The Murders of the Valencia Does, January 1980

At 1:00pm on Saturday, January 26, 1980, a hiker found the remains of two decedents in a riverbed/wash south of the Valencia Sewage Treatment Plant, north of Magic Mountain Parkway and west of the Old Road in the Valencia neighborhood of Santa Clarita, LA County, CA.

One of the decedents, who I will be calling Younger Doe, was estimated to be 17 to 24 years old, while the other, who I will be calling Older Doe, was estimated to be 17 to 35 years old; while these two decedents may have been the same or similar ages, I am giving these nicknames in order to easily distinguish between the two of them.

Reconstruction of Younger Doe, from NamUs.

Younger Doe was determined to have died by homicide by gunshot wound. While not explicitly stated by sources, it is implied that this is also how Older Doe died as well; Older Doe's case is also being investigated as a homicide. Younger Doe's estimated PMI is months prior, though less than two years, and both of the Does' estimated DODs are 1978 to 1980.

Younger Doe was a 17 to 24 year old white female. The entirety of her skeletal remains were recovered. She was estimated to be 5'5 to 5'9 and 115 to 130 lbs. Her hair and eye colors, as well as any clothing or personal items, are unknown.

Older Doe was initially thought to be female, though they are now listed as an unknown sex. It is estimated that they — Older Doe — are white, though this is uncertain. They are estimated to be 17 to 35 years old, with their estimated age group on NamUs being listed as "Adult - Pre 40." Investigators were unable to recover one or more limbs, as well as one or both hands of Older Doe's. Despite this, it was estimated that Older Doe was 5'4 to 5'7 and 120 to 140 lbs. They had long blond-brown hair, while their eye color as well as clothing and personal items are unknown. Older Doe's right eye was slightly lower than the left.

Reconstruction of Older Doe, from NamUs.

Both Does' dental records are available for comparison, as is Younger Doe's DNA. Reconstructions based on the victims' skulls were created by forensic artists Sandra Enslow and Sheryl Terrill, and were made available on NamUs and the Doe Network; they are also provided on this blog post.

There are reconstructions of both decedents on both NamUs and Doe Network, also embedded in this post.

According to their exclusion list on NamUs, Older Doe has seven rule-outs: they are not Elaine Robertson, Jane Wakefield, Sherry Roach, Angela Meeker, Connie Minchaca, Lucinda Schaefer, or Debra Kidwell.

Younger Doe has five definitive rule-outs: she is not Pem Yates-Briggs, Wendy Byron, Patricia Gomez, Rebecca Dunn, or Andrea Hall. Missing teenager Lisa Sprague is also on YD's exclusion list, though YD is not on Lisa's list of rule-outs. According to NamUs, YD has also been ruled out as being Mary Frances Gregory; however, because Gregory is technically missing from her home of Ontario, Canada, she does not have her own NamUs page, so I could not find a list of exclusions of hers to cross-reference other than what is available on her International Missing Persons Wiki page. In total, there are seven missing people on YD's exclusion list.

Older Doe's Doe Network, NCIC, and NamUs case numbers are 1367UFCA, U763940492, and #UP4388, respectively. Their Hot Case Number on the Doe Network was formerly 1458. Their NamUs page was created and last updated on September 9, 2008 and October 9, 2022, respectively. At some point they were referred to by the LASD as "Jane Doe 47." 

Younger Doe's NamUs profile was also created on September 9, 2008, and was last updated on August 27, 2024. She is also known by the LASD as "Jane Doe 46." Her Doe Network, NCIC, and NamUs case numbers are 1322UFCA, U763475698, and #UP4389, respectively; her former Hot Case Number on the Doe Network is 798.

According to the Sources section of Younger Doe's Doe Network profile, it seems that she — as well as possibly Older Doe — may have been featured on the LA County Sheriff Department (LASD)'s "LA County Murders" website, which was dedicated to cold cases in their jurisdiction. However, the site has since been taken down, and while some of it has been archived through the Wayback Machine, I could find no indication of either Doe ever being featured on the site [postmortem image warning for the provided link].

Both Does are considered possible victims of the Sunset Strip Killers, Doug Clark and Carol Bundy, who murdered at least six victims together in 1980 and 1981. Three of their other victims are also still unidentified: Newhall Jane Doe, Malibu Jane Doe, and "Cathy."

Anyone with information regarding the Valencia Does should contact Investigator Betsy Magdaleno of the LA County Medical Examiner's Office (LACME) at (323) 343-0512 or IDUnit@me.lacounty.gov. Younger Doe's agency case number is 1980-01329, while Older Doe's is 1980-01340.

Informants may also contact the LASD's Homicide Bureau at (323) 890-5500. The agency case number for both is 080-00574-0670-014.

Sources 

WebSleuths 

Younger Doe: NamUs, Doe Network, FindAGrave, Unidentified wiki, LACME

Older Doe: NamUs, Doe Network, FindAGrave, Unidentified wiki, LACME

Doug Clark & Carol Bundy Wikipedia pages 

Note: While this write-up was originally published on September 5, 2025, I regularly revisit cases, check for updates, etc., and then make note of when I last did so, no matter how minor. When edits are extensive, I re-post the write-up entirely. This post was last updated on January 18, 2026.