The Murder of Marina Elizabeth Habe, December 1968
Marina Habe was born on February 23, 1951 in Germany to writer Hans Habe and actress Eloise Hardt. She graduated from University High School in West LA in June 1968, and at the time of her death she was attending the University of Hawaii and was home for the Christmas holidays. Marina's parents were divorced at the time, and her mother Eloise had reportedly remarried. Her father Hans lived in Zurich, Switzerland. Marina was 5'3 and 113 lbs, with blue eyes and black hair. Marina was described by friends as "very quiet," and was planning on becoming an artist.
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| Marina Habe. Photo from FindAGrave. |
At about 3:15am on Monday, December 30th, Marina left John's house and drove to her mother's home at 8962 Cynthia St in Los Angeles. It was an approximately 20 minute drive home at the time according to contemporary newspapers. Marina was last seen wearing brown & white pinstriped capris, a white turtleneck sweater, and a brown coat with fur-trimmed cuffs.
At about 3:30 or 3:35am, Marina's mother Eloise was woken up by what was variously described as "noises," "a commotion," and "a loud car exhaust" outside her window. Eloise saw Marina's car in the driveway, along with a black sedan parked next to it. She also saw a 20-something man standing next to Marina's car. Eloise reportedly heard the young man yell either, "Go!", "Let's go," or "Let's blow," before the man jumped into the passenger side of the sedan, which then pulled away.
Eloise did not see Marina during this entire encounter. She immediately called the police, and searches were quickly underway, acting on the assumption that Marina had been kidnapped.
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| Marina Habe. Photo from FindAGrave. |
Later that same day, at approximately 4:00pm, a man named Frank G Turner of Sherman Oaks was walking his Great Dane in the area; the dog was "loping along the road" when it "stopped suddenly and peered intently into the brush. When Turner checked the cause of the dog's curiosity, he saw the face of the dead girl." He reported the body, which was soon identified as that of Marina.
Marina's body was found "hidden" in heavy brush at the bottom of a thickly-wooded ravine. She was found down a 30ft embankment off a fire road off of Mulholland Drive — which was apparently known as a lovers lane, according to at least one clipping — near Coldwater Canyon Drive in the Hollywood Hills.
The fire road in question is likely Maxwell Fire Road, which is off of both Mulholland Drive and the similarly-named Coldwater Canyon Avenue; the actual Coldwater Canyon Drive is only roughly 0.3mi southeast. It is also possible that the "fire road" actually refers to Berman Trail or Chaparral Trail, as fire roads are also often called "fire trails"; both trails are also much closer to Coldwater Canyon Drive, and both lead directly from LAFD Fire Station 108. Maxwell Fire Road is about 0.8mi northwest of where Marina's purse was found. One clipping also stated that, "Searchers said the ravine was so overgrown with brush that a helicopter circling the area for days did not spot the body."
Autopsy report
Marina was stabbed six times, primarily in the chest. Some of these wounds were incredibly deep, including one through the sternum — but not reaching the heart — and another into the liver. Marina's throat was cut, severing her carotid artery and cutting through her larynx; she bled to death. She had two black eyes and apparent blunt force trauma on her body, having been beaten possibly with a small blunt object. There were contusions on her scalp, as well as a swollen, contused area behind her right ear. According to the autopsy report, there was a small, round burn injury on Marina's chest a few inches below a stab wound. Many small "punctate"/"punctuate" marks were found on the upper body.
Some articles state there was no evidence of rape, while others say that it was never conclusively determined whether or not any sort of sexual assault occurred. However, "authorities believe her death was the result of an attempted rape." The autopsy notes dilation of the anus and contusions around the anal ring. Dilation of the vagina was also noted, though there was no apparent trauma to the vaginal mucosa.
According to one clipping, "Sheriff's Lt. White said the girl had been dead since early Monday morning," i.e. shortly after Eloise heard the commotion outside her house. The autopsy recovered evidence of a recently ingested meal in Marina's stomach. Footprints were apparently found at the scene, though this did not produce any leads.
"I found several inconsistencies which I could not resolve. In the summary the pathologist mentions vaginal dilation but in the report it states that there is no trauma to the vagina. In the summary the pathologist mentions cerebral edema and congestion but in the text of the report it says no cerebral edema/congestion. Unfortunately we don't know which statement is correct when conflicting information is given.
There are a few things that strike me about this case. First, this was obvious overkill. Someone was very upset with her. The number of violent acts committed against her is amazing (especially after I read about her abduction and the short time interval during which the killer(s) held her captive.) This leads me to believe that more than one person was involved. I feel the killer(s) knew Ms. Habe and had extreme anger/resentment towards her. I did not read about the abduction (involving at least 2 people) until after I had finished my review of the autopsy, so I came to this conclusion independently.
Second, she had very few defense wounds but no signs of bondage. To me this means one of two scenarios likely occurred. Either she was held down manually (though I doubt this - while not absolutely necessary, I would expect to see bruising in the pattern of hands/fingers on the victim's wrists) or she was too incapacitated to fight. Incapacitation could be due to drugging or semi-consciousness caused by head trauma, strangulation, or exsanguination (if the first stab/cut was one which caused major bleeding).
Third, I believe more than one single-edged, non-serrated knife was used. Many of the wounds to her upper chest are not deep while wounds to the lower chest and abdomen are. The neck wounds could easily be caused by the same small knife I believe was used on the upper chest. Depending on this pathologist's definition of "punctuate," these wounds could be caused by the small knife or another weapon altogether.
The scenario of multiple attackers with different knives struck me because some of the more superficial wounds were contused. Although no hilt mark is described per se, this indicates to me that those wounds were made using the full length of the knife (the contusion caused by the hilt, or handle, as it hits the skin). Additionally, the sternum was stabbed through and through (which takes a good deal of force -enough to drive the entire knife in!) yet the mediastinum was relatively unscathed and the heart was untouched. This further indicates to me that a small knife was used.
Compared to the wounds already mentioned, the liver laceration was very deep. It would take a very large knife to cause this injury. This leads me to conclude that at least two knives were used.
While not
impossible, I find it unlikely that one person stabbed the victim with
one knife at the neck/upper chest on the left, switched knifes, and
resumed at the abdomen/lower chest on the right. I feel it is more
likely that two individuals (one near the head on the left with a small
knife and one at the waist on the right with a large knife with the
victim supine)
committed these acts.
Please note, I'm using the terms "large" and "small" to describe the knives relative to each other."
Similar cases
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| From west to east, locations of: Rose Tashman's body (orange), Marina Habe's body (dark blue heart), Marina Habe's purse (second dark blue heart), and Reet Jurvetson's body (dark blue phone). Created by me using Google Maps. |
Marina's murder is quite similar to that of Reet Jurvetson in November 1969, and comparisons were made in reports at the time, but investigators have never found a solid connection between the two. Furthermore, four months after Marina's death, another teenage girl, Rose Tashman, was found murdered off of Mulholland Drive; Rose had been strangled.
Rose, Marina, and Reet were all found in the same two mile stretch of Mulholland Drive within in a period of ten months. All three are older teenagers of European descent who were born outside the US and long, dark hair. Marina, Reet, and Rose's cases are all still unsolved.
There have been some theories online that Marina was a victim of Manson Family member Bruce Davis, however I haven't found anything to substantiate this. Marina Habe has also been brought up many, many times across various Zodiac forums and online circles.
To my knowledge, no one has ever been arrested in connection with Marina's death. Her murder is still unsolved to this day.
Sources
LA Evening Citizen News 1/2/69
The Argus 1/2/69
Redlands Daily Facts 5/21/69
LA Times 11/27/69
Uncovered article with timeline, clippings, and other sources
Autopsy report, accessed through The Zodiac-Manson Connection site, archived: pages 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6
External medical interpretation of autopsy report, archived
2016 CBC article on Habe, Jurvetson, & Tashman
Long-form Murder Inside write-up
Car-related abductions, The Zodiac-Manson Connection, archived
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