and noon on March 24, the killer dropped her personal checkbook into a drive-up mailbox across from the Kentfield post office two fingerprints on the checkbook may have been the killer’s, the Press Democrat reported at the time. She had been sexually assaulted, strangled with a cord-like material and dumped naked in the ditch. Kim’s body was found the next day on Enterprise Road near Glen Ellen. Friends said she was a frequent hitchhiker, which was not uncommon for young women at the time.

She was carrying the barrel, which had red Chinese characters on it, when she was last seen hitchhiking near a ramp to northbound Highway 101 in San Rafael. She was a 19-year-old art student, described by friends as a 'pure spirit,' 'innocent' and possessing a 'child-like acceptance of people.' Earlier that day, she’d made a trip to San Francisco’s Chinatown to buy a wooden soy sauce barrel. No clothing was found, so it was assumed they had been nude when they were left about 66 feet from the road. Three days after Christmas 1972, their bones were found by two teenage hikers near Franz Valley Road.

“It is obvious that they weren’t,” he told the Santa Rosa Press Democrat. According to Yvonne’s stepfather, Santa Rosa police “insisted” the young pair were willing runaways. They were last seen sometime between 9 and 11 p.m. Maureen, 12, and Yvonne, 13, were friends and students at Herbert Slater Middle School in Santa Rosa.

Sonoma County Sheriff's Office/Handout Maureen Sterling and Yvonne Weber Lori Lee Kursa, Carolyn Davis, Maureen Sterling, Therese Walsh, Kim Wendy Allen and Yvonne Weber, the victims of the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murderer. With the window quickly closing on any hopes of catching a still-living suspect, here is what investigators know about the hitchhiker murders that terrorized the young women of the Bay Area.

Louisiana serial killer unsolved