http://www.sfgate.com/crime/article/San-Mateo-County-1976-slayings-linked-to-old-Reno-5295170.php

SAN MATEO COUNTY SLAYINGS LINKED TO OLD RENO MURDER
Vivan Ho
Friday, March 7, 2014



New evidence linking a series of unsolved slayings of women in San Mateo County to a case in Reno has reinvigorated the case, the FBI said Thursday.

The FBI has announced the launch of a taskforce to look into the grizzly killings of five young women on the Peninsula in the first four months of 1976, and their connection to the murder of a 19 year old University of Reno student during the same time period.

Investigators believe that the San Mateo County killer was an accomplice in the Reno case.

The spree began on Jan 8, 1976, when the body of 18-year-old Ronnie Cascio was discovered in the Sharp Park Golf Coucse in her hometown of Pacifica. She had been stabbed 30 times, the Chronicle reported at the time.

A few weeks later, 14-year-old Tanya blackwell was reported missing after leaving her home in Pacifica. Her body was discovered on Gypsy Hill Road in the city a few months later.

The body of 17-year-old Paula Baxter was found a few weeks after that in Millbrae, where she lived. And in April, 19-year-old Denise Lampe of Broadmore was slain in her care in the lot of the Serramonte Shopping Mall in Daly City.

Carol Lee Booth, 26, was reported missing in March, was found dead in South San Francisco a month later.

In The Cascio, Baxter and Booth slayings, police found evidence of sexual assault.

At the time, Investigators connected to some of the homicides to each other, but not to a killing hundreds of miles away- that of Reno resident Michelle Mitchell, 19, she had her throat slit shortly after she was stranded near in the University of Nevada when her car broke down.

In 1979, Cathy Wood, a pyschiatric patient in the Louisiana State University Medical Center, told hospital staff that she she had killed a girl named Michelle in Reno. She was ultimately convicted of murder.

But about two months ago, Woods asked for a review of the evidence, that effort turned up the link to the San Mateo County murders, said FBI spokesman Peter Lee. The agency would not elaborate on what was found.

Though investigators believe the San Mateo County killer was an accomplice in the Reno case, they do not consider Woods a suspect in the other deaths.

The taskforce first initiative will be to canvass neighbourhoods near the crimes scenes in hopes of jogging memories of neighbours who may have seen something in 1976.

"We ask all members of the public to take a moment to think back and reflect on your memories of the time in 1976, and if anything comes to mind, please notify us", said Gerald Bessette the FBI's asissitant special agent in charge in San Francisco.

Investigators do not believe the assailant in the six cases commited any more murders, but aren't rulling out the possibility, Bessette said.

Each of the victims dies in "crimes of oppoturnity", said Lee.

"We believe that this suspect was driving by and saw someone was helpless and took advantage of that situation", said Lee, citing the car troubles and transportation woes that isolated the victims in several of the cases.

Although the person behind the killings fits the criteria of a serial killer, Lee said, investigators are reluctant to use that term because it "limits the scope of who may suspect as the killer".

Ayone with information is asked to call the FBI at (415) 553-7400. Tips can also be submitted at http://tips.fbi.gov.



For more on this continue reading the link I have given you at the bottom of the page.

One of the most scariest things about the Gypsy Hill Murders of San Mateo County in 1976 was the fact that the poor women who were murdered were young beautiful petite women with long brown hair parted in the middle and the reason why this is frightening to me is the fact that these women matched the victims of Ted Bundy. Ted Bundy murdered young beautiful petite women with long brown hair parted in the middle. I don't know if Ted Bundy murdered these women but I have a very strong suspetion that he did because of the common victimology between Ted Bundy's murders and the Gypsy Hill Killings. Ted Bundy was still on the loose in his reign of terror at the time of the Gypsy Hill murders. I hope that the FBI would consider Ted Bundy as a suspect and test his DNA to see if he was responsible or not responsible for the 1976 San Mateo County's Gypsy Hill Murders.

My prayers and condolences to the friends and families of the murdered women and my heart breaks for them and I hope they find closure as best they can. I could not imagine anything worse then for a parent to loose a child to murder. I hope FBI catches the Gypsy Hill Murderer and put him on San Francisco's Death Row in San Quentin Prison. If he is dead I hope he is burning in Hell and suffering a billion times worse then what he put these innocent and defenceless women through when he murdered them. No man should ever harm or murder a woman or child and those who do are not men but COWARDS who are the worst of the worst of the world. I as a man will never hurt a woman and I will defend them even at the cost of my own life.




GYPSY HILL MURDERS
http://gypsyhillmurders.com/

Gypsy Hill Killings
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gypsy_Hill_killings


The Gypsy Hill killings or the Gypsy Hill murders are a group of five unsolved killings, of young women in San Mateo, California during early 1976. The culprit was dubbed the San Mateo Slasher.


KILLINGS

On January 8, 1976 the body of 18-year-old Veronica Cascio was discovered in a creek on the grounds of the Sharp Park Golf Cource in Pacifica, having been stabbed 30 times. A transient was arrested but released for lack of evidence.

A few weeks later, 14-year-old Tanya Blackwell was reported missing after leaving here home in Pacifica to run an errand. A body, later indentified as hers was discovered of Sharp Park Road in the Gypsy Hills section of the city on June 6. She also had been stabbed multiple times.

17-year-old Paula Baxter wnet missing on February 2, leaving here mired car behind. Her nude body was discovered on February 4 in Millbrae behind the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-Day-Saints on Ludeman Lane. She had been stabbed 4 times, sexually assaulted and hit on the head with a piece of concrete. Her killing was forensically linked with Cascio's.

InApril 1, 19-year-old Denise Lampe of Broadmoor was found ead after a search in the parking lot of the Serramonte Center. She had been stabbed 20 times.

Mrs. Carol Boorth, 20, was reported missing by her husband on March 15, and was discovered in a shallow grave near Colma Creak in Grand Avenue, South San Francisco on May 6.


RESPONSE

Investigators connected some of the homicides to each other. All women were young brunettes and most had experianced car trouble prior to their deaths. All were also found in wooded ereas.

Lack of witnesses and a dearth of forensic evidence stalled the investigations.

On March 14, the FBI established a taskforce to re-examine the murders, after new evidence cast doubt on the conviction of Cathy Booth, now 74, for Mitchells murder. The DNA from a cigarette butt found on the scene, was revealed to be that of a male.


VICTIMS

.Veronica "Ronnie" Cascio
.Tatiana Marie "Tanya" Blackwell
.Paula Louise Baxter
.Carol Lee Booth
.Denise Lampe


POSSIBLE VICTIMS

.Michelle Mitchell

Michelle, 19, was last seen alive in Reno, Nevada on February 24, when her Volkswagen Beetle broke down at the intersection of 9th Street and Evans Avenue while running an errand. Witnessess reported see someone help push her vehicle into the parking lot across the UNR agricultural building on Evans Street. Her body was later discovered that night in a garage on East 9th Street, hands bound and throat slashed. Three years later, Woods a mental patient at the Louisiana State University Medical Center, confessed to murdering a woman named Michelle and was charged and convicted of the crime.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20140310/NEWS/303100056/New-trial-possible-convicted-killer-1976-Reno-area-killing

New trial possible for convicted killer in 1976 Reno-area killing
DNA evidence from Michelle Mitchell murder does not match Cathy Woods


PAGE 1

The woman convicted of murdering a University of Nevada, Reno nursing student in 1976 has requested a new trial based on DNA evidence examined by Washoe County forensic examiners.

An Attorney for Cathy Woods, 76, filed the motion in February and a status hearing is set for Wednesday in Washoe County Distric Judge Patrick Flanagan's court.

Woods was convicted twice- 1980 and 1985- in the murder of 19-year-old Michelle Mitchell and is service a sentence of life in prison with out the possibility of parole.

In 2010, Woods filed a post-conviction petition for DNA evidence to be examined. Officials ultimately found no evidence from the crime matched Wood's DNA according to forensic report issued by the Washoe County Sheriffs Office.

However, a cigarette found in the garage where Mitchell was left to die with her throat slashed matched the DNA profile of sperm gathered in a 1976 unsolved homicide in San Mateo, Calif., the forensic report said.

That unsolved San Mateo murder is one of the five known Gyspy Hill slayings.

Maizie Pusich, of the Washoe County public defend's office filed the motion for a new trial on Feb. 10.

She could not be rached for an interview Monday, but said in a voice message that more information espected to be released at Wednesday's status hearing.

A dectective with the Reno Police Department remains in the Bay Area this week to investigate the matter with local law enforcement and the FBI there.

Meanwhile, prosectors in the Washoe County District Attorney's Office have requested for time to review evidence in the case.

If granted a new trial, it would be Wood's third crack at an appeal.

John Helzer, Chief Deputy District Attorney, said depending on Flanagan's decision, both the prosecution and the defence could appeal.

"Both sides will be in wait-and-see mode on what the judge's rules and what the basis is". Helzer said.

TONY LIMA

One man Wood's defence attorneys argued in both trials could have been the actual killer in the 1976 slaying of Mitchell, is no longer considered a suspect, Reno police Deputy Chief Marc Venzon said.


PAGE 2

In 1985, the Nevada Supreme Court granted Wood's a second trial based on the Washoe District Court's 1980 decesion to exclude testimony from Kathy Murnighan.

Murnighan was the Washoe jail cellmate of Raye Wood, an exotic dancer in Reno, she was convicted in 1977 of murdering Peggy Davis, of Reno.

That murder occured five days before Mitchell was murdered in February. Both were stabbings.

Mitchell's murdered gained front page headlines and rocked the university's campus.

Davis's murder was less publicized.

Wood's said, her bofriend Lima, killed a woman to make dectives believe there was a serial killer on the loose, and throw them of her tracks. Murnighan claimed Wood had told her from jail.

But even with Murnighan's testimony and a new trial, Woods was found guilty again in 1985 of killing Mitchell.

Lima denied ever being involed with Mitchell's death during testimony, but served two years in Nevada State Prison as an accessory in Davis's murder.

He died in 1991.

Polcie said Lima was one of the first people investigated after the case was recently re-opened. But based on DNA, he is not believed to be connected with evidence found in the garage or the Gypsy Hill murders. Venzon said.

WOOD'S CONFESSION

While in a Lousiana mental institution, Wood's in 1979 confessed to killing a Reno woman named Michelle.

Amoung othyer confession's, Woods claimed she worked for the FBI and that her mother who commited her, was trying to poison her, court records said.

"She was claiming she was going to kill more girls like she did in Reno" said Cal Dunlap, the district attorney who prosecuted Wood's first trial.

When Reno detectives arrived that week, she changed her story and said she killed Mitchell after the sophmore student declind homosexual advances, records say.

But the defence argued nine sized male foot prints were discovered were found near the garage on Ninth Street where Mitchell was killed. Woods wore size seven woman shoes, the defence said.

Mitchell was on her way to a bowling alley on Valley Road when her Volkswagen broke down and whe went to the UNR Agricultural Building to call her mother.

Some witnesses say they saw Mitchell with Woods. Others said they saw her with a man who acted like her boyfriend.

Police found her hours later tied up and dead in a house garage on East Ninth Street.

Dunlap said, just as he believed in 1980, that he still believes that another person worked the murder with Woods.

http://www.rgj.com/article/20140312/NEWS01/303120081/36-year-old-murder-case-returns-Washoe-District-Court-video-


36 Year Old Murder Case Returns To Washoe District Court

A 1976 murder case returns to Washoe District Court today and a hearing was set on whether the defendent- after more than 30 years in a Nevada State Prison- recieves a new trial.

Judge Patrick Flanagan has set May 15 as a status hearing to give the state time to examine the case and possibly decide if Cathy Woods, 76, recieves a new trial.

Woods has been convicted wtice in the 1976 murder of Michelle Mitchell, a 19-year-old University of Nevada, Reno Sophmore nursing student and Bishop Manogue graduate.

"This is a serious case", Flanagan said, "With serious repercussions on both sides, noit just the defendent's and the state, but the victims because there are a lot of victims in these cases. This court has an obligation to all parties to have a fair opportunity to present their case.

"But this court is not going to let this case linger"

DNA evidence recently examined does not link Woods to the murder scene, a residential garage in Ninth Street where Mitchell was tied and her throat slashed with a knife.

Terrence McCarthy, deputy district attorney with the the appellate division , had asked for for a couple months to review nearly a dozen old boxes and transcripts from a case which has been tried twice, first in 1980 and second in 1985 after Woods was granted a new trial on appeal.

Woods filed a post-conviction appeal foir DNA evidence to be examined in 2010.

"While we are trying to give everyone enough time and makie sure what we know is going on and we have acces to all these old records, MS. Woods just started her 36 year in custody", Maizie Pusich, Woods' attorney said.

Pusich filed a motion for a new trial Feb, 10, but the district attorney's office says it was not served the motion until the first week in March because of issues involved with an elctronic filing system.

Woods was not in court today.

Pusich has asked that Woods be allowed to leave prison in northeastern Las Vegas and attend teh status hearing in May.

Flanagan granted that request.

A SAMPLE OF VIDEO CLIPS ON THE GYPSY HILL MURDERS BY LOCAL TELEVISION CHANNELS IN THE SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA.

KTVU

Raw: Press Conference on San Mateo Cold Case
http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/raw-press-conference-on-san-sateo-county-cold-case/vCShtn/
Raw video of press conference announcing FBI task force to search for the suspect responsible for the Gypsy Hill Killings.

Redwood City: FBI makes new connection in Gypsy Killings case
http://www.ktvu.com/videos/news/reedwood-city-fbi-makes-new-connection-in-gypsy/vCSknw/
Armed with new evidence, the FBI announced Thursday that it has formed a task force with local law enforcement agencies to search for the suspect responsible for the "Gypsy Hill Killings" and a slaying in Reno.


CBS SAN FRANCISCO

FBI Launches Task Force On Peninsula 1976 "Gypsy Hill Murders" After DNA Lead.
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/9919731-fbi-launches-task-force-on-1976-peninsula-gypsy-hill-murders-after-dna-lead/

New Clue May Help Solve Peninsula "Gypsy Hill Murders"
http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/video/9920808-new-clue-may-help-solve-peninsula-gypsy-hill-murders/


NBC BAY AREA

FBI Revisits 1976 Gypsy Hill Murders
http://nbcbayarea.com/on-air/as-seen-on/FBI-Revisits-1976-Gypsy-Hill-Murders_Bay-Area-248923791.html