aug 1, 1966 - Susan Muriel Box & Caree Lee Collison RAPE & DOUBLE HOMICIDE

Description:

On Monday, August 1, 1966, friends Caree Collison, 14, and Susan Box, 15, were hitchhiking on their way to a babysitting job when they were kidnapped by a man named Dennis Stanworth, who violently attacked, raped, and shot them. The pair were left where they were shot in Pinole, Contra Costa County, CA. Susan died almost instantly after being shot in the head.

Caree, however, remained alive yet comatose when the girls were found two days later, on August 3, 1966. However, she died almost a month later after undergoing brain surgery.

Two days after the attack, on August 3rd, Stanworth forced his way into an 18-year-old girl's car in Pacifica, San Mateo County, CA and told her to drive him to his car, which he claimed was disabled. Once she did, he threatened her with a knife and robbed and bound her with wire. He forced her out of the car, strangled her with his hands, and raped her. He left her on the beach with her hands loosely bound; she freed herself and eventually notified authorities, who apprehended Stanworth in the girl's car a few hours later. He was not yet tied to the murders of Caree and Susan, and it's unknown why he was eventually let free.

Nine days after that incident, on August 12th, Stanworth did the same exact thing again, this time with a 20-year-old woman in Richmond, Contra Costa County, CA, with the rape occurring in Berkeley, Alameda County. It seems that after being arrested for this latest incident, Stanworth also confessed to the double murder.

Stanworth had previously been convicted for two other assaults, with the most recent one prior to the murders — on May 13, 1966 — having an identical MO to the later ones, though instead of "full-on" rape he instead groped and forced fellatio on his victim. In the earliest incident, which occurred on November 4, 1965, Stanworth seized a young woman who was walking home on a dark road, forced her into a field while threatening her with an ice pick, and bound, robbed, and raped her.

Stanworth ultimately pleaded guilty on all counts regarding the Contra Costa County rapes and murders, and was convicted.

I found out about this case while looking through newspaper archives.

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CONFIRMATION OF COMPLETION DATE: May 31, 2025
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LUNAR PHASE:
ZODIAC SIGN:
DAY OF WEEK: Monday

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