Buzz
On December 20, 1968, one of history’s most notorious serial killers claimed his first known victims when a teenage couple, David Arthur Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen, were fatally shot in Benicia, California. Over the following months, the perpetrator, dubbed the “Zodiac Killer,” targeted two more young couples. In both instances, the female victims died, while the males sustained severe injuries but survived. The Zodiac’s identity remains unknown, leaving these cases officially unresolved. Sadly, there are numerous similar stories.
Below are 10 unsolved cases where couples were brutally murdered, and the killers escaped justice. In some instances, innocent individuals were wrongly convicted, while the true perpetrators remained free. There’s also speculation that some of these couples might be unacknowledged victims of the Zodiac Killer . . .
10. Robert Domingos & Linda Edwards
In 1963, Robert Domingos, an 18-year-old standout football player at Lompoc High School, was engaged to his 17-year-old fiancée, Linda Edwards. The couple was preparing to graduate when, in early June, they visited a secluded beach in Santa Barbara County to sunbathe. When they didn’t return home, their parents reported them missing, and their bodies were discovered the following day. Robert had been shot 11 times, and Linda nine times.
Investigators believe the killer confronted the couple on the beach, forcing Linda to tie Robert’s hands behind his back. Both attempted to flee before being shot. After Linda’s death, the assailant used a knife to cut and remove her swimsuit. He then dragged their bodies into a nearby shack and tried to set it on fire. The crime scene closely resembled the Zodiac Killer’s 1969 attack on Bryan Calvin Hartnell and Cecelia Ann Shepard at Lake Berryessa. This has led to speculation that Robert and Linda might have been the Zodiac’s earliest victims.
9. John Franklin Hood & Sandra Garcia
On the night of February 21, 1970, 20-year-old Sandra Garcia left home with her fiancé, John Franklin Hood. Carrying a blanket and food, they headed to East Beach near Santa Barbara. The couple never came back, and their bodies were discovered on the beach the next morning, lying on their blanket. Both had been brutally beaten and stabbed—John 11 times, and Sandra so severely that she was nearly unrecognizable.
The weapon used in the murder was identified as a bone-handled fish knife, found buried in the sand beneath the victims. Nothing was stolen, and Sandra showed no signs of sexual assault, leaving the crime seemingly without motive. Months later, another pair of unsolved murders occurred on a different Santa Barbara beach. Two young men, Thomas Dolan and Homer Shadwick, were brutally hacked to death by an unknown attacker, while a third man, Thomas Hayes, survived. It’s unclear if the two crimes are linked, but both remain unsolved. Given the similarities to the 1969 Lake Berryessa attack, some speculate that John Franklin Hood and Sandra Garcia’s murders might also be the work of the Zodiac Killer.
8. Jason Allen & Lindsay Cutshall
Thirty-five years after the Zodiac Killer’s first known murders, California was rocked by another brutal double homicide that echoed his crimes. On August 14, 2004, Jason Allen and his fiancée Lindsay Cutshall were visiting Jenner, California. Unable to find a motel room, they camped overnight on Fish Head Beach. Four days later, their bodies were found on the beach inside their sleeping bags. Both had been shot in the head with a .45-caliber rifle while they slept, with no evidence of a struggle.
The crime appeared motiveless—none of the couple’s possessions were stolen, and there was no sexual assault. A drifter named Joseph Henry Burgess became a suspect after he was killed in a police shootout in 2009, but DNA evidence did not link him to the crime scene. Numerous theories have emerged about the killer’s identity, with some even suggesting the Zodiac Killer might be responsible. Nearly a decade later, the murderer remains at large.
7. Seymour & Arlene Tankleff
On September 7, 1988, a wealthy couple was viciously attacked in their Long Island home. Their 17-year-old son, Marty, woke up to find his mother brutally murdered in her bed—beaten and with her throat slit. His father, Seymour, was also found unconscious in his study, suffering from similar injuries. After Marty called 911, Seymour was hospitalized and remained in a coma for 29 days before dying. Police quickly suspected Marty, and after a grueling interrogation, he confessed to the murders and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.
Marty, however, claimed his confession was coerced after a detective falsely told him his father had regained consciousness and accused him. He insisted the real suspect was Jerry Steuerman, his father’s business partner in a bagel store chain, who owed Seymour $500,000 and was embroiled in a dispute. A week after the murders, Steuerman moved to California under a new identity. After years of appeals, Marty was released from prison in 2008, and his conviction was overturned. Despite this, police never pursued Steuerman, leaving the Tankleff murders unsolved.
6. Jay Cook & Tanya Van Cuylenborg
In November 1987, 20-year-old Jay Cook and his girlfriend Tanya Van Cuylenborg, both from British Columbia, traveled to Washington State for a camping trip. It’s theorized they may have met their killer on a ferry to Seattle that evening. When they failed to return home, Tanya’s body was found on a remote road in Skagit County. She had been bound with plastic ties, sexually assaulted, and shot.
Their van was located 150 kilometers (90 miles) away in downtown Bellingham. Investigators recovered the van’s keys, Tanya’s driver’s license, and a pair of surgical gloves two blocks from the vehicle. Jay’s body was discovered under a bridge near Monroe, where he had been beaten and strangled. In the months following the murders, the victims’ families received numerous anonymous greeting cards from someone claiming to be the killer, mocking them with details of the crimes. However, DNA from the cards didn’t match evidence from the crime scenes. Years later, it was revealed the cards were sent by an elderly, mentally ill transient unrelated to the murders. Over 25 years later, the deaths of Jay Cook and Tanya Van Cuylenborg remain unsolved.
5. Harry & Megan Tooze
On July 26, 1993, 64-year-old Harry Tooze and his wife Megan were killed at their farm in Llanharry, South Wales. The assailant shot Harry in the back of the head at close range with a shotgun. When Megan tried to escape, she was killed in the same manner. Their bodies were wrapped in a carpet and left in the cowshed. Jonathan Jones, the fiancé of the Toozes’ daughter Cheryl, became the main suspect. Police theorized he committed the murders to claim a £150,000 inheritance, and his thumbprint was found on a saucer in the Tooze home.
Jonathan was convicted of the murders in 1995 and sentenced to life in prison. However, Cheryl Tooze firmly believed in his innocence and fought for his release. Since Jonathan often visited the Tooze home, his thumbprint on the saucer wasn’t unusual, and no other evidence connected him to the crime. In 1996, his conviction was overturned, and he was released. The true killer of Harry and Megan Tooze remains at large.
4. Stanley Skridla & Mary Jane Reed
On the night of June 25, 1948, in Oregon, Illinois, 17-year-old Mary Jane Reed was on a date with 28-year-old Stanley Skridla. The couple visited several nightspots and was last seen heading toward County Farm Road, a popular lovers’ lane outside town. The next morning, Stanley’s body was discovered by the roadside. He had been shot multiple times, and his car was found half a mile away. His wallet was still intact, eliminating robbery as a motive.
Four days later, Mary Jane’s body was discovered in a ditch three kilometers (two miles) north of Stanley’s location. She had been shot once in the head, with no apparent signs of sexual assault. A married Oregon police officer, who was rumored to have had an affair with Mary Jane, became a suspect. She had reportedly ended the affair days before her date with Stanley, and witnesses claimed to have seen the officer following them that night. However, no evidence linked him to the crime, and the case went cold for decades. In 2005, the case was reopened, and Mary Jane’s body was exhumed. Shockingly, the skull in her casket wasn’t hers! Her actual skull remains missing, adding a strange twist to this unsolved mystery.
3. Edward Wheeler Hall & Eleanor Reinhardt Mills
One of the most infamous murder cases in history began in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1922. Edward Wheeler Hall, a married Episcopal priest, had been having an affair with Eleanor Reinhardt Mills, the wife of the church’s acting sexton, for four years.
On September 16, their bodies were found in a rural area. Both had been shot in the head, and Eleanor’s throat was slit. Torn love letters were scattered between them. The crime scene, located near a county border, led to jurisdictional confusion, allowing onlookers to trample the area and destroy crucial evidence.
The main suspects were Edward’s wife, Frances Noel Stevens Hall, and her brothers, Henry and Willie. It was theorized they killed the couple in retaliation for Edward’s affair. They stood trial in 1926, where a local witness claimed to have seen the murders from a distance and heard a woman call one attacker “Henry.” However, her inconsistent testimony made her unreliable, and three other witnesses placed Henry Stevens fishing that night. With insufficient evidence, the defendants were acquitted. Officially, the murders of Edward Wheeler Hall and Eleanor Reinhardt Mills are still unsolved.
2. Mike Riemer & Diana Robertson
On December 12, 1985, Mike Riemer, his girlfriend Diana Robertson, and their two-year-old daughter left their Tacoma, Washington home to find a Christmas tree. Hours later, their daughter was found alone at a department store, saying, “Mommy is in the trees.” Two months later, their truck was discovered in a remote forest over 38 kilometers (30 miles) away. Diana had been stabbed 17 times, with a tube sock tied around her neck. Mike was missing.
The scene mirrored the unsolved murder of another couple, Steven Harkins and Ruth Cooper, in the same area four months earlier, including the use of a sock. Since Mike had a history of abusing Diana, authorities speculated he might have killed her and the other couple. Did he take his daughter to safety before vanishing? Or were Mike and Diana victims of another killer who spared the child? Mike was a fugitive until 2011, when a piece of his skull was found in the woods near the crime scene. Yet, the killer’s identity remains unknown.
1. Bernd Goericke & Andrea Scherpf
In 1983, Bernd Goericke and his fiancée Andrea Scherpf traveled to Canada for a vacation. On October 6, their bodies were found on a remote road 32 kilometers south of Chetwynd, British Columbia. Both had been shot. The couple had been seen hitchhiking with camping and hiking equipment, but these items were never located. The sole piece of evidence at the scene was a pair of bloodstained jeans.
The case went unsolved for six years until a woman came forward, claiming her ex-boyfriend, Andy Rose—a Newfoundland man working in Chetwynd at the time—had appeared at her trailer covered in blood, admitting he shot the German couple. Based on her testimony, Rose was convicted in 1991. After winning a retrial three years later, he was convicted again. However, in 2001, Rose was exonerated when DNA from the bloody jeans didn’t match his. Decades later, the true killer of Bernd Goericke and Andrea Scherpf has never been identified.
