Homosexual Overtones Seen in Slayings of Young Men – Police Seek Ties to Killings in 4 Counties
by Gary Jarlson
Police in four Southern California counties are investigating the possibility that the murders of 11 young men in the past 19 months are connected. All of the victims, white males ranging from 16 to 23 years old, were left along freeways or heavily traveled roads in Orange, Riverside, San Diego and San Bernardino counties. Nearly all of the bodies were nude or only partially clad and, in some instances, police report, there have been homosexual overtones to the killings. Six of the men were strangled or suffocated, and in one other case suffocation has not been ruled out pending completion of toxicological tests.
Two other victims died of an overdose of Tylenol, one was stabbed to death, and one was killed by chloral hydrate and ethyl alcohol poisoning. According to coroners’ reports, 10 of them men were murdered late at night or early in the morning on Saturday or Sunday. The 11th was killed on a Thursday morning. As of Wednesday, only the two most recent victims had not been identified. The cases in which possible connections exist include Scott Hughes, 18, of Washington, whose body was found on the shoulder of the Euclid Street ramp of the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim on April 16, 1978. Roland Young, 23, of Maywood. His body was found on Irvine Center Drive in Irvine on June 11, 1978. Richard Keith, 20, a Marine stationed at Camp Pendleton. His body was dumped on Moulton Parkway near La Paz Road in Laguna Hills on June 18, 1978.
Keith Klingbeil, 23, of Everett, Washington. He was thrown from a moving car onto the outside lane of the north bound San Diego Freeway south of La Paz Road in the Mission Viejo area on July 6, 1978. Richard Crosby, 20, of Torrance. His body was discovered September 30, 1978, along the shoulder of Highway 83, north of Highway 71, in western San Bernardino County. Michael Inderbieten, 21, of Long Beach, whose body was found beside the transition road from the northbound San Diego Freeway to the 605 Freeway on November 18, 1978. Joseph Daly, 16, of Milpitas. He was left along Palomar Airport Road three miles east of Interstate 5 near Carlsbad on February 25, 1979. Donnie Crisel, 20, of Tustin Marine Corps Air Station.
His body was found on the transition road from Irvine Center Drive to Interstate 405 in IrvineJunel6,1979. Ralph Duane Davis, 20, of Los Angeles was found last November 3 along the Ortega Highway half a mile west of the Upper San Juan Campground in Riverside County. An unidentified, 16 to 20 years of age, whose body was discovered November 17 a quarter mile from the 1-5 in Carlsbad. An unidentified, 17 to 18 years old, dumped on the Ortega Highway Sunday five miles east of the San Diego Freeway. Lt. Wyatt Hart of Orange County Sheriff’s Department said investigators have no leads in the killings and are seeking help from anyone who may have seen suspicious activity along the roads where the bodies have been found.
Hart also said that there appears to be no connection between the 11 murders and a series of killings that have occurred in the Malibu area of Los Angeles and Ventura counties. “Those cases carry enough dissimilarities that we don’t, at this time, consider them to be part of the group we are investigating,” he said.
