Hump Day Horror

 

We took a drive up Hwy 70 through Quincy, stopped along Spanish Creek.  We were hoping to pop over to Almanor but the road wasn't snow cleared, so we had to turn around.  I asked Hubby to pull over so I could grab a shot of this abandoned resort in Keddie.

Turns out, it's the site of an unsolved quadruple homicide from 1981.  The resort, anyway.  Cabin 28 has been torn down.

On the morning of April 12, three bodies were found.  Mother, Sue Sharp; her son, John (age sixteen); and his friend, Dana Hall Wingate.  Thirteen year old Tina Sharp was missing.

It wasn't until April 1984 that her remains were found about 2 hours away near Feather Falls.

The murders were especially violent - two knives and a hammer were found on scene, with one knife being bent 30 degrees.  Sue had been stabbed in the chest and throat, while John's throat had been slashed.  Dana appeared to have been strangled to death but they each suffered blunt-force trauma caused by the hammer.

In 2008, Marilyn Smartt revealed that she believed her husband, Martin, and his friend Bo had committed the murders.  Shortly after the murders, Martin drove to Reno and sent her a letter stating, "I've paid the price for your love and now I've bought it with four people's lives."

Martin had been questioned and mentioned a claw hammer that had gone missing from his home.  The sheriff presiding on the case noted how he had endless clues throwing suspicion off of him.  But nothing could ever be pinned down.  He died in 2000.

In 2016, a hammer similar to Martin's description was found in a local pond, where investigators determined it wouldn't have ended up accidentally.

Ongoing investigations are hampered by previous failings.  Boxes of evidence and files were in disarray, the original case history log is missing, and leads in 1981 weren't properly followed.

DNA evidence led to a living suspect in 2018, but so far no updates.