22h 30min, apr 27, 1974 y - Dana Marie Lull

Description:

15yo; kidnapped from her boyfriend Roy N Tophigh's (20 or 21yo) vehicle when the two were parked at a lovers lane in the desert Red Rock Canyon area (~15mi west of Las Vegas) in Las Vegas "shortly before midnight" on Sat., Apr. 27, and/or at "about 10:30 pm" (according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal, 5/6/74)

They were at the far end of West Charleston Boulevard; and/or they parked just north of the Calico Basin turnoff. According to Tophigh, a man driving a small sports car drove up to his car and ordered Dana into his car at gunpoint. The man held a pistol to Tophigh's face and warned him not to move, then the man reached in and took the keys out of the ignition & out of the car. The man then walked around to the other side of the car and jerked Dana out; Dana fought and screamed and cried for Tophigh as the gunman dragged her back to his own car. The gunman was dressed in a dark suit and tie, wore gloves, and had glasses on his face; 30-40yo, heavyset (according to one source), ~5'7

While the man was focused on Dana, Tophigh jumped out of his car and ran off into the desert and hid. Dana was calling Tophigh's name from the kidnapper's car, and the kidnapper was calling his name too. The man drove Dana around in the area in his own car for some time, supposedly trying to find Tophigh. The kidnapper then got into Tophigh's car w/ Dana, drove it around while calling his name (which Dana had also called out). Eventually the kidnapper left the area with Dana in his own car. Tophigh ran to the highway and was finally able to flag down a vehicle, which took him to a nearby 7/11, where Tophigh saw a police car and related the incident to the officer

Tues. Apr. 30: the police found the ignition keys to Tophigh's car in the area of the incident, which the kidnapper apparently threw away after driving Tophigh's car

Police had at first been skeptical of Tophigh's version "because of bizarre elements", but by May 1 (though more likely Mon. Apr. 29 and Tues. Apr. 30, b/c that's when they searched the area) they began to take him seriously. They then became fully convinced that it was definitely a legitimate kidnapping once Tophigh passed a polygraph test on Wed., May 1

Descriptions of the kidnapper's car:
- A small sports car (LV Sun, 4/29/74; LV Sun 5/2/74))
- A white Firebird (LV Sun, 5/1/74)
- A low-slung Triumph Spitfire several years old, painted white w/ a black top. It is possibly a convertible, police said (LV Sun, 5/3/74)

Tues., May 14**: her fully-clothed decomposed body found at the bottom of an abandoned Cinnebar Mines shaft ~25mi northwest of Needles, CA, near Barstow. The 25ft-deep mineshaft is in the Saddleback Mountain Range, 2mi north of Interstate 40; The site of where she was found is ~130mi south of LV
** Found either Tues., May 14, Wed., May 15, or Thurs., May 16 (sources vary)

Identified by dental charts and by clothes & jewelry found on the corpse. COD: a single small-caliber gunshot wound; shot in the head with a .22-caliber weapon; had been only shot once. She had been dead for ~2 weeks or ~3 weeks (sources vary; each mentioned once). Police said evidence at the scene indicated she was killed at the entrance to the mineshaft then thrown in. Shell casings were found at the mineshaft

There was initially some speculation that Lull's murder and the 1973 murder of Terry Romeo were connected. In 1978, David Ray Bean was tried & convicted for Romeo's murder. Subsequent investigation exonerated Bean as a suspect in Lull's murder

For a time, it was very strongly believed (albeit never conclusively proven) that Dana Lull’s murder was the work of 21-year-old Michael Knaubert, who was also a suspect in two double kidnappings in Maricopa County, Arizona
Once newspaper clipping provided in the link also mentioned Thomas Francis Darcy in a kidnapping/beating

APRIL 27
LUNAR PHASE: waxing crescent
ZODIAC SIGN: taurus
DAY OF WEEK: Saturday
Moon Perigee 11:55

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