The Keddie Murders
QUINCY, Calif.
On April 12, 1981, the bodies of 36-year-old Su Sharpe, his 15-year-old son John and his 17-year-old friend Dana Wingate were found in the cabin 28 in KD Resort, north of Quincy. They had died the first night, tied, beaten and killed.
Sharp's 12-year-old daughter Tina was missing 80 miles away in the Butt County, its remains will not be found for three years.
In 1981, Quincy was like many small towns, the way people did not stop their doors, the family felt secure. All that changed suddenly.
Remembering the special investigator Mike Gamberg of Plumas County Sheriff, "People were closing their doors," never was. "They were not allowing their children to get out in the night, in a nutshell."
Until two weeks ago, Mike Gamberg was an officer with the office of Plumas County Sheriff. He was dismissed in an unrelated dispute with the man who was a sheriff.
Gamberg knew the intense family. It was such a case that he wanted to work, but even after restoring it, he was not allowed anywhere.
"They never told me why," said Gamberg.
Two men, Martin Smartt and John Boubade, both had criminal records and lived in Sharp's next door in the cabin 26, were think carefully about having or showing a cautious distrust of someone or something, but the investigation was postponed. And obviously, in those days, there was little confidence in the residents of the area and their Sheriff's office.
In any case, no arrests were made at any time and, as soon as possible, the case became just a bad, scary memory.
For most of the 35 years, the case was never worked, but it has changed with a good deal.
When he was killed, Greg Haggood was a 15-year-old freshman at Quincy High. In fact, he knew John Sharpe and Dana Wingate.
Gamberg says, "I'm telling you that the internet went crazy." "My phone was hooking off."
It was through the link that Gamberg had learned that in all those years in Sheriff's office, there was an audio recording of an unknown call from any person who identified the residues found in Woven County. It took 10 days to search through the box to find it. It was never heard.
Hagwood says, "It is a dark cloud hanging on your shoulders personally and professionally," There is no end date on justice.
In August 2013, he asked Gambberg, who had retired, to return to investigate the cases for which he had been kept decades ago.
Gamberg said, "I jumped at the chance." "The matter was really fragmented. I basically had to rebuild the case."
In fact, it was a mess, filled with missed opportunities, the evidence was lost or ignored.
"If the right things were done, this thing would have been resolved within weeks of homicide."
Sheriff Hagwood believes that he was defensive when he heard criticism of work done by his predecessors. not anymore. There are new forensic tools to work with Gamberg, the support of their boss and something that was not present in the social media in 1981.
Internet sites - especially keddie28.com - are alive in this case, and gradually, because it has become clear that Gamberg and Sheriff Hague were serious about resolving the case, maybe they all Years of disbelief, fear or reluctance behind fear, began to come in.