for the glovebox if I lived in the US. We've not had stranger serial killers here, only odd spree ones of the type who just crack one day - and one guy who did kill 2 seperate grans a week apart who I knew personally and professionally, and always felt uneasy about. I did have a retarded patient who was a serial killer of ducks (disturbing much for local children), as that was about all his level of cunning was up to. It was developmental - he'd reached a stage of needing to pass the bullying and humiliation of his life on. You'd have never guessed it was him either - appeared kind, obseqious and sweet, but clearly the anger seethed beneath!
Not a problem. The murders of the young women up and down the highway has bothered me for years. The link between them, Robin, Mona and all may just be that they had car trouble and this person was cruising the highway. Or perhaps, something was done to their cars to disable them along the way after some driving. I do not know, but I hope to find out. An example of the disabling of the car tactic and then offering to help can be found in the CHeri Jo Bates case of 1966. (though in a parking lot, it is similiar in some aspects)
Monas sister. You mentioned an article about the Zodiac which had been brought to your attention I'm assuming because of your sister's murder being a possible Zodiac or Zodiac style crime. For info purposes only here's a couple of Zodiac related tidbits which may be interesting as far as the possibility of a connection. On October 30, 1966, a Riverside City College freshmen named Cheri Jo Bates left the RCC campus library alone at around 9:30 pm and was found later found stabbed to death in a nearby alleyway where her car was parked. The killer wrote a note to authorities taking responsibility for her death. He said he disabled her car, waited till she came out, then offered assistance but instead viciously stabbed her to death. Though the confession letter was not necessarily a Zodiac handwriting match, there were more letters about Cheri Jo Bates' murder sent to her father, the Riverside police and the local newspaper and the handwriting matched Zodiac correspondence. Also... On March 22, 1970, a woman named Kathleen Johns was driving at night on Highway 132 near Patterson, CA (about a 6 hour drive north of Riverside) with her infant daughter when a man in a car began signaling her to pull over. When she did he told her that her that one of her car wheels looked wobbly and offered to repair it on the spot. After he was finished, she drove off and after accelerating the wheel just fell off leaving her stranded. The man who assisted her then offered to give her a ride to a service station. She and her daughter got in his car and he proceeded to drive off with her and told her he was going to kill both her and her daughter. At some point after hours of driving on backroads, she jumped out with her daughter, hid in the brush and escaped the kidnapper. She eventually flagged down a passersby, got assistance and was taken to the local police. Her car was later found completely burned. At the police station, she saw a wanted poster with the police sketch of the Zodiac and identified her kidnapper with this sketch. The Zodiac also wrote a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle proclaiming himself the kidnapper of the woman and her daughter (the handwriting of the letter matched other proved Zodiac correspondence). None of these crimes were ever solved. While there's nothing conclusive in the slightest, I just wanted to give you an idea of why the Zodiac case may have been brought to your attention. Again, deepest sympathies for your terrible tragedy.
Hello, and thank you for your information was just stunned that on 3/2010 I read an article on this site about Zodiac being considered - this article was a newspaper clipping dated 1975, I was residing in Florida and my mother had never sent me any articles. I think who ever murdered her knew the area where she was dumped, had her for possibly days and unless she was restrained as soon as possible, she fought- where we grew up, we had to fight. She was found with no clothes and one shoe on, her personal jewelry was returned to my mother. I have thought it was Ted Bundy-he knock them out asap, most of the time, and for the last 35 years it has weighed heavy on my heart and mind. I might not ever know-but that does not mean I will stop trying to figure it out, she was a beautiful human being.
I would hope and think the odds are it was all over really quickly - especially likely if she was a fighter. Someone knows something, and by putting it out there that you're looking for info you massively raise the chances of finding it out. People do not forget knowledge of such awful things, hopefully someone with conscience has it. Reasons to keep things quiet eg hanging on to Dads inheritance, or fear of the husband, or even just misplaced loyalty can dissolve over the years. Have you thought of going to one of those unsolved crime programs and asking the producer to include Mona?
Not yet, but I am looking into it. I hope it was fast-she was a fighter, but who knows what you do if terror grips and you freeze up. In my heart I know she cried out for God, and that brings me some comfort. I also agree with you that someone no something, I need to keep digging. My life has been full and I have been blessed by so many wonderful things, but always a part of my heart empty for her, because she was part of me and my life was changed forever by this loss. I will keep looking, thank you so much.
You do your sister proud, it's not right that there aren't answers and like the others here I strongly hope you can learn something. Its a pity we can't raise a reward for you.... times like this one does wish money was no object. I can't help but think it would pay to go over the Police file and maybe get a PI to double check things, reappraise the findings in light of later events etc. She seemed a lovely girl and if thats publicised it could really help trigger someone who was suspicious of someone to tip off. I guess it needs to happen fast any campaign, as time is really moving along and vital people could die. May the universe offer something up, I know that not knowing about the end and second guessing is a nightmare. Knowing only slightly less so, but the thing that can help is to know that generally lethal violence is not prolonged and victims are often so shocked they do not conceive that they are not to survive. With violence the horror of the death can eclipse the memories we have of the life, but the fact is that the life was what mattered and is what they mostly experienced. I sometimes think the families suffer the victims death 1000 times more often than the departed. The public understands and relates to people needing peace. I hope it can help you.
