Full transcript
0:00Take a look at these hiking trails.
0:02These are a series of trails around the
0:04San Francisco Bay Area.
0:07These aren't particularly remote trails,
0:09and they are a popular spot for hikers
0:10and families from nearby cities. In the
0:13late 1970s though, something strange
0:15started happening here. People began
0:17disappearing from these hiking trails.
0:20At first, it seemed like an isolated
0:22incident, but then it happened again,
0:24and again, and again.
0:26And soon enough, people were terrified
0:28and warned not to travel alone on the
0:29trails.
0:31Unfortunately, this fear was entirely
0:33justified.
0:34When it was finally discovered what was
0:36happening in the woods here, it was far
0:38more horrifying than anyone could have
0:39imagined.
0:40So, although the events in this video
0:42are fleeting and nondescriptive, they
0:43are still highly disturbing. So, viewer
0:45discretion is strongly advised.
0:49>> [music]
0:59>> Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park sits in
1:01the Santa Cruz Mountains, not far from
1:03the California coast, and is home to the
1:05massive and impressive California
1:06redwoods.
1:08And although the trees themselves are
1:09famous, what's often under-appreciated
1:11for those not familiar with the area is
1:12just how close and accessible they are
1:14to big cities.
1:15Locals and tourists alike can get away
1:17from the pace and noisy streets of
1:19nearby cities like San Francisco and San
1:21Jose with a relatively short drive.
1:23On the afternoon of March 29th, 1981,
1:26that's exactly what two college students
1:28from the University of California Davis
1:30were doing.
1:3120-year-old Ellen Hanson and her
1:32boyfriend Steven Haertle had been
1:34camping and hiking the park.
1:36The couple was spending a peaceful
1:37weekend together in the park's 40 acres
1:39of quiet redwoods when they decided to
1:40hike the popular Fall Creek and Ridge
1:42Trail Loop.
1:43The trail is a lengthy 12 km and takes
1:46an estimated 4 hours to complete. But
1:48the early spring day couldn't have been
1:49more perfect as they walked along,
1:51nodding and saying hello to others they
1:52encountered along the trail.
1:54At one point, they passed a man who was
1:56older, and they noticed he was thin,
1:57balding, and wearing glasses, which was
1:58all normal enough, but something felt
2:00kind of off about him.
2:02They couldn't quite put their finger on
2:03it, but the moment was fleeting either
2:05way. Just like they had with other
2:06hikers, they greeted him as they passed
2:08and continued on their journey as
2:09planned.
2:10Steven and Ellen wouldn't be the only
2:12ones to notice this man.
2:14Elsewhere in the park that afternoon, a
2:15father and son, Leland and Kenneth
2:17Fritz, saw the man near the observation
2:19deck, and it seemed he wasn't just there
2:21to enjoy the view.
2:22He actually had binoculars with him, and
2:24every so often, he'd lift them up to his
2:25face and peer through them toward the
2:27ridge trail, almost as if he was looking
2:28for someone. After watching the man do
2:30this for a while, Leland and Kenneth saw
2:32him leave the area and walk toward the
2:33trailhead.
2:35Then later in the afternoon, Steven and
2:36Ellen were heading back toward their
2:38campsite for dinner when they came
2:39across the exact same man again.
2:41This time, the encounter was a bit
2:43different.
2:44As the man approached them from the
2:45opposite direction, he smiled at them
2:47and gave what seemed like a friendly
2:48greeting, but something about the way he
2:50came off made their blood run cold.
2:53As it turned out, this was the correct
2:54reaction to have because a moment later,
2:56the man pulled out a gun and pointed it
2:58at them.
2:59Right away, Steven raised his hands
3:01instinctively, almost as a basic
3:03surrender movement to show that he was
3:04not a threat, but the man told him to
3:05put his hands down.
3:07Then he gave Steven a warning, telling
3:08him to do as he was told or else he'd
3:09get hurt.
3:11Steven tried to reason with the man and
3:12pleaded with him to let them go.
3:14They were just hikers enjoying the trail
3:16on a spring afternoon, and they had done
3:18nothing to offend this man, leading
3:19Steven to believe this could all end
3:20without any bloodshed.
3:22Ellen, on the other hand, wasn't so
3:23agreeable. She told Steven not to listen
3:26to him, that the man was going to shoot
3:27anyway.
3:28It was a terrifying thing to say out
3:30loud in the moment, but Ellen somehow
3:31could read the situation and the man's
3:33sudden change in demeanor.
3:34A few minutes earlier, he had just been
3:36a friendly passerby, but now he had a
3:38chilling look in his eyes that matched a
3:39cold facial expression.
3:41The man then tried to move them off the
3:43path, away from a place where other
3:44hikers might see them, and then he
3:46directly stated what he wanted.
3:48He told them all he wanted to do was
3:50assault Ellen.
3:51For a moment, he began to put the weapon
3:53back beneath his coat, which may have
3:55looked to the couple like an opening or
3:56tiny chance to resist or run.
3:58They then both took a step toward him as
3:59if they were going to try to fight him
4:00off, but before they could make much
4:02more of a move, the gun came back out.
4:04Again, the man said that all he wanted
4:06to do was assault Ellen in the bushes
4:07off the trail. Only this time it was
4:09more forceful.
4:10Ellen, however, still wasn't deterred.
4:12She flat out told him that she wasn't
4:14going to let him do that.
4:15Steven then began to step off the trail,
4:17but as he did, he lost his footing and
4:19turned away from the man for a split
4:20second. Just then, gunshots ring out.
4:24Steven's first thought was that this
4:25must be some kind of joke the man was
4:27playing on them.
4:28But all of that went out the window when
4:29the next bullet hit Steven's neck.
4:32The impact was crushing, almost as if
4:34Steven had been hit with a sledgehammer.
4:36Before he could realize what happened,
4:38he dropped to the ground in overwhelming
4:39pain that felt like his arm was gone.
4:42Then a second later, though,
4:43instinctively, he leapt back to his
4:44feet, and that's when he saw Ellen was
4:46on the ground and unresponsive.
4:48Horrifyingly, [music] blood streamed
4:49from her.
4:51Steven rushed over to her and lifted her
4:52head, immediately noticing the wound in
4:54her face.
4:55He took a few seconds to process what he
4:57was seeing as tears welled up in his
4:58eyes, but something suddenly snapped him
5:00back into the moment. The man was still
5:02standing there with his weapon pointed
5:04at Steven, and without giving him a
5:05chance to get another shot off, Steven
5:07sprinted. He had been badly wounded, and
5:10he knew it, but the fear and adrenaline
5:11pushed him up the trail toward the
5:12observation deck.
5:14Nearby, Kenneth and Leland had heard the
5:16shots, so they started down the path and
5:17soon met Steven fleeing toward them.
5:20In a panic, he told them what had
5:21happened as the two helped him back
5:22toward the observation area.
5:24When they got there, campers Fred and
5:26Maureen Morris took over.
5:28Maureen was a nursing assistant, and she
5:30immediately began giving Steven first
5:31aid. The bullet had entered to the back
5:33of his neck and traveled down into his
5:34chest. It had struck an artery and
5:37stopped behind his sternum, missing his
5:38heart by only a couple of inches.
5:40Without Maureen being there and knowing
5:42exactly what to do, Steven would have
5:43bled to death right there there the
5:45park.
5:46Then, while she tried to keep Steven
5:47alive, Fred headed down the trail to
5:49look for Ellen.
5:50On the way there, he met a man coming
5:52from the direction of the shooting,
5:53looking particularly calm and cool
5:54despite the frantic situation unfolding.
5:57The man then casually told Fred that
5:58someone had been shot along the trail
6:00and then just kept walking.
6:02Back at the observation deck, Steven was
6:03lying wounded when he saw the same man
6:05again.
6:06The gunman was now coming up the trail
6:08toward him and Maureen, passing through
6:10a clearing as if he was just another
6:11person going for a stroll in the park.
6:14Steven then screamed to Maureen that
6:15this was the man who shot him, causing
6:16her to look up at him.
6:18She noticed that despite the chaotic
6:19nature of the scene, he seemed to not
6:21react to Steven's yelling.
6:22Instead, he just continued on until he
6:24disappeared from view.
6:26Meanwhile, Steven wasn't just going to
6:27hang around to see what the man would do
6:29next. He quickly got to his feet and
6:30bolted toward the campground area where
6:32other campers got him to a hospital.
6:34Law enforcement then arrived quickly
6:36after, but the man was already gone.
6:38Leland and an unnamed young girl in the
6:40area both saw the man speed away in a
6:42red Fiat.
6:43The attack in the park was horrifying
6:45enough on its own. A young woman had
6:47been killed, hit multiple times at close
6:48range in broad daylight on a public
6:50hiking trail. Her boyfriend had also
6:52been shot nearly killed, and the
6:53perpetrator had simply walked to the
6:55park calmly enough to pass other people,
6:57speak to one of them, and then disappear
6:58in a red vehicle. As investigators
7:00started to take a close look at the
7:02attack, however, there was something
7:03about what happened that rang familiar
7:04to them.
7:05It seemed this wasn't an isolated
7:07attack.
7:08For nearly 2 years to that point, people
7:10had been dying on trails and in wooded
7:11parks across Northern California.
7:14The settings changed and so did the
7:15victims. Some were hiking and some were
7:17jogging. Some were alone and some were
7:19with someone they loved, but again and
7:20again, violence found its way to places
7:22people normally associate with safety
7:23and peace.
7:25Bodies had turned up in state parks and
7:27redwood forests, on coastal trails and
7:29ridgelines, and police were certain
7:30after the attack on Steven and Ellen
7:32that the man who shot them was
7:33responsible for it all. They just didn't
7:35know who that man was.
7:37Earlier attacks had clustered around
7:39Mount Tamalpais, the famous peak north
7:41of San Francisco.
7:42Mount Tamalpais was one of the Bay
7:44Area's signature outdoor places
7:45specifically because of how peaceful and
7:47beautiful, but this man had turned it
7:48into the opposite.
7:50For a time, investigators believed they
7:52were looking for a younger man, someone
7:53possibly in his 20s or 30s.
7:55Witness descriptions to that point had
7:57pushed them in that direction, and
7:58composite sketches had circulated based
8:00on that idea.
8:01But the attack at Henry Cowell began to
8:03change everything.
8:04Steven, despite his grievous wound,
8:06managed to survive. He had seen the
8:07man's face up close, and so had other
8:09witnesses in the park.
8:11And their descriptions pointed to
8:12someone older. A thin, balding man who
8:14looked closer to middle age and who wore
8:16glasses.
8:17The attack on Ellen and Steven had also
8:19taken place in Santa Cruz County,
8:21farther south than the earlier Marin
8:22County murders, but the method was too
8:24similar to ignore. The crime fit the
8:26pattern too closely.
8:28By the spring of 1981, the unknown
8:30killer's territory no longer seemed
8:31limited to the trails of Mount
8:33Tamalpais. It had spread down the coast
8:35into other parks and other places where
8:37hikers once felt safe.
8:39The suspect the police called the Mount
8:41Tam Killer up to then had expanded his
8:42own boundaries. Soon he became known as
8:45the Trailside Killer.
8:47The first known attack connected to the
8:48pattern happened in the summer of 1979.
8:51On August 19th, 44-year-old Edda Kane
8:53went hiking near Mount Tamalpais.
8:56Edda lived in Mill Valley and worked in
8:57banking, so hitting the trails was
8:59always a bit of an escape from her busy
9:00life.
9:01After visiting a place many Bay Area
9:03residents treated almost like an
9:04extension of their own backyard, though,
9:06Edda didn't come home that night.
9:08In her absence, her husband became
9:09worried and contacted authorities.
9:11Police would find her car still parked
9:13at the parking lot, and the next day
9:14searchers found her body along a hiking
9:16trail near the mountain.
9:17>> [music]
9:17>> Edda had one bullet wound in her head,
9:19and her clothing had been removed.
9:21At the time, investigators didn't know
9:23that her death would become part of a
9:24much larger case.
9:25It was a terrible crime, for sure, but
9:27it looked like a one-off event.
9:29All of that changed, though, 2 months
9:30later when another young woman was
9:31attacked in a different area.
9:34On October 21st, 1979, 23-year-old Mary
9:37Frances Bennett was jogging at Land's
9:39End, along the rugged edge of San
9:41Francisco, where trails run high above
9:42the ocean.
9:43Mary had gone out for a run, but she
9:45never had a chance to finish her jog.
9:47Instead, she was dragged into the nearby
9:48bushes and attacked.
9:50Mary fought back valiantly, and during
9:52the struggle, she managed to dislocate
9:53one of her attacker's thumbs, but he
9:55eventually overpowered her and attacked
9:56her with a knife more than 25 times.
9:59Her wounds were especially brutal,
10:01concentrated around her back, throat,
10:02chest, and groin.
10:04By early 1980, the attacks returned to
10:06trails around Mount Tamalpais.
10:09On March 8th, 23-year-old Barbara Ann
10:11Schwartz was stabbed while hiking near
10:12the mountain.
10:13Her body was found several days later,
10:15curled in the fetal position, and a bush
10:17knife was recovered near the scene.
10:19It was after this attack that people in
10:20the region began to pay attention, and
10:21the warnings became more direct.
10:24Local police urged women not to hike
10:26alone anywhere in Marin County trail,
10:27sending a message to the public that the
10:29trails themselves had become dangerous
10:31in a way they'd never been before.
10:33By the fall of 1980, the attacker's was
10:35becoming clear. He appeared to use the
10:37natural cover of parks to his advantage.
10:40He waited near trails or in tree lines,
10:41watching potential victims as they
10:43passed by without them ever knowing he
10:44was there.
10:46He seemed patient, too, waiting for just
10:48the right person and just the right
10:49moment to strike.
10:51On October 11th, he spotted 19-year-old
10:53Richard Stowers [music] and 18-year-old
10:54Cynthia Moreland walking along the Sky
10:56Camp Trail at Point Reyes National
10:58Seashore.
10:59Both from Sonoma County, the two were
11:01engaged to be married, but they wouldn't
11:02live long enough to tie the knot.
11:04As they walked along, completely
11:05oblivious to the dangerous man in their
11:07presence, they were suddenly confronted.
11:09With a gun in his hand, the man forced
11:11the couple onto their knees before
11:12finishing them off.
11:14Their bodies wouldn't be found
11:15immediately, which meant for weeks,
11:16investigators and the public still
11:18didn't even understand how many victims
11:19there already were.
11:21Just a few days later, on October 14th,
11:2326-year-old Ann Evelyn Alderson was at
11:25Mount Tamalpais State Park after
11:27attending a performance at the nearby
11:28Cushing Memorial Amphitheater.
11:30Sometime that afternoon, she encountered
11:32the man who assaulted her and then
11:33finished her off at close range.
11:36A search party found Anne's body next
11:37day, roughly a quarter mile east of the
11:39amphitheater.
11:40The case became even worse toward the
11:42end of November, when 22-year-old Diane
11:44Marie O'Connell disappeared while hiking
11:46near Point Reyes National Seashore.
11:48She was found the next day without
11:50clothing and with gunshot wounds.
11:52Near Diane's body, police also
11:54discovered 23-year-old Shauna Maye of
11:56Pullman, Washington.
11:57She had also been shot while hiking near
11:59Point Reyes, likely around the same time
12:01Diane was killed.
12:02Nearby, searchers then also discovered
12:04the decomposing bodies of Richard and
12:06Cynthia.
12:07In one devastating day, the full scale
12:09of the case finally came to view for
12:10investigators.
12:12Four victims were found in the same
12:14general area with their deaths forming a
12:15pattern detectives could no longer
12:16mistake for coincidence.
12:18The locations were not identical and the
12:20ages of the victims varied, though many
12:22were young adults.
12:23Some had been alone while others hadn't.
12:25Some were stabbed and some were shot,
12:26but the larger pattern was unmistakable.
12:29The perpetrator was using parks as his
12:30own personal hunting grounds.
12:33As fear spread across Northern
12:34California, investigators continued
12:36their work to identify the man causing
12:38all the terror.
12:39The early investigation was difficult
12:41because the man didn't strike in one
12:42neat, contained area.
12:44His attacks were also connected to
12:45public outdoor spaces that were
12:47naturally busy. Hikers came and went
12:49throughout the day and a person could
12:50pass half a dozen strangers in a park
12:51and remember almost nothing useful about
12:53them afterward.
12:54Initially as well, while he was using a
12:56knife, police didn't have all that much
12:57to work with.
12:58But when his weapon of choice became a
13:00.38 caliber revolver, one of the case's
13:02most important breakthroughs came.
13:04Through ballistics analysis, police
13:06determined that not only was the same
13:07type of gun used in several of the
13:09cases, it was actually the exact same
13:11gun.
13:12This evidence helped confirm that
13:13investigators were dealing with a series
13:14of connected cases.
13:16By early December of 1980, investigators
13:19had connected six cases to the same
13:20offender.
13:22They then brought in psychological
13:23profilers to try to understand the
13:24person behind the crimes.
13:26The profile would end up describing a
13:28man driven by sexual violence, anger
13:29toward women, and the need to dominate
13:31and terrify his victims.
13:33It also suggested the crimes were not
13:35satisfying whatever compulsion was
13:36pushing him, which meant there was
13:37reason to believe he would keep
13:38attacking.
13:40The profile also suggested a man who
13:42might be under increasing internal
13:43pressure through guilt, anxiety, anger,
13:45or maybe even worsening psychological or
13:47physical symptoms.
13:49The case then took an even stranger turn
13:51when a man claiming to be the
13:52perpetrator began calling the sheriff's
13:53office and local TV stations.
13:56The caller seemed upset about how
13:57authorities had described him in the
13:58psychological profile that was being
14:00reported. [music]
14:01Over the next 2 days, he called again
14:03and again and said he was in desperate
14:04need of help, claiming that he was ready
14:06to turn himself in.
14:07Before that could happen though, the
14:08call stopped.
14:10Whether they came in from the real
14:11person or someone inserted himself into
14:12the case, they added more uncertainty to
14:14the investigation.
14:16For a while afterward, there was
14:17nothing, but then a new name would
14:19eventually enter the investigation
14:20through what seemed like an unrelated
14:21case of a missing woman.
14:23In May of 1981, a 20-year-old Heather
14:26Skaggs disappeared.
14:27At the time, she was connected to a
14:29printing program where she knew an older
14:30co-worker, and according to what she
14:32told people close to her before she
14:33vanished, he'd offered to help her find
14:35a new car.
14:36On May 2nd, she arranged to go with this
14:38co-worker to Santa Cruz, where she hoped
14:39to look at a car through someone he
14:40knew, but she never did return with the
14:42new vehicle that day. In fact, she
14:44didn't return at all.
14:46That night, some of her friends went
14:47looking for answers and found the
14:48co-worker, a man named David Carpenter.
14:51David would admit that he and Heather
14:53had planned to go to Santa Cruz
14:54together, but he claimed the trip never
14:55happened. According to him, he had
14:57overslept and then had car trouble, so
14:59he never actually saw her that day. Then
15:01a few days later, he told the police
15:02essentially the same thing.
15:04In any other set of circumstances, that
15:06might have been enough to dismiss David
15:07as a person of interest, but there was
15:09one detail that caught the attention of
15:10the detectives.
15:12David just so happened to be the owner
15:13of a red Fiat.
15:15The more investigators looked into him,
15:17the more the pieces began to line up.
15:19David was roughly the right age, and he
15:20generally [music] matched Steven's
15:21description of the man who attacked him
15:23and Ellen.
15:24His car was also an exact match for the
15:26vehicle witnesses had seen in the area
15:28after the attack. So, investigators
15:29leaned in for a closer look at him.
15:32As they checked his criminal past,
15:33[music] what they found was a long
15:34history of violence, assault,
15:36kidnapping, and predatory behavior.
15:38Years before the trail instance, David
15:40had already attacked a woman named Lois
15:42Deondrade in San Francisco.
15:44In 1960, he convinced her to get into
15:46his car and drove her to a large park in
15:48the city.
15:49Once there, he attacked her with a knife
15:51and hammer.
15:53Miraculously, the attack was seen by a
15:54military officer who pulled out a gun
15:56and fired on David, stopping him before
15:57he could go any further.
15:59Lois would survive the attack, and David
16:01was convicted of the crime and served
16:02more than 7 years in prison.
16:04After his release, though, he committed
16:06more crimes against women. In 1970, he
16:08was convicted of robbery, kidnapping,
16:10and assault before eventually being
16:11paroled in May of 1979, which just so
16:13happened to coincide with the start of
16:15the trail site instance several months
16:17later.
16:18Heather, meanwhile, remained missing
16:19until May 24th, when hikers found a
16:21nude, decomposed body in wooded,
16:23mountainous terrain inside Big Basin
16:25Redwood State Park.
16:27The body was discovered more than 100
16:28yards off the roadway, hidden in the
16:30kind of remote landscape that had become
16:31horribly familiar to investigators on
16:33the case.
16:34Dental records confirmed the body
16:36belonged to Heather, and an autopsy
16:37showed she had a wound in her face.
16:39With all of this taken together, police
16:41believed they finally had a name.
16:43David grew up in San Francisco in a
16:45childhood described as abusive,
16:46unstable, and socially difficult. His
16:49father was known as a physical
16:50alcoholic, and his mother was
16:51controlling and overbearing.
16:53David was punished harshly for anything
16:55that looked like insubordination, and he
16:56was known to have problems with
16:57bed-wetting and being cruel to animals.
17:00His mother also restricted him from
17:01playing with other neighborhood
17:02children. Instead, she pushed him into
17:04structured activities like music and
17:06dance lessons.
17:08One of the defining parts of David's
17:09childhood was his stutter.
17:11It was severe enough that other children
17:12mocked him for it, and bullying followed
17:14him throughout school.
17:15Teachers recommended speech therapy, but
17:17his mother refused.
17:19This left David isolated in ways that
17:20later investigators and psychologists
17:22would often point to when trying to
17:23understand him. He was also often
17:25described as manipulative as he grew up,
17:27and he was known to present different
17:28versions of himself depending on who was
17:30watching.
17:31By adolescence, the problems of David
17:33were getting serious, and he developed a
17:35reputation for a violent temper. In high
17:37school, he was expelled during his
17:38sophomore year after an incident
17:39involving a female student whom he
17:41dragged down a hallway after an
17:42argument.
17:43Even more disturbing as a teenager,
17:45David had inappropriate interaction with
17:47several minors, including relatives.
17:49Then at 17 years old, he was arrested on
17:51an allegation involving the assault of a
17:53very young individual.
17:55After that, he was placed in the care of
17:56the California Youth Authority and spent
17:58several years at Napa State Hospital,
18:00which is a psychiatric medical care
18:01facility.
18:03Decades later, by the spring of 1981,
18:05[music] authorities started watching
18:06David closely with a group that included
18:08both local police departments and a team
18:09of seven FBI agents.
18:12He was then placed in lineups, and both
18:13Steven and Leland identified him.
18:16David was arrested outside his home in
18:17San Francisco on May 14th, and was held
18:19without bail while the investigation
18:21continued.
18:22After the arrest, detectives knew they
18:24still needed more physical evidence, but
18:26when they searched his house, they found
18:27a Sierra Club book containing maps of
18:29California hiking trails.
18:31Some of the pages in this book have been
18:32marked with paper clips, including pages
18:34for areas where some of the cases had
18:35occurred.
18:37Authorities were getting closer to
18:38solidifying their case against him, and
18:39they knew that locating the gun would
18:41all but lock him away.
18:42Ballistics had already helped connect
18:44the cases, but without the actual
18:45firearm, the evidence wasn't as strong
18:46as it could be.
18:48A breakthrough in that respect finally
18:49came through a man named Shane Williams.
18:51Shane and his wife were bank robbers who
18:53were acquainted with David, and David
18:54had given them a .38 caliber gun shortly
18:56before he was arrested.
18:58Shane used the weapon in a robbery, but
19:00then hid it after learning that David
19:01was taken [music] into custody.
19:03When he began cooperating, Shane led
19:04police to the place where he put the gun
19:06beneath broken asphalt in a vacant lot
19:08in San Francisco.
19:09Ballistics then tied the gun to the
19:11shooting of Ellen, the attack on Steven,
19:12and the murder of Heather.
19:14And it also connected Sue some of the
19:15Marin County cases.
19:18With that, the state finally had
19:19everything it needed to feel confident
19:20that it could get a conviction against
19:22David.
19:23The case has drawn enormous publicity
19:25across Northern California, and for
19:26months people had been warned about
19:27hiking alone.
19:29By the time David was ready to stand
19:30trial, finding jurors who had not heard
19:32of the case was almost impossible in the
19:34communities closest to crimes.
19:36So, the trials were moved away from the
19:37Bay Area.
19:38David faced charges in separate
19:40jurisdictions since the murders had
19:41taken place in different counties, and
19:42in 1984 he was convicted in the Santa
19:45Cruz related case.
19:47The jury found him guilty of murdering
19:48Ellen and Heather, and of the attempted
19:50murder of Steven.
19:51When he was sentenced, David was given
19:52the death penalty, but that was not the
19:54end of the legal process.
19:56A second major trial followed, this one
19:57involving the Marin County murders of
19:59Ann, Diane, Shauna, Cynthia, and
20:01Richard.
20:03That trial would also be moved to San
20:04Diego because of the publicity
20:06surrounding the case.
20:07During those proceedings, David
20:09testified for 7 days straight, and at
20:11different moments he could seem
20:12cheerful, serious, sad, or even tearful.
20:15This was all his masterful manipulation
20:17on full display for all to witness, but
20:19the jury saw right through it.
20:21In 1988, David was convicted of the
20:23Marin County cases, and again was
20:24sentenced to death.
20:26David would never give a full confession
20:28that neatly closed every suspected case,
20:30and so some cases remained harder to
20:31prove than others.
20:33Ellen and Barbara were believed by many
20:34to be connected to David's pattern, but
20:36the evidence wasn't as strong as it was
20:37in the cases that went to trial.
20:39>> [music]
20:40>> Mary's case, committed 1979, would also
20:42later be linked to David through DNA
20:44evidence, though he was never tried for
20:45it.
20:46For years after these convictions, David
20:48corresponded with the Point Reyes Light
20:50newspaper, writing about his life,
20:51criticizing prison officials, and
20:53answering questions from readers.
20:55But at one point, when he spoke to a
20:56journalist, he continued to shift
20:58responsibility away from himself.
21:00He denied being the man behind the
21:01cases, and the legal aftermath of all
21:03this stretched on for years.
21:05In that time, David pursued appeals, but
21:07his attempts to overturn his sentences
21:08ultimately failed.
21:10Before that sentence could ever be
21:12carried out though, California's death
21:13penalty system changed. In just 2006,
21:16David had already become California's
21:18oldest death row inmate, but in 2019, a
21:20moratorium was placed on executions by
21:22the state.
21:23A few years later, California began
21:25moving away from death row in the
21:26traditional sense.
21:28While David technically remains under a
21:29sentence of death, the old image of him
21:31waiting on San Quentin's death row is no
21:33longer quite accurate.
21:35In 2024, he contracted COVID and
21:37recovered after being placed in
21:38isolation, but his overall health had
21:40declined enough by May 2025 that he was
21:42transferred to the California Health
21:43Care Facility in Stockton. Now elderly
21:46and physically diminished and no longer
21:47able to walk, David is in his mid-90s as
21:50of this video and is considered one of
21:51the oldest inmates in the United States.
21:54Even decades later and nearing the end
21:55of his life though, he still maintains
21:57his innocence and denies being the
21:58Trailside Killer.
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