dec 10, 1969 - Leona LaRell Roberts

Description:

16yo; On Dec. 10, Leona arrived at the apartment of her boyfriend, Greg V. Vaio (21yo), a barber, at 749 Tormey Ave, Rodeo, CA, after her first shift as a cashier at a store in Pleasant Hill. Neighbors saw her arrive at ~6pm. She had driven there in her orange 1965 VW bug. She had told her mother that she was going to be home no later than 9pm. She was visiting Vaio's apartment to cook dinner for the two of them while Vaio was at work.

Some time later, neighbors saw an unfamiliar blue station wagon in front of the apartment house. The driver was described as ~25yo, ~5'7 & 180lb, with short blond hair and a light brown jacket.
~6:15pm: An upstairs neigbor, Mrs Susan Clark, heard screams. She then noticed record player music from below and heard a front door slam. Another neighbor said she saw the unfamiliar station wagon pull away, and its driver was "acting nervous."
When Vaio arrived home not long afterward (either "minutes" afterward, or at ~7pm), Leona was not there. Leona's purse was taken, but her car remained where she parked it. Her white work smock had been left behind. A 2ft Christmas tree had been "knocked off a hassock" inside the apartment; a "sofa pillow" appeared to have been jammed against the tree and an end table (perhaps to muffle noise?). From there, searches for Leona began.

Dec. 10 & Dec. 11: someone (Zodiac) sent two letters with pasted horoscope clippings entitled "Day-By-Day Forecast For Cancer" and "Day-By-Day Forecast For Leo" (could be interpreted as "[...] Forecast For Leona Roberts"). These communications were not publicly reported until some time after Jan. 4, 1970.

Dec. 28, ~2:00 or 2:45pm: her nude body was found on the beach at Bolinas Lagoon in Marin County by Ward Montague of Mill Valley, an older man searching for driftwood.

Her body was found lying ~17ft east of the roadway, and ~0.75mi south of the junction of Shoreline Highway & Olema-Bolinas Rd. She was found lying on the beach ~25ft from the water's edge, w/ the tide far out. The tide had earlier been up that high, however.
Investigators said that the condition of the legs indicated that they could have been in the water, but the rest of the body did not show the usual signs of submersion. Investigators theorized that she had been dumped from Bolinas Rd, rather than being washed ashore. Another clipping says that, "Investigators speculated the body was placed on the beach several days ago after it had been carried through a thicket of trees and bushes."

On her body was a 1963 Napa High School class ring with the initial "JAS," given to her 1.5yrs earlier by a friend. There were no external wounds or marks evident on the body. Drug tests were run, but I couldn't find the results in newspapers. No COD could be established due to how badly decomposed she was.

The coroner theorized that she had been alive 10-14 days after her abduction (alive but captive from Dec. 10th to Dec. 20-24), and concluded that she had likely been dead 4-7 days prior to recovery (Dec. 21-24). She was identified through dental records and fingerprints.

Sun., Jan. 4, 1970: Peggy Trainer (18yo), of Rodeo, received two phone calls from an unidentified man. He first called her at 10:20pm, then again ~5min later. On the first call, he identified himself as the Zodiac and said that she (Trainer) would be his next victim. He then laughed when she asked who he was, then she hung up. When he called again, he told her not to hang up, but she did, then left her apartment and stayed with an upstairs neighbor until her husband arrived home. These calls were first reported in newspapers the following day.

Trainer is variously reported as to have been living "next door to the apartment from which Leona Roberts was abducted"; "of 180 1/2 Napa Ave., Rodeo"; "of 180 1.2 Napa Ave., which, deputies note, is next door to the apartment from which Leona Roberts was abducted"; and "lives directly behind the apartment from which Miss Roberts disappeared."

Tues., Jan. 6, 1970: Trainer received two more phone calls, which she believed to be from the same man who called her two days earlier. At ~1am, someone called her but did not speak when Trainer answered the phone. Later, at 12:15pm, she received another phone call, during which a man laughed. Police believed all the calls could have been a hoax, but investigated anyway just in case due to the proximity to where Leona disappeared.

Newspapers at the time stated that Roberts's murder could have been committed by the Zodiac. In 1986, Robert Graysmith published a list of 49 confirmed & possible Zodiac victims. The list includes SRHM victims, and murders with some similarties to the SRHM crimes. This includes Roberts's murder


DECEMBER 10th
LUNAR PHASE: waxing crescent
ZODIAC SIGN: sagittarius
DAY OF WEEK: Wednesday
Moon perigee 15:45

DEC. 21
LUNAR PHASE: waxing gibbous
ZODIAC SIGN: sagittarius
DAY OF WEEK: Sunday
EVENTS: Winter Solstice
Ursids meteor shower 23:00

DEC. 22
LUNAR PHASE: waxing gibbous
ZODIAC SIGN: capricorn
DAY OF WEEK: Monday
EVENTS: Dec. 25 = Christmas (3 days later); Dec. 21 = Winter Solstice (2 days earlier)

DEC. 28
LUNAR PHASE: waning gibbous
ZODIAC SIGN: capricorn
DAY OF WEEK: Sunday
EVENTS: Dec. 25 = Christmas (3 days earlier); Dec. 31 = New Years Eve (3 days later); Dec. 21 = Winter Solstice (7 days earlier)
Moon-Regulus 6:22

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