Teresa Solecki

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She's been beaten and strangled left beneath her car in the dark. Detectives face a scene with few obvious leads and a city on edge. But buried in the evidence collected and preserved in 1984 are traces that won't matter decades later. This is Forensic Tales episode number 303 the murder of Teresa Silecki. In the early 1980s Vista California was in the middle of change. What had once been a small agricultural town known for its citrus and avocado groves and horse properties was quickly transforming into suburbia. Families were moving in, drawn by affordable housing and the easy commute to major job centers like San Diego, Carlsbad, and Camp Pendleton. Even as new developments began to pop up Vista still carried a rural feel. Long-time residents lived alongside military families as well as new families searching for a quieter lifestyle. It was a working and middle-class town with tight-knit schools, churches, and youth sports programs at the heart of community life. Crime wasn't something that Vista was known for. Sure there were property crimes, occasional drug issues as well as domestic disputes fairly typical for a growing suburban area. But it wasn't considered a dangerous place to live. It's more rural pockets though sometimes meant that certain crimes either went undetected or unsolved. Just north of San Diego about seven miles inland from the Pacific Ocean, Vista sits between neighboring cities like Oceanside, Carlsbad, and San Marcos. On the rural outskirts lay Gopher Canyon, a remote stretch of rugged terrain that felt far more removed from the growing suburbs. For locals it's quiet and isolated. For investigators it would one day become the backdrop of one of Vista's most haunting crime scenes. It was still dark on the morning of January 11th 1984 when a newspaper delivery driver made his usual rounds along Gopher Canyon Road. At 4 15 a.m. his headlights swept over what looked like a strange shape on the side of the road. At first he kept driving. It was early and he needed to deliver his papers. But a few minutes later he spotted a parked car nearby and something about the scene just didn't sit right so he turned back around. Pulling up closer he realized there was a body lying on the ground next to the vehicle. The woman was nude partially underneath the car. Her body twisted in such a way that her face was pressed between the rear wheel and the pavement. His first thought was that this must have been a terrible accident. Maybe she'd been accidentally hit or even dragged. But when he circled back from the other side of the road and noticed that she didn't have any clothes on that theory just didn't make any sense. Disturbed he drove to the nearest market found a pay phone and called the authorities. This was long before cell phones so that was the only way he could call for help. Officers arrived quickly and once they saw the scene for themselves, the nude body, the positioning, the fact that she had been clearly moved, they knew this wasn't a car accident. So they called for additional units and detectives to secure the scene. Gofer Canyon Road was shut down and investigators carefully documented the scene. The woman's body remained there for nearly 12 hours before the coroner was able to remove her. The stretch of road where the body was found is as remote as it gets. Gofer Canyon Road winds through the outskirts of Vista and in 1984 the area was even more isolated. A few farmhouses sat on the hillsides but most of the land was wide open underdeveloped groves and brush. The road curved sharply as it dropped into a nearby golf course and at night it was pitch black, the kind of place that you'd never expect to come across another person. Over time Gofer Canyon would be linked to more than one crime story but back then it wasn't considered a dump site. It was just the kind of remote stretch that could hide almost anything in the dark. When police showed up they found the body lying partially underneath a car. The woman was nude with obvious bruising and lacerations across her head and face. Blood was visible and a drag mark stretched along the pavement suggesting she'd been moved. This was definitely no car accident. This was a very very violent homicide. The newspaper delivery driver stayed at the scene doing his best to answer the officers questions about what he had seen that morning. And while detectives gathered his statements the focus quickly shifted to the woman lying underneath the car. Who was she? At first no one knew. There hadn't been any recent missing persons reports from the Vista area that matched her description which made things even harder. So in those first few hours investigators had a crime scene, a brutal murder and a body but no name. With the road sealed off investigators turned to the only clue they had. The car parked at the scene. Running the registration came back to a local woman, 29-year-old Teresa Silecki. That gave them a name and with it the heartbreaking task of reaching out to our family. For detectives it's one of the hardest parts of the job. Someone has to knock on a door, deliver the news no family ever expects, and answer questions they don't have the answers to yet. Her sister went down to the coroner's office and made the official identification. It's a moment no family ever forgets. Having to look at the body of someone you love to confirm what your heart already fears. Not long after Teresa's brother traveled to San Diego. He collected her belongings and brought them back to Buffalo, New York where the Silecki family would begin the impossible process of grieving a daughter and a sister whose life had simply been stolen. I'm sure a lot of you have heard of hormone harmony by Happy Mammoth. 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She was 29 years old, the third of seven children in a close-knit Polish family from Buffalo, New York. At her dad's suggestion, Teresa eventually moved west with her sister settling in Escondido for a fresh start. She worked nights as a cocktail waitress at a nightclub, but her dreams went deeper than that. She talked about getting into real estate, about building something lasting for herself. Her family and friends described her as warm and generous, the kind of person who would always be responsible and was never in trouble. She never even had a parking ticket. She lived modestly, often wearing her sister's hand-me-downs so that she could save money. Ambitious, yet grounded. Teresa was determined to make her way in the world. She had no criminal record, no boyfriend at the time, and rarely went out unless it was with close friends. One thing I read about her that deeply resonated with me was this. Teresa was friendly and comfortable in social settings, but at heart she was a home body. This is all to say that nothing about her or her lifestyle shed any clues about who could have been responsible for her murder. Just days before her death, Teresa had returned home from a quick trip to Mexico with one of her close friends, Patty. And on Tuesday in January 10th, the two had spent the evening together. But Patty wasn't feeling great. She was dealing with painful cramps and stomach issues, but she didn't have the money to go see a doctor. Teresa, always the caretaker, insisted she should at least see the OBGYN that her sister swore by. But while they waited to track down the doctor's information, Patty started to feel a little bit better. So the women decided to grab something to eat at one of their usual spots, Smitty's Bar. They were regulars there, and Teresa had even worked there in the past. So the two women felt very comfortable going there, grabbing a bite to eat, and maybe a drink or two. The night carried on, and they stayed until about 145. But when they got back to Patty's place, her cramps came back with a vengeance. So Teresa urged her again to go get that doctor's name, the one that her sister recommended. But there was a problem. Patty didn't have a working phone. She had fallen behind on her bill and the line had been disconnected. So again, being the kind person that she was, Teresa volunteered to leave the apartment in the middle of the night and walk to a nearby payphone. So around 2.30 in the morning, she left Patty's house and headed toward the Buena Vista Market on South Santa Fe Avenue, less than a quarter of a mile away. The market itself was closed, but outside a row of payphones was still lit and working. These weren't enclosed booths. They were just metal phones with dividers between them. From there, Teresa dialed her own apartment. The phone rang and rang. But her younger sister didn't answer. Later on, she would say that she was asleep and didn't hear the phone ring, which you can't blame her because all of this is happening at 2.30 and 2.40 in the morning, a time when most people are sound asleep. When no one picked up, Teresa left a message on the answering machine, one of those boxy models with mini cassette tapes inside. "Hey, it's me. I need to talk to you. I need your doctor's name. Pick up, pick up." Five minutes later, she tried again. This time, she left another message saying she'd call back again in a few minutes. Between 2.30 and 2.45 a.m., she left a total of three messages. After that, she was never heard from again. Sometime while Teresa was at the payphone, her friend, Patty, fell asleep. So she had no idea that one of her best friends had never come back. She didn't realize that's what happened until much later that morning when she woke up for the day. And that could also explain why Teresa was never reported missing to the police in the beginning. Her friend, Patty, simply didn't know. Now, this was something that Patty must have regretted her entire life. Had she been able to pay her phone bill, maybe her best friend, Teresa, would have been able to call her that night and say that she was in trouble. So the amount of guilt she must have felt would have been overwhelming. Once the scene was locked down, investigators got to work collecting anything that might help explain what happened. The most obvious pieces were Teresa's body and her car. Next to the vehicle, they also found her keys, her shoes, blood on the roadway, and a drag mark stretching behind the car. Footprints were visible near the road and across it, as if someone had moved back and forth in the dark. Teresa was last seen wearing designer jeans and a white fleece lined vest. But most of her clothing wasn't at the scene. Detectives later discovered it scattered in an apple orchard just across the street. They even found footprints that led directly into the orchard, almost like breadcrumbs where the killer had gone. From the start, it didn't look like a robbery. Teresa's purse and valuables weren't there, but nothing suggested that theft was the actual motive. Plus, her car keys eventually turned up, tossed aside on a nearby golf course, but her wallet and ID were never officially accounted for. When it came to the condition of Teresa's body, it told a very violent story. She had bruises and abrasions across her head and face and investigators noted blood and drag marks on the pavement. It looked like she had been attacked outside of the vehicle and then dragged to the spot where she was left. Then there was her car. It was carefully processed and investigators were able to pull fingerprints from it, but no blood. So the obvious lack of evidence in the car reinforced their belief that the attack happened outside. Why not leave her inside the vehicle, though? Detectives wondered if the killer had been interrupted, maybe even spooked away by the newspaper deliveryman before finishing whatever he intended to do. And then there were the shoes. The delivery driver swore he saw them next to Teresa's head when he first arrived at the scene. But by the time law enforcement got there, the shoes were gone. Eventually, the shoes were found tossed down an embankment by the golf course. That detail alone left investigators with a chilling possibility. Someone, maybe the killer, could have still been lurking nearby after the body was first discovered, moving evidence in the dark. These days, life is busy, schedules are packed and taking care of yourself can feel like a full time job. But who has the time? Hers is here to support you on your weight loss journey. 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See website for full details, important safety information and restrictions. Actual price depends on product and plan purchased. At the coroner's office, investigators finally began to put together what could have happened to Teresa. During the autopsy, the medical examiner collected biological samples, clothing and trace evidence from her body and the findings painted a brutal picture. She had suffered serious head injuries along with numerous abrasions and bruises, clear signs that she fought back. The coroner also noted defensive wounds marks that showed that she struggled. One of the most disturbing details was a bite mark found on one of her breasts. Even in 1984, investigators knew how distinctive bite marks could be. Forensic testing also revealed semen on Teresa's body and while no vaginal trauma was identified, the presence of semen and other dye transfer on her clothing indicated she'd been sexually assaulted. Ultimately, the cause of death was determined to be manual strangulation and the manner of death was ruled homicide. Between the bite mark, the sexual assault evidence and the injuries consistent with a violent struggle, investigators were left with no doubt. Teresa's final moments had been marked by terror and brutality. After Teresa's body was released, her family brought her home back to Buffalo, New York. The funeral was heartbreaking. Friends, relatives and neighbors filled the church to grieve the young woman whose life had been cut short so violently. For Teresa's close knit family, the loss was unbearable. They described it as though a piece of themselves had been ripped away. Nothing about her death made any sense and the shock of it left a hole that would never fully heal. Law enforcement was also present at the service. For detectives, attending a funeral can serve multiple purposes, offering support to the family, quietly observing the people who show up and sometimes even picking up information that could prove useful in the investigation. But for Teresa's loved ones, it was simply a day of grief, a day to remember who she was before the violence. As detectives dug into Teresa's personal life, one possible suspect emerged almost immediately. The night before she was killed, Teresa told her sister that her bar manager had been harassing her. She even said he once attacked her and that she had locked herself in her car just to get away from him. That detail immediately put him on the investigator's radar. Another interesting detail about him, he and Teresa had dated briefly, but according to friends, he wanted something more serious than she did. So the police investigated him extensively, but eventually cleared him after verifying his alibi. He might have had a crush on Teresa and wanted something more than just friendship, but he wasn't her killer. The police also looked closely at her dating history. They interviewed several of her former boyfriends, but none of them were found to be connected to her murder either. Over the next several weeks, other tips trickled in as the case made the news, but there was one tip that stood out. One man called police to report that he had picked up a hitchhiker the same night that Teresa had been killed. He remembered the man clearly because he was wearing a sleeveless Levi's denim jacket and he was acting strangely. It was another lead to chase down, but like so many others in the early days of the investigation, it didn't bring detectives any closer to identifying their suspect. They even had a sketch created of this hitchhiker, but nothing useful came from it. No one recognized the guy, so it was on to the next tip. Out of everything collected in the first few months, the strongest evidence detectives came across was the autopsy itself. The semen recovered from Teresa's body meant that they had a DNA belonging to her killer, but there was one massive problem. When it was compared against the men in Teresa's life, her bar manager, boyfriends and other close contacts, none of them were a match. Whoever had killed Teresa wasn't someone already known to investigators. And in 1984, DNA technology wasn't very good. The national database we know today as CODIS wouldn't be around for another decade, so all the police could do was hold on to the sample and preserve it. Now without a match and without any other strong suspects, Teresa's case stalled. The evidence was there, locked away in storage, but the technology to make sense of it hadn't been invented yet. As months turned into years, the investigation went cold. About a year later, the police announced a $10,000 reward and circulated more than 600 flyers. They also spoke with the media a lot, trying to get the word out about Teresa's case. They knew it could take just one person to call in a good tip to solve this entire thing, but none of it worked. Not the reward money, not the flyers, not the appearances and media. No arrests were made that first year. The next time the case made headlines was when some considered Ronald Elliott Porter as a possible suspect. Porter was a fairly well-known serial killer from California who often preyed on hitchhikers. But in reality, there was never any evidence directly linking him to the case. There was zero evidence that Ronald Porter and Teresa Silecki ever came into contact with one another. Then there was Randy Kraft, also known as the Scorecard Killer. Kraft was a serial killer who tortured, raped, and murdered at least 16 young men between 1972 and 1983. He earned his nickname from a coded list found in his possession containing references to many victims. But just like Porter, there was never any evidence linking him to Teresa. Plus, she wasn't his typical victim. He only preyed on young men. It's now 1991, and the case has been open for about seven years. That year, the semen collected during the autopsy was tested. But as you'd expect, the testing wasn't very good, and the results came back inconclusive. Eight more years went by, and it's now 1999. Teresa's sweater was tested again, confirming the presence of semen, but also revealing that the blood was Teresa's. But still, no real progress then either. 2006, investigators compared the unknown DNA to multiple suspects they had identified over the years. All of them were officially excluded. Their DNA didn't match. A small victory to be able to exclude a bunch of people, but nothing to point them in any one person's direction. By 2009, the case was 24 years old. Almost a quarter of a century had passed. By this point, the police had something they didn't have back in the early 1980s. They had the luxury of CODIS, our national DNA database. So in 2009, the unknown DNA profile was entered into the system as well as VCAP, the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. It's a database run by the FBI and is used to help solve violent crimes, especially unsolved homicides, sexual assaults, and missing persons. It can be very useful because VCAP is about behavior and case details, not DNA. So it's especially useful for tracking serial offenders who might cross state lines. But here's the bad news. There weren't any hits. No hits in CODIS with the DNA and nothing stood out with the FBI's database. It was essentially back to square one. Another decade came and went and it's now 2019. In 2019, cold case investigators in San Diego heard all about the arrest of the Golden State Killer using investigative genetic genealogy, also sometimes called forensic genetic genealogy. For any of my newer listeners, it's the process of combining DNA testing with traditional genealogical research to identify unknown individuals, most often suspects or victims in criminal cases. So as soon as San Diego investigators heard about the Golden State Killer being caught by the same technology, they wondered if the same could be done with Teresa's case. They had unknown DNA, they just didn't have a suspect to match it to. If they were to be successful, this would become the first case in San Diego history to try genetic genealogy. So alongside Barbara Ray Venter, a New Zealand-born American genetic genealogist, the DNA was uploaded to several public databases, hoping for one of two things. One, they get a direct hit on Teresa's killer, or number two, they find a relative. Fortunately, for San Diego detectives, they found number two. They found relatives of the suspect. At first, they only found someone with a 168 centimorgan match, which is a unit of measurement used in genetics to describe how closely two people are related. The higher number of centimorgans, the closer the biological relationship. So to give you a better idea, a parent and a child will have about 3,400 centimorgans, a first cousin around 850, a second cousin about 200. Distant relatives like fourth or even fifth cousins. Sometimes that could be under 100 centimorgans. In Teresa's case, investigators located a third or fourth cousin of the killer. The highest match was only 168 centimorgans. Even though this was a very distant relative, it was the first big promising break in the case since the very beginning. They had finally found someone who shared DNA with Teresa's killer. From there, investigators kept digging through his family tree, and the more digging and genealogical research they did, they eventually identified an 82-year-old woman named Ethel, who matched the DNA at around 1,005 centimorgans, suggesting they had found someone even closer to their guy. At this point, more genealogical research was done, and detectives learned that Ethel had a half-nephew who seemed to check off all of the boxes of the person they were searching for. Not only was he from Ethel's family, but he also looked almost identical to the sketch of the hitchhiker that the tipster had called in, the one who he said he gave a rind to on the night of Teresa's murder. He was the guy who wore a sleeveless Levi's denim jacket and was acting strangely. His name, Charles Lane Morgan. After more than two decades, they finally had a name, but now investigators were faced with another huge problem. Charles Morgan was dead. He had died in a car crash in 1984, just a few months after Teresa was murdered, and in another twist, Morgan was an organ donor, so all of his usable organs were donated to other people in need following his death. But for investigators, his death also meant this. There was no way for them to go out and arrest him for Teresa's murder. Another issue, not even his body could be exhumed for a direct DNA comparison. That wasn't possible either. He had been cremated after his organs were donated in 1984. But even with all of these problems, they could still confirm Charles Morgan was their guy. One of Morgan's half-sisters agreed to provide a DNA sample, and when that sample was compared to the crime scene evidence, it confirmed what detectives had long suspected. Charles Lane Morgan was the source of DNA found on Teresa Silecki. So who was he? Charles Lane Morgan was born in California in 1959. His father, a military veteran, died when Charles was just a kid, a loss that marked his early life. As he grew older, Charles struggled with drugs and stability. He got married as a teenager, but the relationship didn't last. After that, he spent much of his time drifting between friends' homes, never really finding solid ground. But despite his troubles, people who knew Charles often described him as friendly, the kind of guy who could be easygoing. But beneath that exterior, he obviously carried darkness, a dark side that no one knew about. Could he have killed anyone else? It's a question that definitely lingers. While no evidence has tied him to other murders, investigators can't rule it out completely. What they do know is that the DNA told the story of what happened to Teresa, and it led straight to him. Was there justice in Teresa Silecki's case? In a way, yes. Identifying Morgan as her killer finally gave Teresa's case an answer after years of nothing. But justice delayed is sometimes complicated. For Teresa's family, some found a measure of closure in knowing who was responsible. For others, the pain of her loss and the fact that Morgan never faced a courtroom means closure will always be incomplete. No one knows why he chose Teresa that night. Was it because he saw her alone, standing in front of that payphone and decided to attack? Was it a crime of opportunity? Had she been stalked or followed, did Morgan see her at the bar earlier that night with her girlfriend? Unfortunately, his death erases any chance of finding out the answers to those questions. I don't think anyone will ever know why this crime happened, or why Teresa Silecki was even targeted. But if this case teaches us anything, it's to never give up. It's to be persistent and to preserve the forensic evidence. As an investigator, you have to believe that new technology will eventually come around. So just because they couldn't do anything with the DNA back in 1984, that didn't mean things wouldn't change over time. And in this case, that's exactly what happened. When it comes to Teresa's family, not everyone was around to find out who her killer was. Sadly, both of Teresa's parents passed away without knowing who killed their daughter. But on the other hand, her siblings were. They were alive to find out who was responsible for murdering their oldest sister. Outside of the family, the case has made big impacts on the community as a whole. People in this part of San Diego felt everything from shock, relief, to gratitude that Teresa was finally given justice after decades of uncertainty. Justice delayed doesn't have to mean justice denied. Teresa Silecki's case is a powerful reminder of why preserving forensic evidence matters. What detectives collected in 1984, biological samples, clothing, trace evidence, sat for decades until science caught up. Investigative genetic genealogy gave that evidence a voice pointing to a name when all other leads had failed. And Teresa's story isn't unique. Across the country, cold cases are being revived by the same techniques. In many ways, this is only the beginning. The tiniest pieces of evidence, saved and protected, have the power to solve murders once thought unsolvable, and to finally bring answers to families who have been waiting far too long. Forensic Tales is a Rockefeller audio production. The show is written and produced by me, Courtney Fretwell. If you'd like to help create compelling new cases, fund research, and assist with production and editing costs, you can support the show with a small a monthly contribution. In return, you'll be one of the first to listen to new ad-free episodes and gain access to exclusive content. To learn more, visit patreon.com/forensic tales. Forensic Tales is a podcast made possible by our Patreon producers. Tony A, Sherry A, Nikola, Megan G, Urely, Jerry, Anne F, Carol A, Shannon D, Lois B, Lynn H, Danielle D, Lucretia W, Brett R, Luz Raquel, and Courtney C. If you'd like to become a producer of the show, head over to our Patreon page or email me at [email protected]. Thank you for listening and see you next week. Until then, remember, not all stories have happy endings. you