Hi everyone, before today's episode we want to tell you about what the fact. It's a new show from Connor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum, and Carter Roy from Murder, True Crime Stories. Every week they take three unbelievable true facts from history and tell you the full story behind them. Connor's infectious energy will make you realize history is most fascinating thing on Earth. Follow what the fact, wherever you listen, or subscribe on YouTube at what the fact upon. We're back with another game of two truths in a lie, our favorite game. Today we will give you three facts about our subject, the unsolved 1981 murders of a mother, two of her children, and a teenage friend of the family. And a cabin in Ketie, California, to see if you can get the lie. Number one, there was no real motive, the victims were simply at the wrong place and the wrong time. Number two, despite the severe level of violence and close quarters, three people in the house survived and claimed to have slept through the murders. And number three, the location of the youngest victim's remains was thought to be reported by the killer themselves, which one is the lie. I feel like it's tempting to say number three was the lie, but the lie is not that one. The lie is number one, which is the last one I would have guessed because I would have guessed that number two was also a lie. I wish they were all a lie. The Ketie murders were initially described as a killing with no motive, leading money to assume that a stranger had done it, but it turns out two of the suspects, both of whom died before they could be charged, knew the victims. Today, detectives think that the killers did have a motive and that they may have just taken it with them to the grave. Today, we will tell you all about the people who were brutally and callously murdered in Cabin 28 at the Ketie Resort in California. We will share what we know about their lives, their deaths, and the bungled investigation that caused the crime to run cold. We'll also share about what's being done now to bring justice to a family slaying more than 40 years ago. Plus, we'll talk about how this horrific tragedy was the inspiration for a very disturbing horror film, The Strangers, and it contributed to an entire subgenre, the Cabin in the Woods. Welcome to Crimes of Infamy, a crime house original powered by Pave Studios, where Sabrina Diana Roga and Corinne Vienne. Every Tuesday, we're exploring a different corner of the true crime universe, examining cases that left a permanent impact on society, and we're giving you a front seat to every twist and turn along the way. I'll be the one walking you through the chilling narratives of every story. And I will be zooming in on the moments and showing you how the very real scenes in these stories played out. If you're loving Crimes of, please follow, rate, and review us wherever you listen. It helps us build this community, and we love hearing from you. To get early access and ad-free listening, subscribe to the crime house plus community on Apple Podcasts. You can also catch us on YouTube where we include visuals that bring every case to life. This season is all about the crimes behind the world's most iconic horror movies, and today we're talking about the Kettie Cabin murders, a violent slaying that inspired films like 2008's The Strangers. A warning, this episode contains descriptions of sexual violence, murder, and the killing of young children, so please listen with care. And we really hope that we can change that and that the survivors and loved ones of the victims can finally have the justice that they've been waiting for for more than 40 years. And maybe someone listening can help. At the end of this episode, we are going to provide resources and ways that you can share any tips you may have. But now let's get into the real life horror and the fictional stories it inspired most famously, perhaps, The Strangers. The Quadruple Homicide took place in Cabin 28, and it has a lot in common with the movie The Strangers, which is a cult classic, it's a psychological horror movie, and it's basically the story of masked strangers, three masked strangers, who knock on a family's door late one night and choose to kill them just because they were home. That part of the movie is mysterious. That line sticks with me. If you haven't seen the movie, spoiler alert, because now there's sequels, so too bad you had a lot of time. What have you been doing? Listen to the first one. But that line shook me and my entire family, because we watched it together as a family. And the very last line of the first movie, they say, why me are like, why us? And the killer says, because you were home. Gross. Oh my god. It also plays on one horror setting that really ignites primal fear in us, a one that's gotten really popular in the horror genre over the years, the rented Cabin in the woods, in the middle of nowhere, where you're all alone and should something go wrong. There's no one coming to your rescue. This is why we stay inside. So despite the very real fear living in all of us, statistically, violent crime rates are about twice as high in cities, rather than rural areas. So actually, maybe we do need to go to a cabin in the woods. That being true. Why do most of us feel safer in a city hotel than in a cabin in the woods? Or an isolated summer home like the one in the strangers. And what about the house from Cabin 28, which is directly based on the cutting murders? Is it because there, no one will hear us scream? Okay, well, we've spent a lot of time talking about the woods and the creepy things and you alluded to this that, yes, the paranormal and the unknown that exists in the woods is quite terrifying, but I think the isolation is what scares me the most. If you're in the middle of nowhere and someone has come to your home or is a threat to you, I think the assumption is they know the woods or they know the space way better than you do. And I think that is a thought that scares me most. Yeah. And that's what I think about if I'm on vacation or just like summer, I'm not really familiar with. Whereas if I'm not familiar with a place in the city, there's other people to hear if something happens. Yeah. You like to think that you'll be able to find safety more easily in the city, but the CCTV footage. But the stats don't lie. No, they don't. Well, today's case has a lot of eerie parallels to a ton of cabin in the woods movies, including The Strangers, and while it may not have directly inspired the film, it seemed to definitely play a role subconsciously when the film was being created. And it's not hard to see why because the horror of the Cutie murders is not something that you easily forget. It's April 11, 1981, a quiet Saturday night at the Cutie Resort tucked into the forest of Northern California. Inside cabin 28, Sue Sharp stretches out on the couch in her robe. It's the first quiet moment she's had all day. As a mother of five, peace rarely lasts long. Now, Cutie isn't the vacation spot it once was. The cabins are worn, more refuge than retreat, home to families trying to get by. But for Sue and her family, they've become a safe haven. Her daughter, Sheila, is next door for a sleepover. Tina is resting in the adjacent bedroom, and downstairs, her eldest son, John, hangs out with his friend, Dana Wingate. In the other room, Rick and Greg sleep alongside their buddy Justin Smart. It's never a dull moment in the Sharp residents. Because that's how things work at the Cutie cabins. The kids are always at each other's houses, everyone looks out for everyone else. So when Sue hears the back door creak open later that evening, she isn't too concerned, thinking it's one of her kids coming or going. Until she sees them. Sue people enter her home, wielding hammers, knives, and a pellet rifle. They stare at her wearing evil sinister grins. And before she can process what she is seeing, one of them steps towards her and raises his blade. Sue's first thought is her children that are sleeping. She wants to protect them, so she tries not to scream. She doesn't want them to worry and come out to help her. But when she feels the knife cut into her skin, drawing blood, she cannot help but cry out in pain. And that is when her eldest son, John, rushes up from the basement and into the room along with his friend Dana. For a split second, Sue actually thinks they might be able to save her. But before the boys can even react, the attackers strike. And Sue can only watch helplessly as one of them swings a hammer into the back of her son's head. And what happens next is her rific, and it left four people dead, and the identity of the assailant.
is still unknown to this day. - Although I would say, and we can discuss this more at the end of this episode, but I have a pretty good feeling in my bones of who did it. - There's a lot of evidence at points who did it. - Yes, but they were not officially tried for it. So we'll see. But if we go all the way back to the beginning, we're gonna see how many clues we have along the way and kind of sus out who specifically or many people, specifically that we think could have done this. - There's also a lot of missteps in the investigation, which we'll talk about. - Long before moving to Kedi, Sue was born in Massachusetts where we reside. On March 29th, 1945, and while on the East Coast, this is when she met her husband James, who was from Connecticut. They started a family and they had five kids together. John, Sheila, Tina, Rick, and Greg, but making a home was not very easy. James was in the Navy, so he spent a lot of time traveling for work away from the family. And when he was home, he wasn't exactly a very welcomed presence either. - No. - Sue's oldest daughter, Sheila, accused James of sexually assaulting her, and she referred to him as a monster, horrible. Unfortunately, this was never investigated by law enforcement, which if that part of this story is true, then how horrifying and traumatic for poor Sheila, but whether Sue knew about these accusations or not was really unclear, but either way, their marriage did fall apart. And in 1979, Sue left James. She moved across the country to be near her brother in Quincy, California, which was a small town in the northern part of the state. Sue and James did make some attempts at reconciling, but ultimately, Sue realized that he wasn't gonna change, and this was definitely not a healthy person to have around her or her children. - Right, so she prioritized their safety and got away from him. She knew that she couldn't rely on him and had to find a way to take care of five kids as now a single mom. Like, James couldn't even pay child support. - So, clearly she's about us, and the about us that she was, Sue took up typing classes, hoping to get work as a secretary, and in the meantime, she may do with part-time work and some government assistance. She was gonna do whatever it took to provide for her family. Part of this was moving near her brother and across the country, but Sue's protection could only extend so far. Around this time, her 13-year-old daughter, Sheila, began dating a 15-year-old boy, and they got pregnant. She was pregnant at each 13. And Sheila turned to her mother, confiding in her, and Sue, being a very protective mother, was very worried on so many different levels, right? - Right. - Her 13-year-old is now pregnant. - Yeah. - And Quincy was a very small conservative town, and Sue was really afraid that Sheila would be bullied for becoming a pregnant teenager. And so together, they decided that Sheila should move. She shouldn't be with the family in Quincy anymore. She would go live with her aunt and organ until she had the child. After the birth, Sheila decided to put the child up for adoption. And while Sheila was in organ, Sue continued to work on building a better future for her and her children. And so, Sue and her four other children that were still residing with her moved from their mobile home in Quincy to a cabin at the Ketty Resort. The Ketty Resort used to be this like really stunning vacation destination. It was this escape from the busy hustle and bustle of the real world, and it was a place to, you know, touch grass, explore nature, listen to birds. - Go camping. - Look at stars. - Yeah. - And this was pretty close to town. It did feel really isolated, but it was close enough to town that it made sense for them to move and be able to have their different resources. It was just kind of a small collection of cabins. There was one road in, one road out, and once upon a time this resort had been bustling with travelers. But now it was a little bit more isolated. - Yeah, it became rundown. And so as a result, the cabins became less of a vacation destination and more of a full-time community to lower income families and students staying nearby. So by the time the sharps move in, it's 1980, the resort is basically a string of rental properties in the woods. Very rarely are people coming to stay here as a vacation property. Their home needed a bit of work, but truly this was a beacon of hope and excitement for the entire family, a home for them to settle in. - It was totally an upgrade too, because this cabin actually fit their whole family, where when they were living in that trailer in Quincy, it was really tight quarters and it definitely felt more temporary for them in the move. So this was a lot nicer. This felt like a fresh start. They were gonna settle in. The kids were actually gonna have their life here, right? And so they officially moved into cabin 28, a few months later after moving on to this property, and Sheila had her child put the child up for adoption and then reunited with her family. - So it's the spring of 1981. Sheila Sharp is 14, sitting in the back seat of a family member's car, watching the giant Northern California trees go by. She's lost in thought. It's been a few months since she's given birth, but she still remembers the feeling of holding her baby girl in her arms. It was short, just a moment, before the adopted family took her from her arms. And this is a memory she'll never forget, filled with too many emotions to process. Sheila tries to look forward to a brighter future as she rolls down the window and takes in the crisp spring air. The car pulls into the kettie resort, slowing to a stop right in front of cabin 28. She has heard so much about this place and her eyes taken every detail. Cabin 28 sits behind an unpainted wood picket fence, nestled among tall, evergreen trees. There's even a little wood sign hanging out front that reads, sharps. Sheila is finally home. And as she approaches the home, she smiles, even the peeling yellow paint on the wood-siding excites her. She climbs the steep set of stairs that lead her into the kitchen and tours the rest of the home. It's two bedrooms and one bathroom plus an unfinished basement. It is an upgrade from the trailer they were sharing before and the biggest bonus is now, Sheila won't have to share a room with the boys. Sheila will live in one bedroom with 12-year-old Tina and their mom Sue. 10-year-old Rick and five-year-old Greg will stay in the other bedroom while 15-year-old John crashes in the basement. As she takes her first steps into the new home, Sheila can't help but feel optimistic. She has no idea how soon those feelings will be crushed in the most horrific way imaginable. The government gets a bad reputation, but did you know that the roads under your feet, the forecast on your phone, the letter in your mailbox, that's all government, too? I'm Professor Lindsey Kormack and I'm hosting a new podcast called "Government That Doesn't Suck," alongside Professor Greg Jackson, who you may know from the hit podcast "History That Doesn't Suck." Each episode, we dig into the surprising story of an American institution, from the origins of the internet to the National Park Service to the GI Bill and so much more. You'll hear the stories behind them plus a conversation with an expert who knows it inside and out. This is the real history of how we built the country under your feet, and you'll never look at any of it the same way again. Listen to and follow, government that doesn't suck, available now wherever you get your podcasts. By this point, the rest of Sheel's family has pretty comfortably settled into life at Kettie and in Cabin 28. They were beginning to make some meaningful relationships on the property, like next door in Cabin 27. They had befriended the Seabolt family. There was mom, Zanita, dad, James, daughters, Alyssa and Paula, and their son, James Junior. And 12-year-old Tina Sharp had already made fast friends with the teenagers of the Southern family, Alyssa and Paula. And Sue also had some friends of her own. She would meet a couple friends through her typing classes, Marilyn and Martin Smart. They happened to live in Cabin 26, along with Marilyn's two sons from a previous relationship, Justin and Casey. And also living in Cabin number 26 with the smarts, was a friend of Martin's, Severn John Bobody, who went by boat. Which honestly, the sounds so fun. It does, but knowing where this goes, I can't say yeah. I know. I know, but it reminds me of a few years ago, I attended a wedding as a guest where they had rented out a section at the campground for everyone to stay and then shut all the people to the nearby property. And I just got to see how many people set up from like May through October and resided there. And they had the signs, right? They had the signs out. - Their names, yeah. - And asking their last names. And it just seemed so fun. And it had potential for them to really build this beautiful community. But unfortunately, that's not what happens. - No. - So Sue was really happy to know that she had friends nearby. And this did feel like the epitome of a community. Everyone got to know each other. It's been time getting to know each other. And if there was an urgent issue, she knew she only had to run down a door or two to ask for some help. But Marilyn and Martin may not have been the most reliable because they were having issues of their own. And Marilyn began to confide in Sue about said issues. She said the Martin was super selfish. She was a jealous man. And he may have even been violent. - And apparently after his blow up fights, Martin would write these really lengthy love letters telling Marilyn how he'd sacrifice anything for her. And this is something we should all everyone listening and watching keep this in mind because it will come back into play later. And as a domestic violence survivor herself, Sue knew all about this vicious cycle. And there are even reports that she was trying to urge Marilyn to leave Martin.
However, if you ask any investigators at the time, they had a theory that Sue was actually involved with Martin herself, and although from our understanding, it sounds like Martin had asked Sue out on a date, and she said, no, this narrative still kind of permeated the investigative files. - I'm gonna go ahead and say right now, this is a perfect place to do it. We are very suspicious of Martin. We don't like him. - Yeah, we think Sue was right for turning down that date. - Yes, whatever the case may be, it seems like Martin had a reason to be angry at Sue, I guess, for saying no to a date, which is not an appropriate response if you're listening and someone says no to a date, you cannot be angry. Well, you can be angry, but don't take it out on anyone. - No is a full sentence. I literally have the word no tattooed on my finger. - Yeah, a good reminder to say no when you feel it. - I'm a yes person. - Try not to be. - Be people please. - I'm a no person now. - So whether it was because she turned down for a date, or maybe he caught wind that she was encouraging his wife to leave him, whatever the reason was, it may have been enough to anger him enough to try to kill her. Saturday, April 11th, 1981, it was a normal day for the Sharp family. Sue was busy running around with her kids, and she started the morning by dropping off her son, 10-year-old Rick and 12-year-old friend, Justin Smart, Marilyn and Martin Sun, off at a baseball practice. It was just down the road in Quincy, so the town that they originally lived in. After dropping them off at practice, Sue drove into town with some of her other kids, so she had Sheila, she had her five-year-old Greg and 15-year-old son, John. Sue went to go visit friends, and Sheila walked to a friend's house, and John went to go visit a close friend, so they're all kind of like spreading out, right? And John was linking up with his friend who was 17-year-old Dana Wingate, and Dana at the time was living in foster care. He was in a home that generally took juveniles who were on probation, and he did have a criminal history. It was for burclary. But Sue thought he was a great kid, so there's no red flags here. She fully supports John hanging out with Dana. - Right, yeah. But Sue did not know. Was that John and Dana were definitely up to no good. The two boys were hitchhiking to East Quincy that day. Where they went to a party, but like, that's teenager stuff. - Yeah, that's what you do. - They're up to no good, but like, they're up to teenager things, right? - Regardless, the family was all out and about that day. Everyone was spread out, all except for 12-year-old Tina who stayed at home at the Kettie Cabin, and spent part of her day with the family friend, Paula C. Bolt, who lived next door. Later that day, Sue, Sheila, and Greg returned home, and they settled in for the night. Sheila went next door to join Paula and Tina, the other teenagers at Cabin 27, and now is where we're gonna give you a timeline of events as far as investigators have come to find out. So sometime between nine and 10 p.m. that night, Tina leaves the C. Boltz after watching a TV show with the C. Boltz family. Sheila stays behind. She's giggling with Alyssa. She's talking about Alyssa's crush late into the night, and around 10 p.m., 10-year-old Ricky and his friend Justin Smart, who was spending the night at the Sharp's Cabin. Go to bed. At around 10-30, John and Dana left the party that they had hitchhiked to in Quincy, and got a ride back to the Cabin from a local woman. And not wanting to wake anyone, apparently John and Dana entered this Cabin through the basement, which was where John was staying, and they planned to just crash for the night down in the basement. They started packing in, but just as they were dozing off, sometime between 11.30 and 11.15 a.m., which is a big chunk of time, it is. They were awoken by the sound of Sue screaming, which brings us back to where we started in this episode to the night of the murder. 15-year-old John and his friend Dana run upstairs to find two strangers in their home, one of which has a knife on his mom Sue. Before John can even make a move, the other intruder strikes him in the back of the head with a hammer. Dana tries to run, but he's hit in the head as well. The attackers bind the boys with medical tape and electrical cords. They slash John's throat and strangle Dana to death. Sue can only watch as her worst fear unfolds before her eyes. She can't even scream as the murderer stuffed a blue bandana and her own underwear into her mouth and tape it closed, silencing her. They then make Sue walk around the room, stepping in the boys' blood and force her to look at the bodies. She struggles ferociously, screaming behind her gag, nothing but whimper is escaping. After torturing Sue for some time, the killers stab her in the chest and drive a knife horizontally through her throat. In a gruesome act of overkill, they then proceed to bludgeon her with the butt of their pellet rifle. Once they are sure she's dead, they position her lying on her side, naked below the waist. And they're not done yet. Next they head into the adjacent room, where 12-year-old Tina Sharp is sleeping. But instead of killing her, they drag her past the bodies of her mother, brother, and friend walking out of cabin 28, taking Tina with them. - I was thinking about this on the way here, and I was like, I so don't understand the mind of a killer and even being able to do this sort of torture and kill someone, because this morning I was trying to put my earrings in, which I had taken out like a week and a half ago, and one of my ears started to kind of close up. And I had to lay down on my bed to reappear through the hole because I thought I was gonna faint. So I was like, I wouldn't even be able to be close to what these people do. - Well I think that's why there's a whole true crime genre, because most people can't even fathom it. So it's like what makes these types of people tick? What causes them to commit to her rendous awful crimes? - Right, yeah. It's terrible and unfortunately in this case, this is an unsolved case, and because of that, there has been a lot of rumors and speculations over the years, when people wondered why the killer is murdered, Sue and Greg and Dana, but kidnapped Tina. So everyone else is just immediately bound, gagged and murdered, but Tina's dragged out and taken from the cabin. That is weird, and so this led investigators to wonder what the real motive was behind the attack and why someone would actively kidnap Tina out of the group, which led them to produce some theories and some leads. One investigative lead led them to a report Tina had filed back in July of 1980, when she reported that, and this is a graphic, there was a man in Quincy who had molested her in July of 1980, and the sheriff's office looked into it, but charges were never filed. So this is the second child out of this family who has been sexually assaulted, and police have done little to nothing to help them. - Yeah. - But this does make people wonder, and makes us wonder like could this person potentially be the killer or someone who was obsessed with her, who maybe felt wronged by her for reporting it? - Taking Tina is such a specific act, like it feels like Tina was the motive behind this whole crime because of that. Also with this assault case and accusation, people started to speculate that maybe Tina was pregnant, and that her alleged molester was the potential father, and if found out he could have gone to jail, and so he kidnapped her to hide the evidence. - And this is basically where that theory was born that just killing her wasn't enough, because then if she was killed and autopsy would have happened, they would have discovered that she was pregnant, and that wouldn't have protected the perpetrator. - Yeah. - And so the theory was this perp, whoever, but it purpose any of the right word, this murderer or monster, monsters couldn't even Tina alive or let the police find her body because he had to save himself. Then there's another suspect that police spoke to during the investigation on this path of, was Tina the motive. They spoke to a teacher of hers, and this is really sick. It ended up going nowhere, but this teacher, they first started talking to him purely to get information about Tina, he's a school teacher, he's around her, he might know more about who's in her life. This school teacher has a freaking photo of Tina on his desk and another one in his home. This so reminds me of one of the episodes of criminal minds that stuck with me forever, where there was like a photography teacher who had a bunch of photos yesterday. - It's disgusting, it's so gross, it's so gross. - And that lead ends up going nowhere, but Tina's abduction is not the only unexplained thing about the murders, which it's definitely suspicious, but there are so many other leads that the police had to follow. - Mm-hmm, and a lot of other suspects, and we're getting ahead of ourselves a little bit here because before an investigation could take place, the bodies had to be discovered. And this is what brings us to the morning of Sunday April 12th, which was horrific, especially for Sue's daughter Sheila Sharp, who tragically discovered the crime scene. (dramatic music) - It's about 8 a.m. on Sunday April 12th, and Sheila and Alyssa are getting ready for church in the Seabolt's cabin. Sheila loves going to church with him and wants to look her Sunday best, so she tells Alyssa she'll be right back and is going to run home to grab her curling iron. Sheila darts outside, runs around the fence that separates the two cabins and heads to her front door. She opens it and is horrified at the scene before her. At first, all she can see is blood, but then the dizzying reality strikes. She is looking at the bodies of people she loves. In front of her lies her oldest brother, John. His face beaten in so badly, she only recognizes him by his hair.
Next, she sees Dana, his body laying face down. Behind the boys is her mother. She cannot believe what she's seeing. Her beloved mother is lying there half nude, partially covered with a blanket, lifeless. Suddenly, Sheila hears screaming. She has no idea whose voice it is until 15-year-old James C.Bolt Jr. grabs her bridey arm. And that's when she realizes the scream was coming from her. Jr. heard it and ran over from next door. Jr.'s first thought is the younger children. He tries his best to avoid the puddles of blood on the floor, as he steps over the three victim's bodies, and checks the boys' room. And to his relief, all three seem to be unharmed, still asleep. Unfortunately, though, Tina is nowhere to be found. And Jr. assumes that she just wasn't home last night. He runs back to his house to get his father, James Sr., and together they remove Justin, Rick, and Greg from the house through their bedroom window, to spare them from seeing the horrific crime scene. But nobody can save Sheila from what she's already witnessed. Everything feels like a blur to her. She can't tell if time is standing still or rushing forward uncontrollably, and all she feels is white, hot, anger. This rage is probably what keeps her going in the days and weeks ahead, but it also threatens to destroy her. Because there are no answers coming to any of her questions. Not soon, maybe not ever. I can't even imagine. No. Poor Sheila, the amount of trauma she has gone through in her life, and now, to witness and find the bodies. The guilt that comes with it too, you know, she was only a couple doors down. Right. And we'll get into some of the details, too, about who heard what when and how far they were from the cabin or how close. But on the morning of April 12, 1981, after this gruesome discovery, Sheila Sharp and her little brothers are shuttled off to her uncle's house as police swarm cabin 28. After initial questioning, police learned that the 12-year-old, Justin Smart, 10-year-old Rick Sharp and five-year-old Greg Sharp, all supposedly slept through the attack, didn't hear a thing, which is both a blessing, but also a little bit of a curse, right? Well, then also the question is, how did they sleep so soundly through this, which is another unknown, big mystery part of this case? And that's kind of where things immediately get messy and convoluted. So one, local authorities are not prepared for a case like this at all. Two, by this point, the crime scene had been severely tampered with by so many people coming and going. Yeah. And I get it. It's the same purpose, but Sheila walked in to the crime scene, then the neighbors came over trying to usher out the other kids. But because you're looking at your community, you're looking to your neighbors to help you in a moment like that. But then also it's like, who was closest to you, who was closest to these murders? The neighbors, are they the suspects, too? Right. So evidence is messy in the crime scene. There's so many varying reports coming from people like some people are claiming that they heard screams coming from cabin 28 during the night. And then other neighbors, like a few doors down, right? But then the cabins right next to the cabin were like, well, we didn't hear a thing. And then the kids slept through everything. So it is weird. It is one of those things where it's like, did they hear something? Or like off of the fact saying that they then heard something. Right. And due to the limitation of forensic science in 1981, we don't know the exact times of death for the victims, which is why the time of death is like from 1130 pm to 115 am, which is a really big time span. Yeah. You can already see how from the beginning, the investigation had a lot going against it. And when it comes to the local police, there was only one person who actually had homicide experience. His name was Mark Gamburg and he was the sheriff deputy. But he also had a connection to the Sharp family. He was the younger boy's martial arts instructor and he even knew John Sharp's friend Dana as well. And so maybe this was a bit of a thing that happened because he had this personal connection to the family. But he was sidelined in this investigation. Right. So the only person who had some sort of experience is told that he can't be a part of this investigation. And now seeing as they didn't have enough manpower to begin with, the sheriff Doug Thomas asks the US Department of Justice to step in. And they agreed they sent agents from an organized crime unit, which is a little bit unusual. And we'll get to this in a bit, but Mark Gamburg, the one who was sidelined, does believe there was a bit of a cover up and some suspicious activity of who was involved in the investigation. Right, because sending that type of unit for this type of case is trying to make sense. Right. And then right away, you have multiple different organizations trying to work together, but they don't all agree on how to proceed with the case. There's also some belief that they sent the specific agents because of one potential suspect, and that was BoboBody, who apparently had some mob connections, which is why they sent this crime unit. It's possible that they thought he was at the center of this entire case, or maybe they just wanted to bust him for something else. Right. So they jumped right in. It was the DOJ, the sheriff's department later, the FBI also joined. So all of these groups are now working together, or maybe working against each other. Right. If we've ever seen a cop show, you know how that goes. And since it would be another five years before the use of DNA in these sort of criminal cases, they were using a lot of old school detective methods. So they looked for fingerprints, but they didn't find any. They looked for just a lot of evidence, but somehow, despite the gruesome murders that took place, the evidence was so minimal, they examined the positions of the bodies. They realized that all three were likely moved and posed after death, which is also strange. And another thing that adds to the mystery of like, these boys not only slept through the murder, but they also slept through the bodies being dragged across these probably creaky and echoey cabin floors next to them. If bodies were moved, this isn't a quick murder. No. An attack. It's the murder. Then the movement. It's presumably hours. Tina's also being abducted in that time. So that makes it seem like there's more than one suspect here too, because that's a long time for Tina to witness all of this happening. It is. It also took extensive crime scene photos, and the FBI called in their best profiler, a man named John Douglas, who, if you've seen the show, Mind Hunter on Netflix, this was based-- Well, I love that show. Yeah, it's so good. It was based off of John Douglas. John thought that this crime is probably motivated by the desire to abduct Tina. And if they didn't move fast, Tina, who they had no idea where she was at the time, might be the next victim. And we are big proponents of criminal profiling, but we do want to raise some red flags here. I do agree that Tina being kidnapped does seem like the most likely cause or in mode of up the crime. Like it's such a specific thing to murder three and kidnapped another. But John Douglas did have a couple of things that he said that I don't agree with. He leaned heavily on stereotypes of single mothers and young women and implied that Sue brought the murder upon the family, because she lost control of her household. And that she caused Tina to want to run away with the offender. How about she was saving her household by moving away from a potentially abusive husband and father who was molesting one of his children? So I think we can take this profile with a grain of salt. Yes. Some aspects seem accurate. Others not so much. But the question is still around Tina, you know, why was Tina taken? So he thought Tina was probably the one who covered Sue's dead body with a blanket, resting that Tina went either voluntarily with her kidnappers after seeing they'd killed her mother. Or to me, that was more of like, she actually was there for a large chunk of time while the bodies were being posed and just probably so crippled with fear. Or let's remember how her mother was, you know, gagged it with underwear and had the tape over her mouth, like perhaps that same exact thing happened to Tina and she wasn't able to speak out. And her life was on the line. Like what separated her from also being one of her family members on the floor. She also, to me, indicates that there is a personal connection between the attackers and now the victims covering up her body. We're not criminal profilers, but psychologically it makes sense that someone you know, that seems like a caring act, a personal connection between the killers and the victims. So regardless of how or why Tina left, Tina was still only 12 years old and police were going to pull out all stops to try to find her. This led to a massive, a massive search for this young girl, but none of it bore any fruit. No one could find Tina. And like we said earlier, none of the suspects related to Tina bore any fruit either. So now, investigators are forced to work other angles. If Tina's not leading to suspects and if Tina wasn't the intended target, who was? Was Sue the intended target? And if so, who had the motive to kill Sue? Well, let's look at her abusive ex-husband, James. Right. And that's the first suspect the investigators inquire about, but he's ruled out quickly because he had an alibi. He was on the other side of the country working for the military at the time. Okay. But now we have another viable suspect that is Martin Smart and this one's a little bit meaty, right? Very meaty. So remember, Martin's son, 12-year-old Justin Smart had been sleeping over the Sharp's cabin the night of the murders. He initially claimed that he didn't wake up but he later told his mother, Marilyn, that he had a dream that night that someone was hurting Sue. after a polygraphic.
examination. He changed his story and said that he actually did wake up during these murders and he describes seeing someone with a pocket knife cutting sous-chest. And he also said that he witnessed Tina being dragged away by two suspects, one with black hair, one with brown hair. And a police sketch artist created a composite based on Justin's recollections. And one of them looked an awful lot like his father, Martin Smart. Which leads us to who I believe, and I feel like I could speak for you as well, who we believe is the most plausible suspect of this case, Martin Smart. And I do want to say to, I feel like the language around like, oh, he changed his narrative, he changed his testimony for like the Sun. What he was witnessing might have been his father killing someone in a bunch of his friends in front of him. Of course, he thought it was a nightmare because like how else do you try to process that information? No. So he processed it as a dream if he did witness it. And then too, it makes sense that he survived and wasn't killed if he did witness it. Right. What was Martin up to on the night of the murders, Corinne? Well, on the night of the murders, the night of April 11, 1981, Martin and his friend Bo sat around drinking beers before heading over to the Ketty Resort bar with Marilyn. Initially, Martin claimed that he and Bo stayed at the bar until 2 a.m., but others reported that they left the bar far before that. The two changed their story a bunch and amended it to basically say they returned home around 11 p.m. And what was the time of the murders? Sometimes between 1130 and 115. So basically that whole chunk of time, they were initially lying about. But Marilyn had also gone home before they did, and she said she did wake up sometime that night. And she noticed that Martin and Bo were actually not at home at the time that they said they were. Both iterations of their story is now not true. They did not get home at 2 a.m. They also did not get home at 11 p.m. I also feel like the time stamps that they were giving just indicated to me that they knew when the murders took place because it's like 100%. That is exactly the time, right? There's also more evidence here. There are also reports from witnesses at the bar saying that Martin and Bo seemed a bit on edge. Martin became really angry when the DJ started playing rock instead of country. So he's probably super wasted and just already not a good guy said the combo of which makes you mad at music makes you very mad at music. So right away, as you can tell, the stories are weird and not lining up and they're also a couple of other suspicious things. One, we read that on the day of the murders, Martin had actually asked Sue out on a date and Sue turned him down. And two, apparently when Martin and Bo did return home, Marilyn noted that she woke up to find them burning something in the stove. Why would they be doing that? Weird, suspicious. Marty was said to have started acting really strangely after the murders. He threw away a pair of shoes. He had to replace a hammer that mysteriously went missing and we know that a hammer was used in these murders. Yep. But there was no hard evidence for any of this. And unfortunately, the case basically stalled out. And also keep in mind, Martin has a history of violence. That was what Sue was telling Marilyn to leave him for. Like he was being violent towards Marilyn. So Sue was encouraging her to leave him. But unfortunately, leads do stop coming in. The evidence went stale. And so too did the search for Tina. That is until three years later, when there was a massive break in the case. On April 11, 1984, the third anniversary of the murders, a bottle collector hiking in the Feather River Canyon, which is about 80 miles away from the Kedi Resort, sifts through the underbush looking for waste. Suddenly, he hits something hard. He looks closer, realizing it's not a bottle that he's searching for. No, it is a bone. A bone that doesn't look like it belongs to an animal. It looked to be part of a human school. It's enough for the bottle collector to realize what he's looking at. He brushes home to report his discovery to the police. Officers hurried to the canyon where they retrieve the partial school and find a few more human bones. The police announced this discovery on the nightly news and asked the public for tips. And before long, a strange call comes in. The man on the phone says he heard about the bones found in Feather River Canyon. He continues, saying, quote, "I was wondering if they thought of the murder up in Kedi up in Plumas County a couple years ago where a 12-year-old girl was never found. The operator logs it as just another tip from the public. But when a forensic pathologist confirms the bones do indeed belong to Tina Sharp. A chill runs down the operator's spine." How had the caller known the bones would be identified as Tina's? Was it because it was her killer? It's also very suspicious that on the third anniversary of the Kedi murders, there's just this random bottle collector who goes into this really remote area of the wilderness and happens to find Tina's remains so suspicious. And then he would think that this phone call, being called in, would be key evidence that they could maybe compare the caller's voice to any of their leading suspects. Instead, the tape of the caller's voice was placed in storage and its existence wasn't even released to the public until 2016. So 32 years after the murder. The murder could be dead. Just so much mishandling of evidence here. I know. The tape was handed over to the Department of Justice. Investigators are optimistic that the caller's voice will be a match for another recording in the sheriff's office's possession. But the progress is quite slow and please still have not found the rest of Tina's remains. And as the investigation continues, a lot of other theories have popped up and have been explored, but none of them panned out to be enough to charge anyone's suspect. But before we talk about how this horrific unsolved murder influenced some of the scariest movies out there, let's run down the list of theories and suspects. So the suspects who've gotten the most attention for sure are Martin Smart and Bo BoBody. And remember how I said pay attention to this in the beginning and it will come back later? Well, Martin used to write these really intense love letters and apology to his wife Marilyn after his violent sprees. Well, wouldn't you know it about two weeks after the murders, Martin wrote a love letter to his wife Marilyn who had kicked him out of the house. And in this letter, he wrote quote, he paid the price for her love with four people's lives. Number one, that's so twisted. He's like blaming her for this and also that's a confession. How's that not? It gets so much worse. It does get worse. Martin also allegedly fully confessed to killing Sue and Tina during therapy sessions with the counselor at the VA in Reno, Nevada. And it was theorized that he went after the sharps to get back at Sue for telling Marilyn to leave him and then turning him down for a date. But then he denied killing Dana or John and he wouldn't say who killed them. So he basically admitted to half of the murders, but not all of them, which could have been Bo. Exactly. Especially because they were seen together and they their alibi was together that night. So why would they link themselves to one another? Right. And clearly Bo was wanted or involved with other crimes as well. So these are two people with violence in their track records. And so many pieces of evidence that seem like dead ringers to be like, yeah, they are for sure the murderers. Totally. And we know of his confession too because his therapist tried to report him. So the therapist went and reported the confession at the time to the DOJ and these agents that were in charge of the case, brushed it off. And on top of that, Martin supposedly told his wife and a few other people over the years that he did it. So he has confessed multiple times. And on top of these confessions, there is a little bit, a small amount of evidence against Martin that places him at the scene of the crime. So the rusty hammer that was found in 2016 in a pond near cabin 28, which was believed to be the murder weapon or one of them. If it's the description of the hammer that Martin claimed to have lost shortly before the murders. Lost. And his own son describes someone who looked off a lot like him. Yeah. But if please have found a way to confirm that this is the missing murder weapon, they haven't publicly released it. So they do have this hammer that was found. And I'm sure they're running testing. They haven't yet stated. It is linked directly to the case. It's suspicious. But also at the same time, you have to think about the fact that these were like run down cabins. I'm sure people did work on this stuff all the time. Like my own dad has random tools with him and around cars and stuff all the time. Also, what else is in bodies of water? There's probably random things there. Yeah, cars and exact animal carcasses and lots of things. Wedding rings. But this brings us to recent years and the investigation where it is now. Yeah, which is decades after the murders took place. Special investigator Mark Gamburg, the same man who was a sheriff deputy back in 1981 and was sidelined off the case due to his personal ties to the family came out of retirement to help work on this case. Yep. He and the county's current sheriff Greg Hagwood believe that it is not too late for this case to be solved. Gamburg thinks that a police or federal cover-up stopped the murders from being solved in 1981, which I totally believe because there were so many actual pieces of evidence or things that came forward that they were just like that's not important and chuffled it off to to decide. The biggest thing
being that Martin confessed to his therapist and his therapist went to police and officials to claim this. Like why was that never followed through? That makes zero sense. Yeah. He says that the sheriff back then Douglas Thomas had a close friendship with Martin Smart and may have done everything he could to try to protect him. Gamberg believes the DOJ agents who ignored Martin's alleged confessions were also protecting someone else too themselves. Great. The CIA was involved in a lot of corruption and drugs muggling around 1981, which also makes sense why they would immediately send them in. Yeah. Because it didn't make sense at the time. No. There's a lot of corruption here, for sure. One theory is that if Bo-Bobody had been charged in connection to a murder, it would have somehow revealed all the corruption at the DOJ. Like was he working for them or doing something shady with them? Yeah. Right. Or was he even an agent? I might go there. I don't think so, but like it's a possibility, right? Martin and Bo were not the only potential suspects though. According to police reports, Sue was dating someone who sang in the local bar referred to as only Robert T. But Robert T was never questioned because he was killed in April of 1981 while running from the police for a different crime, though it's not exactly clear what that crime was. Geez. And there's also the man who was suspected of molesting Tina Sharp. He's not been publicly identified, but apparently he moved to Reno in September of 1981 about five months after the murders. And because not all of Tina's remains have been discovered, there's not enough to see if she actually was pregnant at the time that she was killed, right? And in terms of forensic evidence, the only DNA sample was on a piece of tape tested decades later after Gamberg reopened the investigation. And that DNA possibly matched to Justin Smart, who was only 12 at the time, which also Justin is Martin Smart's child. So is it matching Justin or is it also matching the smart DNA, which includes Martin Smart? Right. And also, it's kind of crazy because he was 12, but because he changed his story, which changing his story was probably him just dealing with trauma totally, but because his dream actually turned out to be like what he's actually witnessing, plus the DNA match. Some people are like, oh my gosh, he must have done it. He's a suspect, which I think is ridiculous. Yes. And then also, we have to remember, he was a 12 year boy at the time, and all three people killed at Cabin 28 were bigger and stronger than him at this time. And maybe Justin saw or witnessed the crime happening or witnessed them leaving. Who knows? And it doesn't make sense. Like Tina being abducted if it was him, because he was now in the cabin in the morning. I think a lot of it is that his brain was processing the trauma as a bad dream. And he also spent a lot of time in this house, so finding his DNA there isn't suspicious. We should find the DNA of everyone who was there. Yeah. So as of today, the case is still unsolved. And unfortunately, the two people who are believed to be the suspects the most, Martin Smart and Bo Bobedy have passed away. Bo died in 1988 and Martin in 2000. However, Sheriff Hagwood confirmed that there are six living persons of interest in this case that still need to be ruled out. Law enforcement knows exactly where all six of these people are, which means we may actually get an ending to this horror story after all. What do you think? Who do you think did it? I think Martin and Bo, me too. Like everything that we've heard about their stories and especially of that night just lines up with them being the murderers. Right. And also like his son processing the trauma of what he witnessed, but also giving reports of a man that looked an awful lot like his own father. I'm sure there was a lot going on in his own mind witnessing that, but part of me is also like, okay, well, if Martin was so aggressive to his wife, who'd say that didn't extend to his children, all of his kids could have been absolutely terrified of him. Well, so that is something that they do talk about when it comes to this case where some people think his sketches are not viable or good piece of evidence because if his father was abusive, and he experienced this trauma, did he conflate the two of his dad being abusive and now seeing this horrific event subconsciously, the monster looks like dad, because that is a monster. Exactly. Yeah. I think that I very much do believe Martin and Bo were involved. Unfortunately, we can't say for certain until there is an actual verdict, which hopefully does come soon, even if it's verifying the voice of that voice mail and saying it is Martin's or it is both, which I'm kind of confused as to why that hasn't been verified yet. That seems like it would be an easy thing right now to do. Let's call up Mark Gamberg and be like, what's going on? But now that we've talked about this case, as horrific as it is, it may have inspired a very haunting horror film, The Strangers. The writer and director of The Strangers, Brian Bertino, said he actually based this story on a scary childhood memory, as well as The Manson Murders, where a group of killers targeted people they really didn't know. But after the film did come out, a lot of people couldn't help but notice the similarities between the movie and the Kedi Murders. So maybe it was subconscious or a total coincidence. Or maybe Bertino had heard about the Kedi Cabin story before and it repressed it deep in a psyche and it lived there because The Murders at Cabin 28 are so chilling, they truly strike a primal cord, a mother looking to protect her children at all costs and complete strangers lurking the dark, ready to take it all away with a thrust of a blade. And if you're wondering what Brian Bertino's own experience was, he claimed that someone knocked on the door of his home when he was a child and had asked for a person that his family didn't know. And it really left this lasting impression on Brian and while it didn't appear to have any huge lethal outcomes, it didn't seem like someone broken and tried to murder the family. It did have this sort of shocking parallel in his retelling up at those strangers to the Kedi Cabin Murders. It was in an eerie coincidence, a similar incident was reported to police on the day that the victims were killed. Two men who matched the composite sketch later developed from Justin Smart's recollections knocked on the door of a nearby apartment and they asked for someone named J.R. who with a tenant did not know and then they left. Interesting. I know. But these men who asked for J.R. they've never been identified, at least not publicly. Police records haven't said that they were, but in either case, it could have been a casing. Someone sticking out a potential spot to rob or a young girl to abduct. So you have to admit, there is one big uncertainty in all of this in the strangers, the killers or strangers, but is that the same for the Kedi Cabin Murders or were they someone that the family actually knew? It's like, what do you say about something so horrendous like this, but to shift gears and talk simply about the strangers, that movie, I used to be the biggest chicken when it came to horror movies and the strangers was kind of a good segue into scary movies for me. That is wild for you to call it a segue because it traumatized my family, but go on. But I remember watching it in my basement with a friend and it was the first time I watched a scary movie, kind of willingly on my own. I guess a good segue is not the right way to play it, but it was dipping your toes in horror with one of the most horrific psychological horror movies. And that's a little bit about me, but I remember watching it and sitting on my couch and just being terrified and I think it contributes to the millennial fear of people knocking on the door. Oh, yeah. You lay on the floor and you pretend that you're not home. Yeah. But then it's like, if someone really does want to harm you, could they just break in? Or what if your doors left unlocked? Which is such a wild thing, too, because I feel like our generation was so, and I think it's because we were coming off with the generation of our parents, which were like primarily the latchkey kids. And that's when a lot of serial killers kind of came into the forefront of public knowledge with news and whatnot being spread more easily and the Pacific Northwest being kind of a fucked up place, but I think that we were told it's so stranger danger, which like if you actually look at crimes, most of the time, you actually know the person. It's not necessarily a stranger, but I think that there was this like innate fear growing up of a stranger. Like my, I specifically remember my mom was called by my brother's kindergarten, because they had to draw a picture of something that they were scared of and most kids drew snakes and spiders. My brother drew an image of someone putting a ladder up to the second story of our home to his bedroom window with a knife climbing it. And he's like four. So my mom definitely was like strangers, beware, they could kill you. And I think when my family, we watched this movie, the strangers as a family, and it just like totally hit all of our fears of like being attacked and not knowing the capabilities of the person who is your assailant. Yeah. It's just horrendous. I did bring a mask that is my best stranger's mask, because it'll talk a little bit about the movies and some of the remakes and sequels. Yes. Let's see your mask. But let me show you my mask first. It's not as traditional as the normal strangers mask, which usually depicts a. human face. Well, there's three different masks in that movie, but I have decided to be a possum. And the teeth are seashells. Yes, you went all out. I'm just wearing a Halloween sweatshirt that has toothpaste stains on it because I drool when I brush my teeth. But apparently Brian Bertino is not done telling the story of his mask killers because the Strangers' Priate Night came out in 2018, which also has eerie similarities to the Kettie case. It's set in a trailer park like the one where the Sharp family rented a mobile home in Quincy before moving to the Kettie Resort. And the couple is attacked by the Strangers. And in this film, they have two teenage kids like the two older teens, John and Dana, who were killed in the Kettie case. The film did pretty well financially for a small horse equal grossing $32 million on a $5 million budget. And with that, producers were like, "Let's continue the Strangers' franchise in a whole new way," which brings us to the trilogy. And recently on all socials, there was a video of the people in the Strangers' masks driving down the highway in San Diego in promotion of the new movie, The Strangers, which just came out. Which I hate that. And I feel like that's also a dangerous way to promote a horror movie, because you're triggering people's primal fears. And the third one in the trilogy is supposed to come out in 2026. So it will be interesting to see if they draw more inspiration from the Kettie murders in these versions of the Strangers. There are also a lot of horror movies out there that don't actually have a connection to the Kettie murders, but they do take place in the remote cabin or cottage. And there's just like something really inherently spooky about that idea about like being secluded alone in the cabin. Yeah. Now I can hear you struggle her scream. And it's a place where you might not be found for days. So a few films from that category that you might have seen, Cabin Fever, Tucker and Dale versus Evil, Cabin in the Woods, and of course, Evil Dead. Which is a fun, can't be version of the scary horror trope. So I have to say that's my favorite. Yeah. There's so many. Oh, Cabin in the Woods is my favorite. And I actually just recommended that to one of our friends, Marissa, and she'd never heard of it. And I started to tell her the plot. And she was like, that is the wildest thing I've ever heard. But it was a book originally. Oh, I didn't know that. I believe so. It keeps you on your toes. You don't expect what happens to happen. No. Which is so interesting because it's like the Cabin in the woods. It's such trope. But I feel like somehow all of these people, these writers, these creators, make these wild, unpredictable spin-offs, which just adds to the horror of being trapped in the Cabin in the Woods. Because they, you truly don't know what could happen. You don't know what could happen anywhere. And that's the scariest part about life. Not to end on a terrible note. Let's not forget though that this is a real life case. There are still four victims and three surviving siblings who've been waiting more than 40 years at this point for justice. And the investigation is still open. We'll put this on the show notes. But special investigator Gamburg is asking anyone with information about the Kedi murderers to contact him. So you can do that by calling the Plumas County Sheriff's Office at 530-283-6360. Which again, we're putting this on the show notes. You can call the Secret Witness Program at 775-324-900. You can send a text to the Secret Witness Program at 847-411 or you could submit a tip online at www.secretwitness.com or you could even email Gamburg directly at
[email protected]. So any of those options will be great for accepting information anonymously if you do have a tip. And there's also a cash reward available for information leading to the perpetrators arrest and prosecution. So please, if you know anything big or small, please reach out. It is never too late to rewrite the ending of these very real world cases. Thanks so much for listening. We are your hosts Sabrina Deanna-Roga and Karin Vienn. Join us next Tuesday for another peak inside Crimes of Infamy. Here at Crimes House we want to thank each and every one of you for your support. So if you like what you've heard today, reach out on all social media at Crimes House. Don't forget to rate, review and follow Crimes of wherever you get your podcasts. Your feedback truly makes a difference. See you next week, Mommies. Hi, I'm Connor Tomlinson. You might know me from Love on the Spectrum. History is my thing and I have been waiting my whole life for a show like this one. And I'm Carter Roy. And this is What the Fact. Every week, three facts, each one with a whole story behind it. The worst years anyone has ever lived through. The golden age of pirates, the movies that almost never got made, the discoveries that rewrote everything we thought we knew. Carter sets the scene, Connor brings the facts. The tangents and the genuine belief that this is the most interesting subject in the world. It is the wildest stuff is real and the real stuff is wilder than you think. New episodes every Wednesday follow What the Fact on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod. The moment a body is found, the clock starts ticking. 48 hours. That's how long detectives have before the trail begins to go cold. From A&E and Crimes House, this is the official podcast from the famous True Crime series The First 48. Step inside the critical window, the interrogations, the dead ends, and the breakthroughs that crack a case wide open. On Carter Roy, each week I revisit a landmark homicide investigation with the depth you know and immersive long form storytelling built for your ears, real detectives, real cases, real stakes. This is The First 48. New episodes every Thursday. Listen to and follow The First 48 on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music or wherever you listen to podcasts. Looking for your next podcast? Check out What the Fact. It's a new show from Connor Tomlinson, who you know from Netflix's Love on the Spectrum alongside Carter Roy. Follow What the Fact wherever you listen or subscribe on YouTube at What the Fact Pod.
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