Auburn-Folsom Road Killer

Between 1974 and 1995, Johnnie Smith was the main homicide investigator for cases that fell into Placer County Sheriff’s Office jurisdiction. He was also assigned to help on cases when departments like Auburn PD needed extra help—that’s how he became involved in the Kovacich investigation. If failing to solve complex murders was an Olympic event, Smith would have all of the gold medals for those years. He left the department with dozens of serious unsolved cases:

In FBI True ( S2:Ep. 9 ), Orange County cold case investigator Larry Pool described his search for the offender he called “The Original Night Stalker”:

“So, it started with me looking back through the investigations, and make sure that I had every document, note, anything that had ever been written pertaining to each investigation. What I was thinking was that when the killing stopped, something interrupted him. One of the studies that I did is people who are incarcerated during that period of time, and I figured that’s probably where he was… in prison. So I placed a heavy emphasis on looking at people who were free up until July 27th in 1981, and then in custody at least up until, let’s say, May 4th of 1986 in that window of time. The case went cold, so what am I doing wrong? ”

•Perhaps the only thing that Pool was doing “wrong” was not expanding his search for suspects north—to Placer County. 

PLACER COUNTY SIMILAR MO CASES

• Prior to Paul Kovacich’s trial, and continuing through today, the Placer DA has refused to provide any information on the unsolved Placer County homicides/attempts with MOs that match each other, and Janet’s case. They all occurred along a specific route starting on Greenback Lane in Citrus Heights, and ending in Foresthill: 

#1 Judith Hakari-Saturday, March 7, 1970, 11:45 pm. 23 yrs old Judith’s car was found by her fiancee in the apartment parking lot, 1720 Markston Rd. The driver’s door was open,  keys were on the floor, and a coat button was in the backseat along with torn strips from a white “locker room” towel. Judith and her purse were missing. 

•Judith’s body was found on Saturday, April 25, 1970, at about 5:00 pm by a Sacramento couple looking at the abandoned gold mine on the property. Judith had been severely beaten and strangled with her stockings. Her body was found in a canvas bag, buried in a small, shallow grave. 

•The site was three miles east of I-80, off Ponderosa Way, in a remote location in the American River Canyon region. The site also connected to Foresthill Road above Auburn with a ten minute drive on Ponderosa. 

•Although her underclothes were removed, and found under her body, there were no signs of a sexual assault. Judith had been kidnapped from her car in her apartment parking lot after leaving her nursing shift at Sutter Memorial Hospital. She was still wearing her uniform, and engagement ring when she was found. 

•Judith had been gagged and blindfolded with torn pieces of white towels stolen from a San Juan School District facility. The canvas bag she was found in was also from the school district. There was an unidentified sweatshirt found in the bag under Judith’s body.

•Judith’s purse and watch were missing, and never found.

#2 Bill Harrington & Carla Burkart-Wednesday, March 2, 1977, 11:15 am, 8297 Lonepine Place, Granite Bay. PG&E employees killed in their truck with .38 revolver as they sat in front of the home where they had just delivered a service notice.

•Both victims were shot in the right rear side of the head at close range through the open passenger window. Neither appeared to be looking at the shooter, and they did not make a distress call on the radio.

•The home of Wesley Williams was ransacked but nothing was stolen. A gun in the house was moved to the fireplace mantel, as if displayed. It was not the murder weapon.

•Williams and his wife had unexpectedly left the home vacant to visit their son in the  hospital at 9:00 am, and returned around noon. 

#3 “Nancy”-Wednesday, July 27, 1977, 12:30 pm. Albertson’s parking lot at the corner of Greenback Lane and San Juan Ave, Citrus Heights. 

•20-year-old “Nancy" left her nearby family home around noon to deposit a check at the bank, and pick up some items her mother needed to cook dinner. When she returned to her car, a man forced her into the driver’s seat at gunpoint. As he gave her turn by turn directions, he made her remove items of clothing. The car got stuck on the side of the road in Granite Bay after “Nancy” missed a turn, and was ordered to do a U-turn. The kidnapper then walked her up the road in front of multiple witnesses to a wooded area where he left her naked, beaten, and stabbed—stuffed in a culvert. She was found barely alive the next morning. Her wallet and car keys were taken by the attacker.

#4 Kimberly Best & Paige Sinclair-Afternoon of Tuesday, October 4, 1977.

•The 15-yr-old girls from Dallas, OR were seen by three sets of  witnesses between 10:00 am-2:00 pm at the base of Foresthill Road in Auburn. They were likely looking for a ride to Reno where they believed they could find work. Both girls were carrying small suitcases.

•Wednesday, October 5, 1977 at 10:45 am. Two hunters saw blood on the road, and stopped to investigate. They found Kimberly and Paige about 4 ft off the road down the embankment. Kimberly had been shot in the head with a .38 and bludgeoned. Paige had also been bludgeoned. The weapon was unusual, something with a sharp edge or point. Upper Lake Clementine Road is a steep remote area that leads to a beach on the American River popular with panners and SCUBA divers hunting for gold.

•The girls were not sexually assaulted, and their belongings were found with their bodies; there was no apparent motive for their murders. Time of death was estimated to be shortly after they were last seen in Auburn the prior afternoon.

#5 Rosemary Norris-Wednesday, November 30th, 1983. 39-yr-old Rosemary disappeared from her Citrus Heights home. She had just spoken to a friend on the phone at 4:30pm. Her husband and son were out of town on an antique buying trip for their store. 

•Five hours later, at about 9:30pm, Rosemary’s strangled, fully clothed body was found off a limited access road in what was then a remote industrial area of Roseville. There were no signs of a sexual assault. Rosemary’s purse was missing, but she was thought to have had little cash, and her cards were never used. 

•There was no evidence at Rosemary’s house, but it appeared that she had been kidnapped in her distinctive vintage truck. It was located by one of Rosemary’s neighbors in the Raley’s parking lot in Roseville two weeks later. It has been parked there shortly before it was found. 

#6 Mary Lloyd-Tuesday, June 25th, 1985, 9:40am, Auburn. 69-yr-old Mary was stabbed to death in the front seat of her car parked directly in front of Safeway, located off Auburn Ravine Road.

•Mary had attended services at St. Joseph's Church, and was next seen by a Safeway customer who thought that a child was being attacked, and reported it in the store. As the killer got out of the car to flee, he was confronted by a delivery driver and got back in the car and drove off with Mary's body inside. Her body was later found on a hillside near Applegate, and the car was found six days later in North Hollywood... on the wrong side of the street, in a red zone, with slashed tires. 

•No motive was discovered. Mary had no cash and would not have resisted a car thief. Investigators noted that this was the second next door neighbor of APD Chief Willick to be murdered—Bill Harrington had been killed in 1978.

#7 Erna Martin-Friday, November 12th, 1988, Granite Bay, 11:00 am. 45-yr-old Erna disappeared from her Granite Bay home, possibly going for a walk. She vanished without a trace, and has never been located.

#8 Cinthia Wanner-Monday, November 25th, 1991, between 12:30-1:15 pm, Granite Bay. 35-yr-old Cindy was abducted from her sister’s residence. 

• It was a brand new home on a cul-de-sac of three homes, with the other two still under construction. Cindy was approached while cleaning the bathroom and dropped a rag and can in the hall. She left her 11-month-old daughter in the highchair, her shoes and coat by the front door, and her car in the driveway. Only Cinthia and her purse were missing. 

•It appeared that the kidnapper was watching the house and waited until her sister and brother-in-law left the home. Cindy’s body was found just off Foresthill Road above Auburn, on Saturday, December 14th, 1991. She had been strangled with a thin cord or wire, with no signs of a sexual assault. 

•The killer used Cindy’s ATM card at 4:00 pm on the day of the kidnapping to withdraw $40. The ATM was on Greenback Lane in Citrus Heights—a few blocks from Rosemary Norris’s residence, and the site of “Nancy’s” kidnapping.  Cinthia’s abduction location was six blocks from the Gregoire house, and two miles from Erna Martin’s. The killer drove Cinthia from Granite Bay, past the Kovacich & Willick residences and Auburn PD station, right through the center of Auburn and up Foresthill Road.

#9 Cherilynn Hawkley-Friday, October 29th, 1993, 4-5:00 pm, Granite Bay. 39 yr-old Cherilyn disappeared from Eureka Elementary where she taught 5th Grade. The school had just finished their Halloween trick-or-treat party.

•The kidnapping occurred in the school parking lot. Cherilynn was found two days later on Sunday evening at 9:00 pm in her van, at Oak Hills Elementary School—less than a mile away. Cherilynn was found between the second and third row of seats in the rear of the van. Nothing was stolen; there was no sexual assault, and she was fully clothed. Like Wanner, Cherilynn was also strangled with a thin cord or wire. The abduction site is 1.5 miles from the Wanner abduction; and 1.5 from Erna Martin.

•Despite Smith’s failure to solve these, and several other stranger murder cases, he was lauded as PCSO’s top homicide investigator. According to his later testimony, he shredded all of these case files on his way out of the door in 1995, presumably so his theories and assumptions could never be second-guessed.