2h 10min, may 18, 1969 y - Rose Tashman ABDUCTION, RAPE, & HOMICIDE

Description:

Rose Tashman was born in Israel; she and her parents — Mr & Mrs Charles Tashman — moved to the US in 1962. Rose graduated from Fairfax High School in June 1967. By 1969, she and her parents lived at 448 N Formosa Ave in Hollywood, and she was a student at San Fernando Valley State College. She planned to enroll in the fall at UCLA. Rose had dark hair and dark eyes.

On the evening/night of Sunday, May 18, 1969, Rose, 19, left her home at 448 N Formosa Ave in Hollywood to study for final exams with a friend who lived in Van Nuys or possibly Panorama City, depending on the source. She eventually departed late in the night, driving home.

At 6pm on Monday, May 19, Sgt Eugene Thompson was on patrol in the area when he spotted a nude female body in the bushes near Mulholland Drive and Coldwater Canyon Rd in the Hollywood Hills. The body was found in a brushy ravine near Beverly Drive, only 0.5mi from where Marina Habe was found four months earlier.

Rose's parents reported her missing either that Monday or on Tuesday, May 20. Police made the connection, and her parents identified the body as Rose's.

She was found nude, and she had been strangled with a piece of wire and raped about nine hours before she was found, putting her death at around 9am Monday. Detectives believed that she had been driven to the spot where her body was found, then raped, strangled, and dumped in the ravine. According to a couple clippings, she had also possibly been beaten.

Rose's car, a 1965 beige Mustang, was found the next day "carefully parked" on the shoulder of the inbound Hollywood Freeway's Highland Ave off-ramp. The car's front left tire was flat. Investigators estimated that the tire went flat at about 2:00 or 2:10am on Monday. Rose had a spare tire in the trunk of her car, however the key to the trunk had been recently stolen and Rose had not yet replaced it.

A string of seven flares had been placed, "beside the auto to warn approaching drivers of the hazard." They had been set around the car, "in a manner which would accommodate another car stopping in front of hers, police said." Rose had flares in the glove compartment of her car, however they had not been disturbed and there were none missing; police believe that the flares belonged to whoever stopped and offered her a lift. Detectives theorized that either someone picked Rose up on the freeway, or she was abducted while walking through the dark streets to find a service station or telephone.

Rose's case is still unsolved. Six months after Rose's death, the body of 19-year-old Reet Jurvetson was also found off of Mulholland Drive, as was Marina Habe's in January 1969. Rose's case was mentioned in contemporary newspaper clippings as bearing resemblance to those of Marina Habe, Reet Jurvetson, Robin Graham, and Mona Jean Gallegos.

According to Wikipedia, Rose's case is thought to be potentially linked to those of Robin Graham, Cheri Jo Bates, Cindy Mellin, Kathleen Johns, Christine Eastin, Ernestine Terrello, and Mona Jean Gallegos. These cases are known by some online — and referred to in this timeline — as the Bad Samaritan Murders.

Rose's murder has also been mentioned multiple times in various Zodiac forums and online spaces, often in conjunction with other cases above. This is how I found out about her murder, hence the Connection tag on this event.

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WRITE-UP COMPLETION DATE: January 26, 2025

Cases mentioned above that are also present on this timeline:
Marina Habe, Reet Jurvetson; Robin Graham, Cheri Jo Bates, Cindy Lee Mellin, Kathleen Johns, Christine Eastin, Ernestine Terrello, and Mona Jean Gallegos
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LUNAR PHASE: waxing crescent
ZODIAC SIGN: taurus
DAY OF WEEK: Sunday
May 18: Neptune Opposition; moon north decreasing 21:07
May 19: moon apogee 21:21
EVENTS: May 11 = Mother's Day (7 days earlier); May 25 = Pentecost Sunday (7 days later); May 26 = Memorial Day (8 days later)

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