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Harbor City serial shootings
The Harbor City serial shootings were an unsolved series of drive-by shootings committed in the Harbor City neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, United States, during the early months of 1993. A total of four black men were shot within a two-block radius, three of them fatally. Despite a detailed description of the perpetrator and his car given by the surviving victim and witnesses to the murders, he remains…
1959 · CaliforniaUnsolved
Bouncing Ball Killer
The Bouncing Ball Killer, also known as the Bouncing Ball Slayer, the Bouncing Ball Strangler, and the Rubber Ball Strangler, was an unidentified serial killer who is believed to have raped and murdered at least six women between May 1959 and June 1960 in Los Angeles, California. A majority of the victims were elderly, and all but one were strangled to death. During the investigation, a multitude of suspects were…
1998 · CaliforniaUnsolvedPittsburg serial murders
The Pittsburg serial murders refers to the killings of one man and four women in Pittsburg, California, in late 1998 and early 1999. At the time of the killings, the city had a high crime rate, which coupled with the recent murders of several people, culminated in public outcry from both the public and the media for a resolution to the situation and capture of the supposed serial killer. Despite an investigation by…
1976 · CaliforniaUnsolvedGypsy Hill killings
The Gypsy Hill killings were a group of five homicides of young women and girls in San Mateo County, California, during early 1976. The killer became known in the media as the "San Mateo Slasher." It was later proven that there were at least two different perpetrators with Rodney Halbower convicted of the murders of Baxter, Cascio and Michelle Mitchell and Leon Seymour being convicted in the sole murder of Lampe. It…
1942 · CaliforniaMissing
L-8
L-8, later renamed America and popularly known as the "Ghost Blimp", was a United States Navy L-class airship whose two crewmen disappeared over the Pacific Ocean on August 16, 1942. At 11:15 a.m., several hours after the airship lifted off from Treasure Island, San Francisco, California, L-8 reappeared off the shore of Ocean Beach near Fort Funston. L-8 briefly made contact with the ground at Ocean Beach, causing…
1968 · CaliforniaUnsolved
Zodiac Killer
The Zodiac Killer (also known by the pseudonym The Zodiac) is an unidentified serial killer who murdered at least five people in the San Francisco Bay Area between December 1968 and October 1969. The Zodiac attacked three couples and a cab driver in Benicia, Vallejo, unincorporated Napa County, and the city of San Francisco. Two of the Zodiac's seven victims survived.
2014 · CaliforniaMissingRico Harris
Rico Omarr Harris (born May 19, 1977 – disappeared October 10, 2014) is an American former professional basketball player. A high school standout in his native Southern California, he later led Los Angeles City College (LACC) to its first state junior college title in 1997. After his college career, he played for some International Basketball League teams, and later with the Harlem Globetrotters.
1980 · CaliforniaUnsolvedMurder of Dorothy Jane Scott
Dorothy Jane Scott (April 23, 1948 — May 28, 1980) was an American woman who disappeared on May 28, 1980, in Anaheim, California. After driving two co-workers to the hospital, Scott went to fetch her car to take them back to their workplace. However, as her car approached them, it sped away; neither could see who was driving as its headlights had blinded them.
1972 · CaliforniaUnsolved
Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders
The Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders was a series of at least seven unsolved homicides and unsolved disappearances all involving young female hitchhikers occurring within Santa Rosa and throughout Sonoma County in the North Bay area of California beginning in 1972. All of the victims were found nude and with very little physical evidence and were dumped within rural areas near steep embankments or in creek beds near…
2012 · CaliforniaOverturnedNational Registry of Exonerations
The National Registry of Exonerations is a project of the University of Michigan Law School, Michigan State University College of Law and the University of California Irvine Newkirk Center for Science and Society. The Registry was co-founded in 2012 with the Center on Wrongful Convictions at Northwestern University School of Law to provide detailed information about known exonerations in the United States since…
1981 · CaliforniaUnsolvedKeddie murders
The Keddie murders are an unsolved quadruple homicide that occurred over the night of April 11–12, 1981, in Keddie, California, United States. The victims were Glenna Susan "Sue" Sharp (née Davis; born March 29, 1945), daughter Tina Louise Sharp (born July 22, 1968), son John Steven Sharp (born November 16, 1965) and John's friend Dana Hall Wingate (born February 8, 1964). The murders took place in house No.
1927 · CaliforniaMissing
William Portwood Erwin
Lieutenant William Portwood Erwin (18 October 1895 – 19 August 1927) was an American World War I flying ace credited with eight aerial victories. On 19 August 1927, he disappeared during the Dole Air Race from Oakland, California to Hawaii.
1934 · CaliforniaMissingEverett Ruess
Everett Ruess (March 28, 1914 – c. November 1934) was an American artist, poet, and writer. He carried out solo explorations of the High Sierra, the California coast, and the deserts of the American Southwest. In 1934, he disappeared while traveling through a remote area of Utah; his fate remains unknown.
1996 · CaliforniaUnsolved
Seagram
Seagram Miller (April 13, 1970 – July 31, 1996) was an American rapper from Oakland, California, United States. Seagram released two albums, The Dark Roads (1992) and Reality Check (1994). He was killed in a drive-by shooting on July 31, 1996, which remains unsolved.
2000 · CaliforniaMissingScott Smith
Donald Scott Smith (born 13 February 1955 – disappeared 30 November 2000) was a Canadian musician and the bassist for Canadian rock band Loverboy, a band that sold millions of records and scored several hit songs in the 1980s before a break up and reunion in the 1990s. Smith disappeared after a large wave swept him off a pleasure boat near San Francisco, California. He was never seen again, and later presumed dead.
1885 · CaliforniaUnsolved
Huang Yuanyong
Huang Yuanyong (黃遠庸), (Pen name: Huang Yuansheng 黃遠生, Wade-Giles: "Huang Yüan-yung") (15 January 1885 – 25 December 1915) was a renowned Chinese author and journalist during the late Qing dynasty (清朝) and early Republic of China (民國初年). Huang made significant contributions to journalism and literacy in China, particularly as an innovator in both journalistic methodology and writing style. His unsolved assassination…
1974 · CaliforniaUnsolvedMurder of Betty Van Patter
Betty Louise Van Patter (née Floyd; October 12, 1929 – c. December 13, 1974) was a bookkeeper for the Black Panther Party, although she herself was white. Van Patter was murdered, a crime which remains unsolved.
1885 · CaliforniaUnsolved
Jane Stanford
Jane Elizabeth Lathrop Stanford (August 25, 1828 – February 28, 1905) was an American philanthropist and co-founder in 1885 of Stanford University (opened 1891) with her husband Leland Stanford, in memory of their only child, Leland Stanford Jr., who died of typhoid fever in 1884 at age 15. After her husband's death in 1893, Jane Stanford funded and operated the university almost single-handedly until her unsolved…
2023 · CaliforniaOverturned
Alissa Bjerkhoel
Alissa Leanne Bjerkhoel (pronounced byeer-kul) Is a Superior Court Judge for Nevada County, California. She was appointed to the bench on November 23 2023, and started serving on December 4 of same year. Prior to this she was an American litigation coordinator at the California Innocence Project (CIP).
1980 · Sacramento, CaliforniaMissingAlma Root
Alma Root, 14 at the time, was last known to be in Sacramento, California on January 1, 1980. NamUs case MP3881.
1980 · Newhall, CaliforniaUnidentifiedUnidentified woman, Newhall, California (1980)
An unidentified woman was found in Newhall, California on August 26, 1980. No name has been established. NamUs case UP4370.
2021 · French Camp, CaliforniaMissingJose Solorio-Luna
Jose Solorio-Luna, 23 at the time, was last known to be in French Camp, California on September 8, 2021. NamUs case MP135822.
1974 · CaliforniaUnsolved
Murder of Arlis Perry
Arlis Kay Perry (née Dykema; February 22, 1955 – October 12, 1974) was a 19-year-old American newlywed who was murdered inside Stanford Memorial Church, within the grounds of Stanford University in California, on October 12, 1974. The murder went unsolved for more than forty years before police named Stephen Blake Crawford as the perpetrator following DNA profiling in 2018. Crawford, a security guard at Stanford who…
1978 · CaliforniaUnsolvedMurders of Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble
The murders of Kerry Graham and Francine Trimble are the unsolved abduction and murder of two teenage girls—aged 15 and 14 respectively— who disappeared after leaving their homes in Forestville, California, to visit a shopping mall in Santa Rosa on December 16, 1978; their remains were discovered in July 1979 approximately 80 mi (130 km) north of Forestville, concealed within duct-taped garbage bags and buried…