jul 7, 1976 - Terri Lynn Ray HOMICIDE

Description:

Fifteen-year-old Terri Lynn Ray had been swimming at Clear Creek in Redding, CA with other neighborhood youths on Wednesday, July 7, 1976. She returned home and changed into her blue jeans and football jersey, with a bathing suit underneath, at about 5:30pm. Shortly beforehand she had talked with a friend of hers, Willie Bailey, and they had agreed to meet up at the swimming hole at 8:30pm. According to Terri's mother, Laverne, "[Terri] didn't seem upset at all. She was kidding us about eating a burrito for dinner. There was nothing to me out of the ordinary." She had told her mother that she was going to meet a friend at the swimming hole, and she was told by her mother to be home by midnight.

This was the last time Laverne saw of Terri, as Laverne went out at about 6:45pm. When she returned home five hours later, there was a note inside from Terri, stating that some family friends had called at 7:15pm about dinner the next night.

Willie Bailey told police that he decided not to go to the swimming hole that night, and that the last time he saw Terri was at the intersection of Canyon Rd and Highway 99. Willie's story, that he went to baseball practice and a party rather than swimming, was confirmed by alibi witnesses.

At about 7:30pm, Terri was last seen by neighborhood friends walking her dog, a shepherd mix named Charlie, away from her home at 1942 Canyon Rd toward Clear Creek. A woman familiar with the area reported driving past the creek at 7:50pm, and established that at the time "the water was placid and there was no one in sight." Another person, male, went to the swimming hole at about 9:30pm looking for friends, and also reported that the water was placid and no one was present at the time.

One of Terri's friends, a girl named Carla Benner, reported seeing Terri at the swimming hole at about 8pm talking with a dark-haired, balding man in his 40s. Carla said that she didn't speak with Terri at that time.

At about 8:10pm five individuals reportedly saw Terri sitting in a medium-sized yellow car — possibly an El Camino model pickup — in the parking lot of the Mini Mart, 7200 North Highway 99, with two males and possibly another female, "on the night before her body was discovered in Clear Creek." According to one clipping, this was the "last known sighting" of Terri before she was killed. However, the witnesses vary in their descriptions and "don't even agree on the model of auto. Some aren't sure if it was Terri in the car or someone who looked like her."

When Terri's mother, Laverne, returned to her home at about 11:40pm on July 7, she noticed that Terri's dog Charlie was out of the house. Charlie appeared wet on the legs and bottom of the belly, perhaps from a swim. Also when she returned home, Laverne found a note from Terri inside, stating that some family friends had called at 7:15pm about dinner the following night. According to Laverne, "There was something wrong with that note. It wasn't signed and Terri always signed a message. She always put 'Love ya, Terri,' or 'see you by 12,' or something." The message was verified as accurate, "but it wasn't finished and I had the feeling that someone else had been in the house," according to Laverne. A glass of orange juice had been left in an odd place on a bar, and a hand towel in the front bathroom "was hung in a way that no one in our house hangs a towel."

Two people, a young boy and girl, reported having visited the creek on a stroll between 11:30 and 11:45pm that night. They left and went home after hearing splashes in the water "like someone throwing rocks." According to a detective, "The splashes could have been something as innocent as fish jumping."

When Terri hadn't come home by midnight, Laverne, Terri's brother Mike, 10, stepsister Lori, 16, and stepfather Gary McGuire immediately began a search for her. One of the areas they searched was the swimming hole.

On Thursday, July 8, at 1am, two waitresses at a Denny's Restaurant at 735 Market St said they were nearly certain they saw Terri having coffee with an older man, about 40 years old. One of the women said she didn't recall any apparent tension between the man and the girl. She also said that she thought it was strange that a young girl was sitting so close to an older man. However, detectives state that these sightings, "don't tie in with anything else in the case"; same goes for the sighting of her talking to an older, balding man at the creek.

At 3am on July 8, Laverne called the Shasta County sheriff's office and reported Terri missing. Laverne said that Terri was always on time, and if she was even a few minutes late that she'd call home. Sheriff's deputies reportedly searched the area around the swimming hole (though when they did this prior to her body being found is unclear), but found nothing.

At about noon on July 8, two youths — Mitch Barsky, 19, and Linda Canfield, 29 — were swimming near the Clear Creek Bridge when they found Terri's body floating in Clear Creek near where it flows under State Route 273 and/or near what was then Highway 99 South, and police promptly responded to the scene.

She was originally thought to have been stabbed five or six times, though an autopsy determined that she had been stabbed approximately fifteen times with a knife blade that was about 0.75in wide, though many of the wounds were superficial, and some of them on her hands and arms may have been defensive wounds. She did not have any tissue under her fingernails, indicating that she was unable to scratch her assailant. She also had wounds on her neck, chest, and lower abdomen. Only four of the fifteen total stab wounds were mortal, one being in the neck and the other three in the chest. COD was determined to be deep stab wounds to the chest that punctured both lungs. According to one clipping, "the differing angles of the wounds lead to 'nothing conclusive.'"

The coroner said that Terri could have been dead 16-18hrs before her body was found, though he emphasized that the estimate was difficult to make because she was in the water so long. A single spot of blood on a rock was found at the scene, though there wasn't enough blood to determine if it was hers. It is uncertain if she was killed at the site, though a couple reports note that there were no signs that she died elsewhere and was moved/dragged to the creek. An autopsy found no signs of sexual assault.

In late September 1976, an 18-year-old girl named Tina Lynn Crume made statements incriminating herself regarding Terri's murder while under hypnosis. However, investigators found four witnesses who put Crume elsewhere from the murder scene. After several weeks in jail, Crume was released, and murder charges were dropped on/by October 5, 1976.

Terri's case was reopened in 2013 when, during their yearly review of the case, investigators realized that some evidence in police custody may have DNA on it. This evidence was sent for DNA testing; as of December 2024, I have not found anything about the results of this testing. Terri is still listed among the city of Redding's victims of unsolved homicides. A $5,000 reward is available in her case.

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** While I originally had this case tagged as "My Research," as I found out about it from the Redding cold case page, I have found that Terri's case was once mentioned on a Zodiac forum in an "All Other Possible Zodiac Victims" thread, so I have now changed this case to a "Connection."

WRITE-UP COMPLETION DATE: January 2025
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LUNAR PHASE:
ZODIAC SIGN:
DAY OF WEEK: Wednesday
EVENTS: July 4 = Independence Day (3 days earlier)

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