Cold Cases of the Golden Coast

Jack James Kroecker Jr. was born on May 1, 1945, and grew up in Parma, OH. His father, Jack James Kroecker Sr, was the vice president of Permold Inc, an aluminum foundry in Medina, OH.  In 1963 Jack graduated from Parma High School, where he was a district wrestling champion. He then completed three years as a mathematics major at the University of Dayton before being drafted into the US Army in May 1968.  He graduated first in his class at Army Finance School at Ft Benjamin Harrison in Indianapolis, IN and took basic training at Fort Knox, KY. At the time of his death he was working in the finance section of Fort Carson in Colorado.  Photo from FindAGrave. Jack, 23, spent Christmas Eve 1968 celebrating the holiday with a fellow soldier in downtown Colorado Springs, El Paso County, CO. They had driven there from Ft Carson in the friend's car. Jack was wearing civilian clothes.  At about midnight on Wednesday, December 25, 1968, Jack returned to his friend's car and l...

On Friday, December 20, 1968, David, 17, drove his mother's station wagon to Betty Lou's, 16, house at 8:00pm. They left in the car at 8:30pm for the house of one of Jensen's friends. Sometime after 9:00pm they then drove to the outskirts of Vallejo, Solano County, CA and parked at a gravel parking area — a lovers' lane — along remote Lake Herman Rd. This is near/at the entrance to the city of Benicia, Solano County. A passing motorist noticed the couple between 10:15-10:30pm, parked on the side of Lake Herman Rd, on a gravel runoff near the gate to a Benicia water pumping station. They were spotted again at 11:00pm. David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen. Photo from Wikipedia. Sometime between 11:05 and 11:10pm, an unknown assailant pulled his car up next to David's, about 10 ft away from the passenger's side of the vehicle. The unidentified man left his vehicle and approached the couple's car, firing several shots inside. The bullets hit various parts of the c...

Lulaida Sejalbo. Photo from NamUs . In 1973, Lulaida Morales Sejalbo was a 17-year-old Filipina girl living in Santa Clara, CA. At the time of her disappearance she was a student at Wilcox High School in Santa Clara, where she also worked at a McDonald's. Lulaida disappeared on Sunday, November 25, 1973, three days after Thanksgiving. All modern sources state that she disappeared on her way home from work. However, the January 16, 1974 edition of the Peninsula Times Tribune states that after having dinner with her family, Lulaida left to go bowling with a female friend; she was last seen at about 11pm by the friend as she started to drive home from bowling, and she has not been seen or heard from since. All sources, including the clipping, state that Lulaida was last seen wearing her McDonald's work uniform. On Wednesday, December 24, 1973 — almost exactly one month after her disappearance — Lulaida's car was found abandoned in Santa Clara with her purse inside. According ...

Janice Marie Hannigan was born on March 23, 1955 in Toppenish, Yakima County, WA to parents Martin James Hannigan Sr and Sally Hannigan (nee Heemsah or George). She is an enrolled member of the Yakama Nation and lived on the roughly 2,186 square mile (approximately 1.4 million acre) Yakama Indian Reservation. Janice Hannigan. Photo from the Charley Project. Janice was the oldest of seven siblings. Her second youngest sibling, sister Trudi Lee-Clark, was born on August 6, 1963 in Toppenish. Their family was apparently well-known in their community. Their mother Sally would put on public dances; according to Trudi, she did this "to get the teenagers off the streets." Janice's parents separated at some point before her disappearance; she went to go live with her father in Harrah, while her six younger siblings lived with their mother in Buena. Both communities are part of Yakima County, though Buena is not within the reservation. Janice saw her younger siblings less frequent...

During the late evening hours of Wednesday, December 23, 1981, Linda Neukam, 27, was seen leaving the Marion Hotel in downtown San Diego, CA. At about 11pm a bystander found her staggering out of an alley toward 300 Market St. Linda collapsed, telling the bystander that she had been stabbed by a white man. A possible suspect was seen running northbound on Second St at the time. The suspect is described as a white male, medium build, 5'8 to 5'11, with short or collar-length dark hair and wearing dark loose-fitting clothing. The suspect is unknown and still at large. Linda was rushed to the hospital but later died in surgery as a result of multiple stab wounds. Her official date of death based on records found on Ancestry is December 24, 1981. Photo of Linda Neukam from the City of San Diego Cold Case page.   I could not find anything about Linda's death in newspapers from the time. The only source about her murder itself is the City of San Diego Cold Case page , which errone...