4 – The Keddie Murders (1981)
This is one of the most shocking unsolved mass slayings in American history. There were four victims (Glenna Sharp, her son John, daughter Tina, and John’s friend Dana Wingate). The murders took place in Cabin 28 in Keddie, California on April 11, 1981. Unlike many old homicide cases, police continue to look for the killer; mainly because new evidence came to light as recently as 2016.
Glenna Sharp had rented Cabin 28 since November 1980 and lived in the small community of Keddie with her five children. On the fateful night, she was in the cabin while her two youngest sons played with their friend in an adjacent room. Tina returned home at around 10 p.m. after spending the evening with neighbors in Cabin 27. The next morning, Sheila Sharp, Glenna’s 14-year-old daughter, found a shocking scene when she returned after a sleepover at a friend’s house.
Glenna, John, and Dana lay dead on the floor; all three were bound and murdered with knives and a claw hammer covered in blood at the scene. Forensic examination revealed that two different hammers were used (one was missing). Glenna and John were repeatedly stabbed, Dana was strangled, and Glenna was also beaten with a rifle. The gun was never found, but another knife turned up in a bin behind the local general store. The number of weapons used and the chaos at the scene suggest at least two killers if not more. Tina was missing, and her body wasn’t discovered for three years until part of a skull was found at Camp Eighteen almost 30 miles away. An anonymous phone call told police it was Tina Sharp and a medical examination proved it. Police searched the surrounding area and found more bone fragments belonging to Tina.
It is remarkable that four murders with so much physical evidence remain unsolved after over 30 years. Why was Tina taken from Cabin 28 while the others died? Glenna had two other children in the cabin; why were they left alone and why didn’t they hear anything? More to the point, why did the neighbors hear nothing? The scene was one of extreme violence and struggle, and would surely have made a lot of noise.
John Boubede and Marty Smartt lived in Cabin 26, and both men had criminal records. Smartt was the prime suspect at the time of the murders because he was angry at Glenna’s interference in his failing marriage. Smartt wrote a letter to his wife Marilyn where he said: “I’ve paid the price for your love & now that I’ve bought it with four lives…” A therapist in Reno, Nevada claims Smartt confessed to the killings, and he told the police; he was shocked the confession was never used against the man. Certainly, it isn’t a far-fetched theory, although he would have needed an accomplice (Boubede perhaps?).
In March 2016, Mark Gamberg, Plumas County Special Investigator, took a bloody hammer into evidence. It matched the description of the ‘missing’ hammer from the Keddie killings. According to Sheriff Hagwood, it was deliberately left in the location where it was found. Will this new evidence help solve the mystery of Cabin 28? Time will tell.