. Joe Turner is a freelance writer of crime with a passion for unsolved mysteries. Between them lies the forgotten tape of the anonymous phone tip left in 1984, rediscovered in 2013. called the Sacramento Department of Justice. Miraculously, her two younger brothers Rick, then 10, and Greg, 5, along with another friend, were found asleep and unharmed in an adjacent bedroom. 7. When they returned to the bar much later, they were wearing suits, as if they had spent the evening at a business meeting. It was believed that Martin and Sue were having an affair and that Sue was supposedly counseling Marilyn to leave her husband, who she had said was abusive to her. Keddie28 reported Sharp immediately fled the cabin and ran to the neighbors for help. Its my belief that there were more than two people who were involved in the totality of the crimethe disposal of the evidence and the abduction of the little girl, Hagwood said. Tina remained a missing person until April 1984, when her skull and several other bones were recovered at Camp Eighteen, California, near Feather Falls in Butte County. Gamberg and the owner ofKeddie28.com,who goes by the name DMAC, believe that Sue Sharp and Marty Smartt were having an affair. In a letter, Marty purportedly said: Ive paid the price of your love and now that Ive bought it with four peoples lives, you tell me we are through. Although the Sharps cabin did not indicate forced entry, detectives were able to recover an unidentified fingerprint from a handrail that led to the cabins back door. A few years later, Martys wife, Marilyn, said that she had found Tinas bloody jacket in their basement and had given it to the police during the earlier investigation. Great! Sue urged them not to hitchhike, but passersby spotted John and Dana on a street corner trying to flag a ride home around 9:30-10:00 that evening. Watch the People Magazine Investigates After Show, available now on the new People/Entertainment Weekly Network (PEN). Later, police learned that maybe not all the boys had actually been asleep. 'PEOPLE Magazine Investigates After Show' : Survivor Sheila Sharp on Tina had briefly joined her sister at the neighbors before returning home to her mother, two younger brothers, and one of the neighbor boys, Justin Smartt. Historic Mysteries provides captivating articles on archaeology, history, and unexplained mysteries. Unresolved: The Keddie Murders on Apple Podcasts Amid his interview with police, authorities learned Smartt and his wife were enrolled in a class with Sue. There were four victims: Sue Sharp, her son John, her daughter Tina, and John's friend Dana. About "DMAC" - Keddie Truth He is the author of a series of published mystery novels and holds a degree in criminal psychology. It is true that longtime cold cases can find warmth even after several decades. Unsolved 1981 American quadruple homicide in Keddie, California, Victims, clockwise: Sue Sharp, John Sharp, Dana Wingate, and Tina Sharp, The house's front door and living room interior, Several news sources use the name "John Boubede", though Robert Scott claims in his book, "Keddie murders revisited part 2: Following the clues", "Inside the Search for the Keddie Cabin Killers 35 Years After a Family Was Slaughtered", "A Daughter's 35-Year Fight For Justice: Sheila Sharp Longs to Know Who Murdered Her Family in Their Cabin", "5 Things to Know about the Keddie Cabin Murders and the New Hunt for the Killers", "Plumas County Sheriff seeks pair in Keddie tripple slaying", "13-year-old Keddie murders still plague sheriff", "Investigator closer to solving Keddie murders", "Plumas County's Keddie murders revisited Part III", "Keddie murders revisited part 1: New evidence discovered links living suspect to grisly scene", "Plumas triple murder investigation continues", "The Keddie Murders: 20 years have passed since four lives were taken in a brutal slaying", "Sheriff seeks pair for questioning in Keddie murder investigation", "New evidence revives Plumas County quadruple murder case", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Keddie_murders&oldid=1134819132, Deaths by strangulation in the United States, Unsolved mass murders in the United States, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, Tina Sharp (remains recovered April 1984), This page was last edited on 20 January 2023, at 21:19. Keddie, California - Wikipedia His throat had been slit. Circleville, Ohio - The Unsolved Mystery of the Circleville Letters by Every . Revisiting The Keddie Murders Crime Scene : r/MorbidReality "I've paid the price of your love & now I've bought it with four people's lives," ABC10 reports the letter said. KEDDIE (CBS13) Investigators believe they may have found one of the weapons used in a 35-year-old murder mystery. The bodies of Sue, John, and Dana were found on the morning of April 12 by Sue's 14-year-old daughter, Sheila, who had been sleeping at a friend's house. Keddie Cabin - Murder Inc. However, none of the evidence helped the investigators find the killers or determine how she died. But Sheila credits the memory of her mothers compassion as a guide she has tried to follow. Authorities concluded at least one of the knives, which was a steak knife, came from the kitchen of the cabin. Although Dana also suffered trauma to the head, she was strangled to death. Plumas County Sheriffs OfficeProbable murder weapons for the Keddie slaying discovered and submitted as evidence in 2016. Also note how close the cabin is to its neighbor. Later that year, a knife was recovered in a trashcan outside the Keddie General Store; authorities also believed this item to be linked to the crimes. 'People Magazine Investigates' Features Man's 24-Year Wrongful Prison Sentence: 'Never Thought It Could Happen', People Magazine Investigates Offers New Clues on Keddie Cabin Murders, Giving Survivor 'A Little More Hope', 'People Magazine Investigates After Show' : How Solving Keddie Murders Is 'Personal' for Investigators, Inside the Keddie Cabin Murders: Daughter Remembers Finding Mom and Brother Dead at Age 14, A Daughter's 35-Year Fight For Justice: Sheila Sharp Longs to Know Who Murdered Her Family in Their Cabin, Horror in the Woods: 'People Magazine Investigates' Looks at the Keddie Cabin Murders Cold Case, Inside the Search for the Keddie Cabin Killers 35 Years After a Family Was Slaughtered, WATCH: Heartbreak Leads to Hollywood Horror in Exclusive 'People Magazine Investigates' Clip, Behind the Murder of JonBent Ramsey, Featured on 'People Magazine Investigates'. I think there was something about Tina that could not be left there to be discovered. They lived in a trailer park for a short time, but then Sue decided to move just five miles from Quincy into the mountains to a place known as the Keddie Resort. Sheila Sharp who discovered the victims of the Keddie Cabin 28 murders in 1981, when she was 14 hopes the cold case finally will be resolved By Jeff Truesdell Published on November 25, 2016. Keddie Case Cabin 28. keddie28.com.Little, Jane Braxton. When she opened the door, Sheila found the scene of a massacre. Despite his lies and inconsistencies in his stories, police cleared him as a suspect. In 2016, a hammer, which could have been the one Smartt reportedly said he lost, was found in a pond near where the Keddie cabin once stood. The Keddie Cabin Murders took place on April 12, 1981; Sue Sharp, two of her children, and her son's friend lost their lives. Afterward, she provided Plumas Country Sheriffs Dept. Claw hammered. Some evidence, such as a second bloody knife, turned up in a trash bin behind the Keddie general store. The oldest boy, John, and his buddy, Dana, had spent the day in Quincy. Marilyn and Marty happened to be taking the same typewriting class that Sue was enrolled in. The girls shared one, and the younger boys shared the other. In addition to confirming Sue, John, and Dana were dead, the officers concluded they were murdered. The only thing authorities found that may reveal the identity of the killer, or killers, was DNA collected from a piece of medical tape used to bind the victims. In 1981 in Cabin 28 of the Keddie Resort, California, three members of the Sharp family, as well as one of their family friends, were bludgeoned to death with hammers, with one repeatedly stabbed. Despite a thorough investigation and numerous suspects, the case remains unsolved to this day, leaving many questions . His head was badly damaged as though bashed in with a blunt object and lay partially on a pillow. Keddie Cabin 28 Police Documents Keddie Cabin 28 Crime Scene Photos Things People Have Said Over the Years The Keddie Cabin 28 Investigation Suspect: Martin Smartt Other Possible Keddie Suspects General Hal Snook Welcome! In December 1983, detectives ruled out serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole as potential suspects. Additionally, the same gun matched the impressions that the butt of the gun left on Sues head. The Keddie Murders: Quadruple Homicide Unsolved After 40+ Years Of the suspects who are still alive, Gamberg said: They better batten down the hatches because were coming. She also worked a part-time job at the Quincy Elks Lodge, and with the little money she brought in, Sue rented Keddie Cabin 28 in the fall of 1981. The Keddie Cabin Murders. When Martin discovered this, he enlisted Bo, his friend, and known mob enforcer who had lived with the Smartts a mere 10 days before the Keddie murders, to take Sue out of the picture. Secondly but more importantly there is his reasoning process. Some sources claim that Boubede had a crush on Sue, who supposedly rejected him twice. Sheriff Thomas called the Sacramento Department of Justice which then sent in two special agents from their organized crime unit not homicide, which struck many as odd. [17], The murders of Sue, John, and Dana were notably vicious:[13] two bloodied knives and one hammer were found at the scene,[15][18] and one of the knives (a steak knife later determined to have been used in the murders) had been bent at roughly 30 degrees. Justin said that he was watching TV in the boys room before he fell asleep. [24][11] It was never explained why, with access to the Justice Department's and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) top forensic artists, law enforcement chose to use an amateur who sometimes volunteered to help local police. Keddie Truth - Index page Then in April 2018, Gamberg matched the DNA from the murder scene to a known living suspect. Later, it came to light that Marty was a personal friend of the local county sheriff, Doug Thomas, at the time of the crime. Unfortunately, they couldnt determine where the sounds came from and went back to sleep. Keddie had been a bustling resort town since its revival in 1978. If they suffered any injuries during the event, it wasnt serious, although they did leave some DNA on a piece of tape. I was told the suspects were told to get out of town, so to me, that means it was covered up, Sheila Sharp told CBS Sacramento in 2016. Gamberg also stated that at that time, six potential suspects were being examined. Sue packed her children up and moved across the country from North Carolina to the Golden State. The former Sharp home was condemned and demolished in 2004. It's been forty years since the Kebbie Cabin Murders happened in a rural area of Plumas County. Some have speculated that Martin may have killed Sue for revenge, in the mistaken belief that she was responsible for breaking up his marriage. The Keddie Murders have been referred to as a cold case suddenly getting warm. Gary Mollath, who owned one of the failed resorts, turned his cabins into long-term rental units for low-income families. Sue and John had suffered similar types of wounds. The discovery of Tinas remains raised even more questions than before. Three dead: Sue (36), John (15), and John's friend, Dana Wingate (17). However, an anonymous call to the Sheriffs office reported the remains as belonging to Tina Sharp. It matched the description of the one Marty gave in his interrogation. This happened 41 years ago in Keddie, California. The victims were Glenna Sharp, known as Sue, her son John (age fifteen), and his friend, Dana Wingate (aged seventeen).