Yolanda Washington was the first victim of the
Hillside Strangler.
Yolanda was 20 years old at the time of her
death. Her naked body was found on the slopes
of the distinguished
Forest Lawn Cemetery, the resting
place of movie stars, on the night
of Oct. 18, 1977. The body was
naked, cleaned by the killlers so
as to leave no clues,
and posed in a lascivious position. Yolanda
was raped and strangled.
Judith Ann Miller was the second victim of the Hillside Strangler.
She was 15 years old at the time of her death.
On Oct. 31, 1977, her
naked body was found on a hillside, laying close to the road, in the
middle-class residential neighborhood of La Crescenta. She had been
raped, sodomized and strangled to death. Her wrists, ankles, and
neck bore the marks of the ropes that had bound her, as was the case
with Yolanda Washington and those victims to come. She was small and
thin, weighing about ninety pounds. The coroner determined that she
had been strangled to death around midnight, some six hours or so
before she was found. She had last been seen leaving the Fish and
Chips restaurant at nine p.m. on the evening before she was found
dead. Judith's family was down on its luck and had nothing to
contribute about their daughter's friends.
Elissa Teresa Kastin, twenty-one, was murdered on Oct. 6, 1977
making her
the third victim of the Hillside Strangler.
She was a
waitress at the Healthfaire Restaurant near Hollywood & Vine and
lived just off Hollywood Blvd. She had made a comment to her mother
that she was thinking of turning to prostitution to earn some extra
money. She had last been seen leaving the Restaurant just after nine
o'clock on the night she was murdered. Her naked, strangled body had
been found near Chevy Chase Drive in Glendale, near a country club.
There was evidence of rape, but not sodomy. There was a sizeable
guardrail between the road and the spot where the body lay. It would
have taken two men to lift the stocky victim over the guardrail,
police estimated.
Jill
Barcomb, 4th victim of the Hillside Strangler. Jill was 19-years old
at the time of her death.
She
was living in Hollywood, having recently moved from New York shortly
before her death and was last seen alive on November 9, 1977. Her
beaten and strangled body was discovered the next day in Franklin
Canyon, north of Beverly Hills. She had also known Judith Miller,
another victim. Jill had pleaded guilty to prostitution in Syracuse,
N. Y. in January 1977 and was placed on a one year probation. She
was arrested once for violation of her probation and was allowed to
continue on probation in September of that same year. Six weeks
later she was found nude, beaten & strangled. Tests showed she had
been sexually molested.
Kathleen Robinson was the fifth victim of the Hillside Strangler.
She was 17 years old.
She had been living in Hollywood and was a high school student. She
was last seen alive on November 17, 1977 near the beach in Santa
Monica. She was found strangled the next day in a parkway near Pico
Boulevard in the Los Angeles Wilshire area. According to
authorities, she had not been sexually molested. She had been living
with her mother at the time of her murder and was a frequent
hitchhiker.
Kristina Weckler was the sixth victim of the
Hillside Strangler. She was 20 years old.
She died on Nov. 20, 1997.
Her nude body was found in an obscure area in the ills between
Glendale and Eagle Rock.
Kristina was
a quiet honors student at the Pasadena Art Center of Design. She
lived
in an apartment at 809 E. Garfield Avenue in Glendale.
Kristina's parents lived in San
Francisco.
Sonja Johnson was the 7th victim of the Hillside Strangler.
She was
14 years old.
Sonja, who was from Eagle Rock and a student at St.
Ignatius school in Highland Park had been missing since November 13.
She had gone shopping at the Eagle Rock Plaza, with her friend,
Dolores "Dollie" Cepeda. A witness had seen the girls get off a bus
and go over to a large two-tone sedan to talk to someone on the
passenger side of a car. A person on the passenger side of the
witness' car corraborated the theory that they were two men,
probably the killers. On Nov. 20, 1977 the bodies of Sonja Johnson
and her friend were discovered by two little boys, whose parents did
not beliee them at first, in Elysian Park.
Dolores "Dollie" Cepeda was the 8th victim of the Hillside
Strangler.
She was 12 years old.
Dolores, who was from Eagle Rock,
had been missing since Nov. 13 when she had gone with her friend,
Sonja Johnson to the Eagle Rock Plaza. A witness had seen the girls
get off a bus and go over to a large two-tone sedan to talk to
someone on the passenger side of a car. A person on the passenger
side of the witness' car corraborated the theory that they were two
men, probably the killers. On Nov. 20, 1977 the bodies of Dolores
Cepeda and her friend were discovered by two little boys, whose
parents did not believe them at first, in Elysian Park. Dolores had
been a student at St. Ignatius School in Highland Park.
Jane Evelyn King, twenty-eight, was killed on
Nov. 23, 1977.
She was the 9th victim of the Hillside Strangler.
Her body was found dumped at a southbound Los Feliz off-ramp of the
Golden State Freeway.
Her maggot covered body was estimated to have been there
approximately two weeks.
Lauren Wagner was the 10th victim of the Hillside Strangler.
She was
18 years old.
She had been a student at Monroe High School in the
San Fernando Valley and lived with her parents. This photo is a copy
of Lauren's photo from her high school yearbook, class of 1977. Her
parents had found her car parked across the street from their home
with the door ajar. They had gone to bed the previous night,
expecting her home before midnight. When her father questioned the neighbors, he found that the woman who lived at the house where
Lauren's car had been parked saw her abduction. Beulah Stofer, the
neighbor, said that she had seen Lauren pull over to the curb around
nine o'clock in the evening. Two men had pulled their car up beside
hers. There was some kind of disagreement and Lauren ended up in the
car with the two men. Her body was found on Tuesday, November 29 in
the hills of Mount Washington on Cliff Drive.
Kimberly Diane Martin was the 11th victim of the Hillside Strangler.
She was 17 years old.
Police found her naked body on Dec. 14, 1997.
Kimberly was a tall blonde girl who had been working for the Climax
"modeling agency" (prostitution). Kimberley's last client had
beckoned her to apartment 114 at 1950 Tamarind, which turned out to
be a vacant apartment. The murderer had called from a pay phone in
the lobby of the Hollywood Public Library on Ivar Street.
Cindy Lee Hudspeth was 21 years old when she died on February 16,
1978.
She was the 13th victim of the Hillside Strangler.
Her
strangled, violated body was put in to trunk of her Datsun and was
pushed off a cliff on Angeles Crest Highway. She had been a clerk
that everybody liked. She hoped to make enough money to go to
college one day and planned to give dance lessons to help raise the
money. A vivacious young woman, she had won several dance contests.
She had last been seen in her apartment building at 800 E. Garfield
Ave. from where she had probably been headed toward Glendale
Community College where she worked nights answering the phone.
Between her apartment building and the community college, Cindy had
been kidnapped in the late afternoon. Cindy had lived across the
street from another victim, Kristina Weckler, even though the two
women did not know each other.
There is some discrepancy about Laura Collins
being one of the Hillside Strangler victims.
The back of one of these two photos says "not linked to 10 others". However she is
shown
as a victim in the Hillside
Strangler Task Force poster.
Laura Collins was 26 years old at the
time of her death.
The Bellingham murders
Diane A. Wilder, Western
Washington University identification photo, ca. 1979.
(Courtesy The Bellingham Herald)
Karen L. Mandic, Western
Washington University identification photo, ca. 1979.
(Courtesy The Bellingham Herald)
