[24] According to Justin, John and Dana then entered the home and began heatedly arguing with the men. The anonymous counselor told him that in May 1981, Martin Smartt had confessed to killing Sue and Tina Sharp. Investigators Allude to a Break in the Keddie Cabin Murders The 1981 murder of Sue, Johnny, Tina Sharp and Dana Wingate remains a mystery, but we may be seeing an arrest soon. Keddie Murders Revisited Following the Clues, May 3, 2018.Metcalf, Victoria. In 2016, a hammer, which could have been the one Smartt reportedly said he lost, was found in a pond near where the Keddie cabin once stood. The living room was in complete chaos, and Sue, John, and Johns friend, Dana, were dead on the floor. Sheila would spend the night at the Seabolts. People Magazine Investigates continues with new episodes that air Mondays (10 p.m. [26], Tina's disappearance was initially investigated by the FBI as a possible abduction,[19] though it was reported on April 29, 1981, that the FBI had "backed off" the search as the California State Department of Justice was doing an "adequate job" and "made the FBI's presence unnecessary. Victims,. From the ground level in the back of the house, a flight of stairs led up to the main living area. Dana had multiple head injuries and had been manually strangled to death. Published October 18, 2021 Updated November 1, 2021 Between April 11 and April 12, 1981, Glenna "Sue" Sharp and three others were brutally killed in the resort town of Keddie, California. Martin was a known drug dealer and Bo was connected to Chicago crime syndicates with financial interests in drug distribution. His throat had been slit. Everyone called her Sue. Its my belief that there were more than two people who were involved in the totality of the crimethe disposal of the evidence and the abduction of the little girl, Hagwood said. (Metcalf: 2018). The girls shared one, and the younger boys shared the other. Tape secured the gag in place. Keddie, California.Sue Sharp, her teenage son John, and his friend Dana Wingate are found brutally murdered in the Sharp family's cabin at Keddie Resort in the Sierra Nevada. Also note how close the cabin is to its neighbor. Martys counselor at the Veterans Administration in Reno told police that Marty confessed to killing Sue and Tina but not the two boys. It would not have been accidentally misplaced." [16] The remains were confirmed by a forensic pathologist to be those of Tina in June 1984. It was true that investigators failed to log numerous pieces of evidence and overlooked leads. The clues suggested that the perpetrators abducted her. In his dreams, he saw two men in the front room of the cabin. When she opened the door, Sharp was horrified to find the bodies of her mother, brother John, and her brother's friend, Dana Wingate, covered in blood on the floor of the front room. Was it possible that he either witnessed the murders or awoke at some point during the night but had blocked it out? His friend Dana was on the floor beside him on his stomach. The Keddie Murders is an unsolved 1981 American quadruple murder that took place in Keddie, a former resort town in the foothills of California's Sierra Nevada. Justin also claimed that Tina came out shortly after, and one of the men abducted her out the back door. If she did turn in a jacket, the police, once again, did not acknowledge it as evidence. covered it up, is the way it sounds. He alleges that Bo and Martin fit into a larger drug-smuggling scheme that involved the federal government. Gamberg and the owner ofKeddie28.com,who goes by the name DMAC, believe that Sue Sharp and Marty Smartt were having an affair. Keddie28 reports she was attending business classes at the Feather River Community College, where she was purportedly a "good student" who worked hard to maintain high grades. Unfortunately, many hours passed since her disappearance, and the chance of anyone finding her nearby was slim. The Keddie family about four years before the murders. Both men had been seen in suits and ties behaving oddly in the bar the night before. Sue packed her children up and moved across the country from North Carolina to the Golden State. In 1980, the Sharp family 36-year-old Glenna "Sue", her 15-year-old son John, 14-year-old daughter Sheila, 12-year-old daughter Tina, and 10-year-old Rick and five-year-old Greg moved from. Although authorities believe they were both involved in the Keddie cabin murders, they think they may have had help. Later, police learned that maybe not all the boys had actually been asleep. They were still asleep and seemingly unaware of what happened. We sheltered them, she says about her brothers in the aftermath of the murders. 117: Murdaugh's Maid's Son Testifes To The Millions Alex . After looking around and searching for survivors, he rejoined the others outside. From the front door, their small wooden cabin opened to the living room. Eliminated as a suspect, despite actually confessing to the Keddie murders, was Robert Joseph Silveria Jr., the so-called "Boxcar Killer". Three of Sue's children were with her, Tina, 12; Ricky, 10; and Greg, 5. The murders took place in house No. A fight ensued,[24] after which Tina entered the room and was taken out of the cabin's back door by one of the men. [24], According to a 2016 article published by The Sacramento Bee, Martin had left Keddie and driven to Reno, Nevada, shortly after the murders; from there, he sent a letter to Marilyn ruminating on personal struggles in their marriage, which he concluded with: "I've paid the price of your love & now I've bought it with four people's lives. It also provides an explanation as to why the two lead suspects were seemingly given a free pass and told to leave town by Sheriff Thomas. Great! Near her bones in the woods, detectives also discovered a pair of jeans with a missing back pocket, a blue jacket, a blanket, and an empty surgical tape dispenser. [10] Tina, who had been watching television at the Seabolt residence, was told by Sheila that Sue wanted Tina home by 10 PM, so Tina returned to #28 around 9:55 pm. [29], On March 24, 2016, a hammer matching the description of the hammer Martin claimed to have lost was discovered in a local pond[19] and taken into evidence by Plumas County Special Investigator Mike Gamberg. More evidence uncovered in Keddie murders case. The police never admitted this letter as evidence. A GRAPHIC Look Back at the Keddie Murders On the morning of April 11, 1981, 14-year-old Sheila Sharp returned from a neighbor's house after a sleepover and stumbled upon the most disturbing and gruesome scene that she and the rest of Keddie, California, had ever seen. "[17], Martin Smartt died of cancer in Portland, Oregon, in June 2000. On the night of April 11, 1981, four people were brutally murdered in Cabin 28 of the Keddie resort in Northern California. Despite his lies and inconsistencies in his stories, police cleared him as a suspect. Unfortunately, they couldnt determine where the sounds came from and went back to sleep. Killers Von Taylor, and Edward Deli, were ex-cons, and on the run from their half-way house. [25], Rumors regarding the crimes being ritualistic or motivated by drug trafficking were dismissed by Plumas County Sheriff Doug Thomas, who stated in the week following the murders that no drug paraphernalia or illegal drugs were found in the home. They had apparently slept through the entire massacre which had unfolded mere feet from their beds. Martin Smartt later told the police that he had a hammer that matched the one discovered and also that his hammer and gone missing shortly before the murders. This murder is shrouded in mystery, leaving behind a messy and compelling trail of clues. However, it was simply too small for the family of six. [19] John's throat was slashed. 28 of the Keddie Resort. About the Cabin 28 Keddie Murders Case: The morning of April 12, 1981, Glenna Sue Sharp and her kids, Tina and John, and John's friend, Dana Wingate, were brutally murdered inside house #28 in Keddie, California. At least one other person was killed that night: her teenage brother's friend, whose body also was found by then 14-year-old Sheila on the living room floor of Cabin 28 in Keddie, California, on. On the morning of April 12, 1981 Sheila Sharp awoke from a neighbors sleep over and went next door to her house to drop off her blankets. The Keddie Cabin murders is one of the most gruesome and mysterious unsolved cases in American history. On the floor lay her mother Glenna (Sue) Sharp36, her brother Johnny Sharp15, and Johns friend Dana Wingate17. Trampling through dead leaves, they stepped inside the perimeter of where the cabin once sat. Her brother, who would help her and the children start a new life, lived in Quincy, California, about 150 miles north of Sacramento. The Keddie Cabin Murders: Inside The Grisly Quadruple Homicide That Still Haunts California. Marilyn also provided a letter she received from Marty, in which she said he confessed to the Keddie cabin murders. Note the sign on the front tree proclaims this was a home where a mom and her five children lived. It was Sharps mother, Sue, brother John and his friend Dana, laying in a pool of blood, bound with medical tape and appliance wire. Sheriff Thomas called the Sacramento Department of Justice which then sent in two special agents from their organized crime unit not homicide, which struck many as odd. The bodies of Sue, John, and Dana were found on the morning of April 12 by Sue's 14-year-old daughter, Sheila, who had been sleeping at a friend's house. To this day, the murders remain unsolved. The sheriff at the time of the murders, Doug Thomas, and his deputy. When it was eventually discovered that Tina Sharp was missing, the FBI arrived on the scene. Strangled. Justin said he saw one of the men stab Sue Sharp. However, their friend Justin was not as sure. The town tried to reinvent itself by becoming a recreational camping and hiking resort area. The prevalence of blood suggested to investigators that the victims had been moved and rearranged from the positions in which they were murdered. Sheila Sharp who discovered the victims of the Keddie Cabin 28 murders in 1981, when she was 14 hopes the cold case finally will be resolved By Jeff Truesdell Published on November 25, 2016. As reported by Keddie28, they initially rented a trailer home owned by Sharp's brother. On the morning of April 11, 14-year-old Sheila Sharp stepped into Cabin 28 to a . During his interrogation, Marty offered to the police that his hammer with a blue handle had gone missing. On July 18, 1984, a lone gunman James Oliver Huberty entered a crowded McDonald's with a plan: "hunting for humans." He opened fire on the customers inside the fast-food chain, killing 21 and wounding 19 others. Further, it came to light that Marilyn Smartt, Martys wife and mother of Justin, had left her husband on the day of the murder discovery. with a handwritten letter sent to her and signed by her estranged husband. When police interviewed the three young survivors who had been in the home all three said they had slept . Sue's two younger sons, Rick and Greg, as well as their friend Justin Smartt, were also in the house but were unharmed. Unfortunately, there is no record of this ever happening. Amid his interview with police, authorities learned Smartt and his wife were enrolled in a class with Sue. Then in April 2018, Gamberg matched the DNA from the murder scene to a known living suspect. PEOPLE Magazine Investigates After Show: Survivor Sheila Sharp on the 1981 Keddie Cabin Murders of Her Family For 35 years, Sheila Sharp has tried to repress the memory of finding the. It was later confirmed that Martin was close with this Sheriff. What the 14-year-old girl discovered inside the modest four-room cabin instantly became one of the most macabre scenes in modern American crime history and has come to be known as the gruesome Keddie murders. On this Wikipedia the language links are at the top of the page across from the article title. Rick and Greg claim they were asleep when the others were killed in the next room. Some have speculated that Martin may have killed Sue for revenge, in the mistaken belief that she was responsible for breaking up his marriage. The killers had escaped. However, they onlywent on a few dates, and the last time they saw each other was two days before she was killed. He is the author of a series of published mystery novels and holds a degree in criminal psychology. Although the room was covered in blood, it was all traced back to the victims, as reported by Historic Mysteries. Despite the multitude of evidence and a few suspects, no arrests took place. . Sheilas sister, 12-year-old Tina Sharp, was nowhere to be found. Although both Martin Smartt and Bo Boudebe are now deceased, new DNA evidence has pointed investigators to other suspects who may have had a hand in these murders, and who are still alive. The Sharp family had just moved in to cabin 28 the year before. And I know I always look around. The discovery of Tinas remains raised even more questions than before. [12] Tina's jacket, shoes and a toolbox containing various tools were missing from the house,[6] which showed no indication of forced entry. But the memory of those murders has also stayed with the community and especially with the investigators who have re-opened the case of the 1981 attacks on Sue Sharp, her son Johnny, her daughter Tina, and family friend Dana Wingate. In 1981, Glenda "Sue" Sharp was a single mother who had moved her family of six to Cabin 28 of the Keddie Resort in Keddie, California, part of Plumas County.