by Robert Scott
Another case the Reno PD investigators were looking at in a possible connection with Phil Garrido was the abduction of seven-year-old Monica DaSilva. She had been snatched from her bedroom as she slept in 1990. Her remains were found three weeks later, east of Reno, but her killer was never caught.
Lieutenant Whan related, “During that time period, we had those child abduction cases, and since then, we haven’t had any.” Whan noted that Phil Garrido was out of prison during that time period, and, of course, he had abducted Jaycee Lee Dugard in June 1991.
Gail Powell, a Nevada Department of Public Safety spokesperson, said that all unsolved cases in the Lake Tahoe/Reno area were being looked at again in respect to Phil Garrido. And FBI spokesman David Staretz added that his agency was “currently looking at all unsolved female disappearances/kidnappings and a couple of homicides in the area.”
The South Lake Tahoe PD was taking another look at the unsolved killing of a seventeen-year-old girl in 1976. That was the year Katie Callaway Hall had been abducted in South Lake Tahoe by Garrido and taken to Reno to be abused sexually. Agent Staretz told reporters, “We are attempting to track Garrido’s activities while in Reno in 1976 and after his parole.”
Closer to Antioch, the neighboring city of Pittsburg was looking into the possibility that Phil Garrido was connected to a string of murders in the 1990s. Several prostitutes had been murdered in an area where Garrido had once worked along the Antioch-Pittsburg Highway. On July 18, 1992, prostitute Sharon Mattos’s body was found in a field near Pittsburg. On November 12 of that same year, prostitute Andrea Ingersoll’s body was found in a field near Bay Point, then known as West Pittsburg.
One of the most compelling cases now being looked at in connection with Phil Garrido was that of fifteen-year-old Pittsburg High School sophomore Lisa Norrell. Lisa had been born in Mexico, and then adopted by Jesse and Minnie Norrell, of Pittsburg, California. Minnie always knew that she would tell Lisa about the adoption and her birth parents when the time was right. When Lisa was about six years old, Minnie told Lisa a story about a man and a woman who were married and didn’t have any children. Minnie said, “One day, they saw this beautiful little girl, with dark hair and big brown eyes. They loved her so much that they decided to adopt her. That meant she could live with them and be their daughter.”
Lisa, in her typical headstrong fashion, replied, “That’s a stupid story!” Then she rolled over and went to sleep. As far as she was concerned, Lisa knew exactly who her parents were—Jesse and Minnie Norrell.
Minnie later said of Lisa, “She was adorable. When she was a kid, she was happy-go-lucky. Then she became a teenager and was a brat. But she was a loveable brat.”
Tony Quesada, Lisa’s actual brother, was adopted by a family who lived close to the Norrells. Tony and Lisa saw each other on an almost daily basis. Minnie later said of this arrangement, “Lisa and Tony knew that they were brother and sister. Every time we went to the grocery store, she had to have something for her brother. And Tony’s dad said the same thing. Every time Tony went somewhere, he had to buy something for Lisa.”
Tony later said of Lisa, “We were close. We were always best friends. Brother and sister. I always went over to their house, and she always came over here. We were never apart. Something about her, she would always do—when we would have dinner, no matter how far away she put her drink, she would always spill it.” Tony thought it was kind of funny.
Two friends of Lisa’s who knew her very well were twin sisters, Lucretia and Patricia Smith of Pittsburg. The twins later spoke with journalist Lyssa Mudd about Lisa Norell. They said that they’d watched Lisa blossom from a shy girl to a gregarious teenager. They related that Lisa favored wearing sweatshirts and jeans, had boundless energy, and said hello to everyone on campus.
On November 6, 1998, Lisa had gone up to her brother, Tony, and asked him to accompany her to a dance rehearsal and be her partner. He said no, and has agonized about it ever since. Tony related, “Right then, I said no, because I’m not one for dancing. But if I had gone, I know she’d be here right now.”
That evening, Lisa got ready to attend a friend’s quinceañera in Antioch. A quinceañera was a rite of passage for a young female in the Hispanic community when she went from being a “girl” to a “woman.” In preparation for the event, Lisa had her nails done and then bought a present for her friend. Lisa had also been practicing formal dance steps for the event for the previous two weeks.
Lisa wore casual clothes to the dance, but she brought her formal clothing with her. Apparently at the event, Lisa became angry when she could not learn the dance steps as quickly as the others. In a huff, she left the IDES Hall on Tenth Street in Antioch and began walking alone, back toward Pittsburg.
Lisa left the dance sometime between 10:30 and 11:00 P.M. She never made it home. At 3:00 A.M., Minnie Norrell called the Pittsburg Police Department to report her daughter missing.
The Antioch Police Department became involved as well, because Lisa had last been seen in their city. Captain Kitt Schwitters told a reporter, “She’s been classified as a missing person with suspicious circumstances.” APD began using ground units, a helicopter, and bloodhounds to try and trace the route Lisa might have taken back toward her home in Pittsburg. She most likely would have walked down Tenth Street in Antioch and out past L Street, where the area became less urbanized. From there, it was known as the Antioch-Pittsburg Highway, with some businesses scattered here and there, but open fields as well. At night, almost all of this section was not lit.
When Lisa left the IDES Hall, she was last seen wearing a long gray sweatshirt, blue jeans, white socks and black Fila sandals. She had on three gold chains, one of which had her name imprinted upon it. She also wore numerous rings on her fingers.
Lisa had no history of being a runaway, and besides, when she had stormed out of the IDES Hall, she had left her wallet there, which contained her student ID and bank cards. The circumstances were so unusual that soon five FBI agents were also out looking for Lisa. The fact that the FBI was already involved testified to just how seriously they viewed the matter of the girl’s disappearance.
Even though the Antioch-Pittsburg Highway was searched, no signs of Lisa turned up. Within two days the Pittsburg-Antioch shoreline, where the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers combined, was being searched as well. Police divers were even called in to search underwater. Lisa’s mother, Minnie Norrell, told a reporter, “The police are doing a fabulous job, and the FBI is on top of everything.” Minnie still had hope that Lisa would be found alive.
More than one hundred tips came in from around the area, and several people were given polygraph tests. Just how scary Lisa’s walk might have been was portrayed by the Contra Costa Times in an article. The article related in part, On her right, only the flickering lights of industry would have been visible across the void of the Delta marshlands. Another half mile west and the street lights end, and the only light would have been from cars roaring by.
On November 14, 1998, the body of a young woman was discovered on the Nav-Land property on the Antioch-Pittsburg Highway after bloodhounds picked up Lisa’s scent. Nav-Land was a business that sold rock and tanbark for landscaping. The body was found near a wall on the property.
A quarter mile away on the highway, Lisa’s shoes were discovered, lying side by side. The news absolutely stunned Lisa’s friends and schoolmates in Pittsburg. Manier Ahmed, a clerk at Abdul’s Market and Deli on Harbor Street, said that Lisa had often frequented the market. Manier stated, “I thought they were going to find her alive. I was going through in my mind what I would say to her the next time I saw her. Everybody in the neighborhood came in here and said that they had found her body. It was shocking.”
A neighbor of Lisa’s related, “I look over at Lisa’s house and I want to see her smiling face. She was just an innocent child, and it hurts. This just doesn’t seem possible.”
Felicia Killings, fifteen, who was a classmate of Lisa’s at
Pittsburg High School, told a reporter, “This is very upsetting that something like this could’ve happened. We never expected something like this to happen in our hometown.”
Felicia’s father, Henry Killings, who was the pastor of Pittsburg’s Shilo Ranch, said a prayer for Lisa at a morning service and declared, “It’s a heart-wrenching experience. You have to really feel for the youths who knew her and her family.”
Lisa’s mother and brother did not immediately speak to reporters about Lisa’s death. They were too devastated. But a Contra Costa Times article of November 19 related that law enforcement authorities had spoken with Lisa’s family members, and they agreed that the investigators could keep Lisa’s body beyond the Saturday, November 21, funeral. The reason was for “investigative purposes.”
Pittsburg lieutenant William Zbacnik told a reporter, “We feel it’s in the best interest of the investigation. There’s a fear that the media would interview relatives or funeral home employees and find out how the girl was killed.” Then Zbacnik indicated that this holding of Lisa’s body would be more than a few days.
Terry Francke, a legal counselor for the California First Amendment Coalition, stated that this was highly unusual. Francke said, “I’ve never heard of a police department preventing the release of a body, because the press would somehow extract sensitive information from the family. The family will do whatever the police ask them to do.” This lack of information only fueled rumors about how Lisa had died, and most of these rumors took on sinister overtones.
Some people were talking, however. Kurt Kuhn, whose father rented the property to Nav-Land, said that one area along a wall had been dusted for fingerprints by investigators. And someone at Nav-Land indicated that Lisa’s body was found under some wooden pallets and boxes near that wall.
A few days later, a witness contacted police and said that on the night that Lisa disappeared, she was sure she spotted the young woman on the Antioch-Pittsburg Highway. The investigators even had a female officer dress the way Lisa had done and walk in that area at the same time of night, where the witness said she had seen Lisa. Lieutenant Zbacnik related, “The reenactment actually increased her confidence. This woman said that she had seen the girl carrying her formal dress and black shoes. Lisa’s shoes were discovered several hundred yards east of where the witness had seen her. It was surmised by police that at the shoe site is where Lisa’s attacker had first accosted her.”
Kathy Russo, Lisa’s aunt, began a Web site about the murder. Russo stated, “We don’t believe Lisa was killed by somebody she knew. It’s one of those things where she was in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
It wasn’t until the end of November that investigators confirmed that a pair of black shoes found on the Antioch-Pittsburg Highway had belonged to Lisa Norrell. This was done by DNA testing. A few days later, information was released that Lisa had died from asphyxiation.
CHAPTER 25
HELL’S HIGHWAY
Lisa Norrell’s story was still very much in the news, when another young woman’s body was discovered not far away. This occurred on December 5, 1998, near the Collins Auto Wrecking Yard on Industry Road. The victim was twenty-four-year-old Jessica Frederick. Jessica was an Antioch woman, the mother of two, with a history of drug arrests. Recently some people who knew her indicated that Jessica might have turned to prostitution to help pay for her drug habit.
Lieutenant Zbacnik said of this, “The area where her body was found is known as a place where prostitutes and their customers have sex. It’s kind of where they go after they pick up their john. There’s an indication she was probably dumped there.”
Zbacnik related that Jessica’s body had been on the ground for several hours by the time workers at Collins Auto Wrecking Yard discovered it at 11:30 A.M. on December 5. No one in the area had seen or heard anything unusual in the early-morning hours around the time of Jessica’s death. As to whether Jessica’s murder and that of Lisa Norrell were somehow connected, Lieutenant Zbacnik was being cautious. He told reporters, “We really don’t have anything to show a connection.” And the MO’s were certainly different. Lisa had died of asphyxiation. Jessica had died of stab wounds.
Lisa and Jessica’s lifestyles were also very different. Jessica’s mother, Caroline, said that Jessica had experienced difficult years. Caroline said that Jessica was a good mom to her kids, and loved them very much. In fact, she was going to go to the school that her son attended and help him make a gingerbread house. Caroline also related, “She was a feisty, street-smart woman who was not afraid to stand up for herself. My daughter had a tough life. She ended up doing and being something other than what she desired in life. She wanted to be with her children, and she wanted help with her problems.”
Jessica’s former boyfriend, who now took care of the couple’s sixteen-month-old daughter, said, “You know, when you have people who do drugs, they can still love life and be a good person. She was a good person. Her biggest enemy was drug abuse. She had been clean for almost three years until about five months ago. That’s when she had arm surgery and began taking painkillers, which caused her to have a relapse. That’s one of the reasons we broke up. When she began using drugs again, I didn’t want that stuff around the baby.”
Ten days went by, and then the unthinkable happened. Another young woman’s body was found a half a mile away from where Lisa Norrell was discovered, and two miles away from Jessica Frederick’s body. This victim was found around 11:00 A.M. in a ditch near an auto repair yard in the 1300 block of California Avenue. A man, whose truck had broken down, spotted the body.
Law enforcement soon related that no obvious wounds had been found on the young woman’s body. Since there was no identification on her, fingerprints were taken. Adding to the mystery, there were no reports in the area of any woman missing in the previous twenty-four hours.
Naturally, the murders of three young women so close in time, and in the same general area, spurred fears that there was a serial killer on the loose. Addressing this possibility, a Contra Costa Times reporter spoke with San Francisco State professor Michael Rustigan, who taught police agencies about serial killers. Rustigan cautioned about the serial killer aspect, saying, “So far, no pattern appears to have emerged. The victims were all female, and their bodies were found in the same part of Pittsburg. But there, the similarities end. Is there a serial killer in the community? Maybe. But at this point, it’s too early to tell.”
Minnie Norrell, Lisa’s mother, however, was more adamant that there was a serial killer in the area. Minnie said, “Some maniac is on the loose. I know that!” And Jessica Frederick’s uncle Edward Steeves related that he thought copycat killers were on the loose. “It’s allowed some people who wanted to do something like this to go out and do it,” he said.
Plenty of citizens in Pittsburg and Antioch agreed with Minnie Norrell and Edward Steeves. Pittsburg councilwoman Lori Anzini stated, “I hate to be one of the first people to overreact, but my gut feeling tells me there’s definitely a problem.”
Reverend Ricardo Chavez, who had been Lisa Norrell’s parish priest, declared, “It may mean that more will continue to happen. If it’s a trend, then this is going to go on until this person is apprehended.”
Shelly Manuel, who shopped at a Home Depot, near where the third body was found, expressed her concerns as well. “I won’t go out at night now without my fiancé with me.” And Christine Alvarez, of Pittsburg, related, “I’m scared these days. When I was younger, I used to be able to sleep with the window open and walk to the corner store. Not anymore. What’s the world coming to?”
By the next day, the Pittsburg police had an identity for this third victim. She was thirty-two-year-old Rachael Cruise. Her fingerprints were on file with the FBI because of some matter in Washington State. Lieutenant William Zbacnik said that it was unclear at that point why Rachael’s fingerprints were on file in Washington State. And Zbacnik would not even say at that point if Cruise had been murdered. He did say
there were no visible wounds on her body.
Rachael’s family, not unlike that of Jessica Frederick’s family, spoke of her as having drug problems, but she was also a mother who loved her children. Rachael’s brother, Christian Cruise, said that Rachael “was making inroads with her children, and she was determined to find another job. Whatever she went through in life, she always loved her kids.”
Rachael’s mother added, “My daughter was a trusting type who overlooked the bad in people. She had a happy-go-lucky approach to life and was happiest when she was crocheting, hanging out with her kids, or singing along to her favorite tunes.”
A few days later, police addressed the media about Rachael Cruise’s case, and said that she had been strangled and smothered to death. And the police also said that contents of Rachael’s purse had been found near Verne Roberts Circle, some distance away from where her body was discovered.
Adding to all of this mystery was the near-fatal beating of a prostitute in Bay Point near Pittsburg, on December 15. That woman was found in a portable toilet near a rest stop on Willow Pass Road. She remained in critical condition at John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek with a broken jaw, damaged eye socket, and facial cuts and bruises. This woman was later identified as thirty-eight-year-old Tammie Davis, of Bay Point.
One prostitute from the area, who only identified herself as “Gemini,” told a reporter, “We’re all talking about it and being more careful. The cops seem to be making a bigger effort to get a lot of prostitutes off the street, but it doesn’t really matter. They can’t always tell who is and who isn’t a prostitute.”
And then, incredibly, it happened again—on January 8, 1999. The body of Valerie Dawn “China” Schultz, twenty-seven, was found in a ditch along a barren stretch of Willow Pass Road, near Bay Point, not far from Pittsburg. Valerie had only lived in the area for a week before her body was found. She had grown up in Pleasant Hill in Contra Costa County, but had recently been living with her boyfriend in Kentucky. Her father, who lived in Minnesota, didn’t even know his daughter had returned to Contra Costa County.