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On May 15, 1981,
David
Joseph Carpenter was arrested at 38 Sussex Street in Glen Park, ending
the siege of the Trailside Killer. Carpenter's history included
a conviction in 1961 at the age of 34 for attacking a woman with a hammer
and a knife. He was sentenced to 14 years in prison and was released after
seven years. Carpenter returned to prison on a kidnapping conviction in
1970. Released again in 1977, the severe stutterer and sex addict began
his reign as a serial killer beginning with the 1979 murder of Anne Kelly
Menjivar, whose body was found in Mt. Tamalpais Park in Marin. As police
searched for Menjivar's unknown killer, Mt. Tam became the scene of three
more murders. In August, 1979 Edda Kane vanished while hiking. She was
found shot in the back of the head, execution style. In March, 1980 Barbara
Schwartz, 23, was found dead of stab wounds to the chest. Next, 26-year
old Anne Alderson was found shot in the head after she disappeared while
jogging. More victims followed: Shawna May, 25, Diane O'Connell, 22, Cynthia
Moreland, 18, and Richard Towers, 19. When the last four bodies were discovered
in a single day in 1980, extensive media coverage stoked the fears of an
anxious public. In March, 1981 the Trailside Killer claimed his next victim,
Ellen Hansen, in a park near Santa Cruz. Hansen's boyfriend survived the
attack and provided police with a description of a suspect. Witness reports
of a small red car in the area during the attack also provided a clue to
the killer's identity. Next victim: Heather Scaggs, 20, a co-worker of
Carpenter's at a San Francisco print shop who disappeared on May 1, 1981.
When police came to Carpenter's home on Sussex Street to question him about
Scaggs, they immediately connected him to the composite sketch of the Trailside
Killer. Carpenter, who drove a red Fiat, was arrested after Scaggs' body
was found in Big Basin State Park. A man admitted selling Carpenter a gun
that was used in several of the killings, though the gun was not found.
A second gun used in the last two killings was found by investigators and
entered into evidence by prosecutors. Carpenter was convicted of the murders
of Hansen and Scaggs on July 6, 1984. In a separate trial he was convicted
of five murders in Marin County. On Nov. 16, 1984, Trailside Killer David
Carpenter was sentenced to death. |
