The Keddie Cabin Murders

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In July of 1979, Glenna Susan "Sue" Sharp and her five children, John, fifteen,  Ohhhhh Sheila, fourteen, Tina, twelve, Ricky, ten, and Greg, five, left her home in Connecticut after separating from her abusive husband, James Sharp, and their excessively turbulent marriage. She decided to take her children to northern California, where her brother Don lived. She began renting a small one-bedroom trailer formerly occupied by her brother at the Claremont Trailer Village in Quincy. Obviously, the cramped trailer wasn't working for the family so, the following fall, she moved to house #28 in the rural Sierra Nevada resort town of Keddie. 

 

The resort was having financial troubles and had converted its once massively successful cabins into low-income housing. The house was much larger than the trailer and had become available when Plumas County's then-sheriff, Sylvester Douglas Thomas, moved out. The cabin was a bit beat up, but there were three rooms and plenty of other families nearby. The oldest son Johnny took the unfinished basement, her youngest boys, Rick and Greg, took a bedroom, Sue and Tina shared a room, and Sheila had a bedroom. The kids all had friends their own ages to hang out with, and, at least for that moment, everyone seemed happy and content.

 

Sue's ex-husband, James, had been in the Navy so, the family was familiar with moving a lot, and they looked forward to being in one place for a while. However, sue had a hard time making ends meet. She received $250 from her ex-husband, food stamps, and social welfare. She was also enrolled in a federal education program that gave her money to attend classes at the local community college.

Sue was taking business classes. Her classmates said she was a good student. Sue worked hard and obtained excellent grades. However, her classmates also said she was a loner; she didn't join in on coffee breaks and preferred studying alone rather than in a group setting. Perhaps years of abuse had taken a toll on her.

 

Sue faced a lot of stigmatism in the community. People didn't seem like she was on welfare and appeared to date many men. People gossiped, as nosy assholes always do, and accused her of dealing drugs or sleeping with men for money.

A significant reason for the gossip was that Sue just kept to herself. She didn't make many friends; this was most likely because she had spent most of her adult life moving and wasn't accustomed to establishing lasting friendships. Coming from someone that moved around a lot, it's always easier to distance yourself than to create relationships that could disappear at any given moment.

Sue didn't seem to mind being alone, and she didn't care what the Bridgettes and Mikes of the neighborhood had thought about her. She just looked forward to building her life. She wanted to own a small business, buy a house suitable for the kids and, most importantly, keep them safe.

 

On April 11, 1981, around 11:30 am, Sue, Sheila, and Greg drove from their friends' residence, the Meeks family, to pick up ten-year-old Ricky, who was attending baseball tryouts at Gansner Field in Quincy. They happened upon the oldest son, John, and his friend, Dana Hall Wingate hitchhiking from Quincy to Keddie and picked them up, then drove about 6 miles (9.7 km) toward Keddie. Two hours later, around 3:30 pm, John and Dana hitchhiked back to Quincy, where they may have had plans to visit friends for a party. Around this time, the two were seen in the city's downtown area.

 

That same evening, fourteen-year-old Sheila had plans to spend the night with the Seabolt family, who lived in a nearby cabin. At the same time, Sue remained at home with Rick, Greg, and the boys' young friend, Justin. The three boys had spent most of the day riding bikes and playing outside. Damn, I miss those days. Sheila left their home shortly after 8:00 pm, leaving her mother alone with the younger children. Twelve-year-old Tina, who had been watching television at the Seabolt's, returned home around 9:30 pm after Sheila arrived at the Seabolts' to spend the night. So, mom's at home with  Ricky, Greg, their friend Justin and Tina on a Saturday night, just hanging out. John and his buddy were supposed to come home that night, but it was never apparent when.

 

Little Greg was the first to go to bed around 8:30 pm. Then Tina around 9:30. Ricky and Justin joined Sue to watch Love Boat, and then they went to bed around 10:00 pm. Sue remained on the couch watching TV, dozing off, but not ready to turn in. More than likely, she was waiting for John and Dana to return before calling it a night.

 

Around 7:00 am on Sunday, April 12, Sheila returned home to change clothes and head to church with the Seabolt's. What she discovered was something out of a nightmare; the dead bodies of Sue, John, and Dana in the house's living room. She recognized her brother John lying face up, covered in blood. Another boy was face down, and they were both tied at the feet. She saw a yellow blanket covering what she thought looked like another body, but she didn't know who. She ran out of the cabin, screaming, back to the Seabolt's who called the police. All three had been bound with medical tape and electrical cords. Tina was absent from the home, while the three younger children—Rick, Greg, and Justin—were unharmed in an adjacent bedroom. Initial reports stated that the three young boys had slept through the incident, though later contradicted. Sheila and James Seabolt Jr. went back to Cabin 28 to find the rest of the family. Looking into the cabin's windows, they saw the youngest boys and Justin sleeping in their bedroom. They woke them up by tapping on the window and insisted that they crawl through it, so they didn't have to see the horrors in the living room. James Seabolt later admitted to having briefly entered the home through the back door to see if anyone was still alive, potentially contaminating evidence in the process.

 

The murders of Sue, John, and Dana were incredibly ferocious. Two bloodied knives and one hammer were found at the scene. One of the knives (a steak knife later determined to have been used in the murders) had been bent at roughly 30 degrees, demonstrating the amount of aggression administered in the slayings. Blood spatter evidence from inside the house indicated that the murders of Sue, John, and Dana had all taken place in the living room. Tina was still unaccounted for.

 

This shit is pretty rough, so you've been warned. 

 

Sue was found lying on her side near the living room sofa, nude from the waist down. She had been gagged with a blue bandana and her own panties, which had been secured with tape. She had been stabbed in the chest, her throat was stabbed horizontally, the wound going so deep that it went through her larynx and nicked her spine. On the side of her head was an imprint matching the butt of a Daisy 880 Powerline BB/pellet rifle. John's throat was slashed. Dana had multiple head injuries and had been manually strangled to death. In addition, John and Dana suffered blunt-force trauma to their heads caused by a hammer or hammers. Autopsies determined that Sue and John died from knife wounds and blunt-force trauma. Dana had died by asphyxiation.

 

Sheila and the Seabolt family (remember, Sheila had spent the night in the with them) heard no commotion during the night; a couple living in nearby house #16 was awakened at 1:15 am by what sounded like muffled screaming. Tina's jacket, shoes, and a toolbox containing various tools were missing from the house. There were no signs of forced entry, meaning the family possibly knew the killer or killers. The house's telephone had been taken off the hook and the cord cut from the outlet. The drapes were pulled closed.

 

The crime scene wasn't contained. The Plumas County Sheriff's Office initially handled it. Unfortunately, it was riddled with errors and oversights. Deputy Hank Klement was first on the scene, and he confirmed all three bodies were deceased.

Sergeant Jerry Shaver was next on the scene and spoke to a group of people outside, taking their statements. At some point, Shaver and Klement walked through the house, "reviewing the scene."

Sheriff Sylvester Stillbone Doug Thomas and assistant Sheriff Ken Shanks came to the scene, and then Don Stoy joined them. The scene now had five men walk through it (seven if you consider that James and Sheila had also entered the scene), none of whom knew how to preserve a crime scene.

It wasn't until all five men had walked through the home that photographs of the scene were taken. Next, officers did house-by-house welfare checks and interviewed potential witnesses, and it wasn't until several hours that officers noticed Tina was unaccounted for.

 

Original composite sketches of two suspects based on testimony from Justin, who claimed to have witnessed the crimes.

Justin gave conflicting stories of the evening, including that he had dreamed details of the murders. However, he later claimed to have actually witnessed them. In his later account of events, told under hypnosis, Justin claimed to have awoken to sounds coming from the living room while asleep in the bedroom with Rick and Greg. Investigating these sounds, he saw Sue with two men: one with a mustache and short hair, the other clean-shaven with long hair; both wore glasses. According to Justin, John and Dana entered the home and began heatedly arguing with the men. A fight ensued, after which Tina entered the room and was taken out of the cabin's back door by one of the men.

Based on Justin's descriptions, composite sketches of the two unknown men were produced by Harlan Embry, a man with no artistic ability and no training in forensic sketching. It was never explained why, with access to the Justice Department's and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's top forensic artists, law enforcement chose to use an amateur who sometimes volunteered to help local police. In press releases accompanying the sketches, the suspects were described as being in their late 20s to early 30s; one stood between 5 feet 11 inches (1.80 m) to 6 feet 2 inches (1.88 m) tall with dark-blonde hair, and the other between 5 feet 6 inches (1.68 m) and 5 feet 10 inches (1.78 m) with black, greased hair. Both wore gold-framed sunglasses.

 

Rumors regarding the crimes being ritualistic or motivated by drug trafficking were dismissed by Plumas County Sheriff Doug Thomas. In the week following the murders, he stated that no drug paraphernalia or illegal drugs were found in the home. Carla McMullen, a family acquaintance, later told detectives that Dana Wingate had recently stolen an unknown quantity of LSD from local drug dealers. However, she was unable to provide proof of this claim. About 4,000 man-hours were spent working the case, which Thomas described as "frustrating." In December 1983, detectives ruled out serial killers Henry Lee Lucas and Ottis Toole as potential suspects. (Bonus)

 

Tina's disappearance was initially investigated by the FBI as a possible abduction. However, 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." A grid pattern search of the area covering a 5-mile (8.0 km) radius around the house was conducted with police canines, but the efforts were fruitless.

 

The hope at the time was that Tina was hiding in the woods. She was known to create forts and hideouts. However, On April 22, 1984, three years and eleven days after the murders, roughly 100 miles (160 km) from Keddie, a bottle collector discovered the top of a human skull and part of a jaw bone at Camp Eighteen near Feather Falls in neighboring Butte County. Shortly after announcing the discovery, the Butte County Sheriff's Office received an anonymous call that identified the remains as belonging to Tina. Still, the call was not documented in the case. However, a deputy assigned to the case in 2013 found a recording of this call. It was at the bottom of an evidence box. The remains were confirmed by a forensic pathologist to be those of Tina in June 1984. Near the remains, detectives discovered a blue nylon jacket, a blanket, a pair of Levi Strauss jeans with a missing back pocket, and an empty medical tape dispenser.

 

According to truecrimemysteries.medium.com,

 

The most confusing thing about the homicide was that three young boys slept through the entire ordeal. The killers just left them as potential witnesses. Ricky and Greg supposedly had no recollection, and the first thing they remembered was Sheila waking them.

Justin reported telling his mother that he had dreamed he had heard noises in the living room. When he opened the bedroom door, he saw Sue talking to two men, and Johnny and Dana walking in the front door and began arguing with the men, a fight broke out, and Tina came into the room but was quickly taken outside by one of the men.

It is important to note that Justin's testimonies changed at various points in his life, and the most detailed recount he gave was under hypnosis. So his statement also doesn't quite align with the evidence, but it is strongly believed that he was a witness, and the trauma of the ordeal is why he doesn't have a robust and consistent memory.

 

As we mentioned, investigators found two bloody kitchen knives used with such force that one was severely bent, a hammer, and a pellet gun. In addition, each victim had been bound with medical tape and electrical cords taken from various appliances around the home and extension cords.

 

Evidence collected by investigators were drops of blood on Tina's bed, a bloody footprint in the yard, knife marks on various walls in the home, and a bloody fingerprint on the inside of a door frame and a railing.

It is strongly believed that at least two people would have been needed to control the chaos. The killers were also in no rush. The victims died of their wounds, except for Dana. There were lone pools of blood on the living room floor, indicating the boys had been moved and repositioned. The bottoms of Sue's bare feet and one of the boy's shoes were covered in blood, suggesting that they were mobile and had walked in blood at one point.

Detectives noted a lack of fingerprints and identifiable DNA left at the scene. This led the detectives to believe that the suspects wore gloves and were prepared. Forensic evidence wasn't collected until the mid-1980s, so hair, skin cells, and other DNA transfers weren't gathered from the scene. All blood at the scene was determined to belong to the victims.

 

The Plumas County Sheriff's department interviewed everyone in the Keddie cabins and anyone else who knew the victims. Among those interviewed was Justin Eason's stepfather, Martin Smartt. A neighbor and main suspect, Martin Smartt, claimed that a claw hammer had inexplicably gone missing from his home. Plumas County Sheriff Sylvester Thomas, who presided over the case, later stated that Martin had provided "endless clues" in the case that seemed to "throw the suspicion away from him." In addition to interviewing the Smartts, detectives interviewed numerous other locals and neighbors; several, including members of the Seabolt family, recalled seeing a green van parked at the Sharps' house around 9:00 pm.

 

According to Smartt, on the night of the murder, he, his friend John "Bo" Boubede, and his wife Marilyn had stopped at Sue's cabin to invite her to the bar with them. Sue declined, and they went to the bar. Smartt complained to the manager about the music being played at the bar. They left shortly afterward and headed back to the Smartt cabin, walking by cabin 28. Marilyn went to bed around 11 pm, and the men went back to the bar to have more drinks.

He said that he and Bo had returned home around midnight. Since the police hadn't released information that a hammer was missing from the crime scene, this put Martin at the top of the suspect list.

 

Martin had met Boubede a few weeks before April 11, while in a Veterans hospital where Martin was receiving treatments for PTSD from serving in Vietnam.

The Smartt's moved Boubede into their home until he could get on his feet. Boubede allegedly didn't think highly of Johnny Sharp calling him a "Punk."

Boubede had told the people in Keddie that he had been a cop, and Martin was friendly with most officers. Someone in the sheriff's department allegedly tipped off Martin and Boubede that they were suspects, and both men quickly found work outside of California.

Boubede was thought to have gone back to Chicago, and Smartt found a job in Nevada. Boubede died in Chicago in 1988.

Martin Smartt wasn't the best husband. He was said to have cheated on his wife. He was abusive and prone to violent outbursts and sold drugs. He had worked at the Keddie hotel as a cook but had been fired some weeks before the murders.

Sue, Martin, and Marilyn had all been taking the same business courses, and it was said that Sue had been counseling Marilyn on leaving her husband. After April 11, Martin took work in Nevada, and his marriage to Marilyn began to deteriorate.

He had sent her a letter where it sounds as though he is confessing to the murders. The letter reads as follows:

 

"I've paid the price for your love, and now I've bought it with four lives and you tell me we're through. Great!"

 

They did divorce eventually, and Marilyn got remarried. 

Martin regularly saw a counselor for his PTSD. According to the counselor, Smartt admitted that he had "killed Sue and Tina but had nothing to do with the boys. Tina had to be killed because she had seen everything".

The counselor allegedly told Plumas County Sheriff's Office what Smartt had told her, but there is no evidence of that statement ever taken.

Martin died of cancer in Portland, Oregon, in June 2000. However, Marilyn did go on the record to state she believed her ex-husband and Bo Boubede were responsible for the murders. After she had gone to bed, she said they went back to the bar, and at 2 am, she woke up to find them burning unknown items in the woodstove.

Although there is no evidence to corroborate her statements, it would explain why Justin was left with the younger boys sleeping. It may also explain why Justin's story changed, he could have blocked it from trauma, or he may have been threatened to stay quiet.

 

Keddie and the rest of Plumas County were never the same after April 11. It changed the community, and people were haunted. Many believed that someone among them had or knew who had committed the attacks.

People began locking their doors at night. There were strong beliefs in the community that the Plumas County Sheriff's Office had quietly tucked the case away. Many believed that some leads weren't followed, evidence wasn't checked, some evidence was ignored completely.

 

The house in which the murders occurred was demolished in 2004.

 In 2016, a hammer was found in a pond near Cabin 28 by someone using a metal detector in the area. It matched the description of the hammer Martin had claimed to have lost and it and a knife that was also found at the scene was taken into evidence by Plumas County Special Investigator Mike Gamberg. Plumas County Sheriff Hagwood, who was sixteen years old at the time of the murders and knew the Sharp family personally, stated: "the location it was found... It would have been intentionally put there. It would not have been accidentally misplaced." Gamberg also said that six potential suspects were being examined at that time.

 

In April 2018, Gamberg stated that DNA evidence recovered from a piece of tape at the crime scene matched that of a known living suspect. No word on if they have been any aid to the investigation. There is still a $5,000 reward for any leads leading to an arrest and prosecution. The lead investigators currently working on the case are confident that they will have this solved soon. They are quoted as saying,

"There are persons of interest still living who knew or participated in this crime and should now be worried."

Sheila Sharp continues to work with law enforcement and the media to keep her family's cold case alive.

Gamberg and his partner Hagwood say they are closer now to solving this case than ever before.

"I think it would lift an incredible weight to clear the dark skies that have hung over that community and the surviving family members," Hagwood said. 

The surviving family members have been severely impacted by this case. 

"Things came to an abrupt screeching halt. Opportunities and experiences that were denied. By such a cruel heinous act. It's unforgivable," Hagwood said. 

To solve this case, a weight would be lifted. Darkness would no longer cloud Keddie and the minds of all those involved.

"I believe in one-way shape or form we are going to pull this together," Detective Gamberg said. 

Anyone with information is asked to call the Plumas County Sheriff's office at (530) 283-6360.