Death Trail

Stalking California hikers

The day after Thanksgiving, three women from the Sierra Club were hiking through the peaceful fir woodlands of beautiful Point Reyes National Seashore, 30 miles northwest of San Francisco. They got separated, and Diana O'Connell, 22, never met her two friends at the end of the trail. A search party found O'Connell and another hiker, Shauna May, 23, in a wooded area, both shot through the head, their nude bodies criss-crossed on the ground. About a mile away from that slaying, two fully clothed but decomposed bodies were also found. Shot in the head, they were lying side by side face down at the base of a Douglas fir tree. The two were a teen-age couple who had been missing for seven weeks.

"To have it happen in such a sanctuary--it's like shooting somebody in church," said Reno Taini, a wilderness instructor who discovered the teenagers. During the past 15 months, three other women have been killed on hiking trails in the Point Reyes area. The seven killings had a ritualistic pattern. All but one took place on a weekend or holiday, all the victims except one were women, and most had apparently been forced into a submissive position before being shot with a high-powered weapon. Police believe the killings to be the work of one man. Observes Criminal Psychologist R. William Mathis: "He gets his maximum excitement by mentally terrifying his victims."

Despite the danger, hikers are continuing to enter Point Reyes. At week's end the sheriffs department circulated a sketch, derived from the memory of a witness to one of the killings, of the face of the murderer who stalks the spectacular heights above the Pacific shore.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.