3 ore 30 min, 30 dic 1968 anni - Marina Elizabeth Habe ABDUCTION, HOMICIDE, & POSSIBLE SEXUAL ASSAULT

Descrizione:

Marina Habe was born on February 23, 1951 in Germany to writer Hans Habe and actress Eloise Hardt. She graduated from University High School in West LA in June 1968, and at the time of her death she was attending the University of Hawaii and was home for the Christmas holidays. Marina's parents were divorced at the time, and her mother Eloise had reportedly remarried. Her father Hans lived in Zurich, Switzerland. Marina was 5'3 and 113lb, with blue eyes and black hair. Marina was described by friends as "very quiet," and was planning on becoming an artist.

At about 4:30pm on Sunday, December 29, 1968, 17-year-old Marina left the home she shared with her mother to meet with her date, John Hornburg, 22, at his family's house at 13326 Sunset Blvd in Brentwood, Contra Costa County, CA. The Hornburgs were close friends of Marina's family at the time. The pair later left Hornburg's home, and at about 8:30pm they met with two other couples — Laurie Kramer, 18, & Norm Elder, 22, of Washington state, and Wendy Kleiner, 18, & Denis Boses, 25 — at the Troubadour nightclub at 1081 Santa Monica Blvd to see either a music show or a comedian perform. Afterward, Marina and John returned to John's home, where the former had left her car, at approximately 11:30pm.

At about 3:15am on Monday, December 30th, Marina left John's house and drove to her mother's home at 8962 Cynthia St in Los Angeles. It was an approximately 20 minute drive home at the time according to contemporary newspapers. Marina was last seen wearing brown & white pinstriped capris, a white turtleneck sweater, and a brown coat with fur-trimmed cuffs.

At about 3:30 or 3:35am, Marina's mother Eloise was woken up by what was variously described as "noises," "a commotion," and "a loud car exhaust" outside her window. Eloise saw Marina's car in the driveway, along with a black sedan parked next to it. She also saw a 20-something man standing next to Marina's car. Eloise reportedly heard the young man yell either, "Go!", "Let's go," or "Let's blow," before the man jumped into the passenger side of the sedan, which then pulled away.

Eloise did not see Marina during this entire encounter. She immediately called the police, and searches were quickly underway, acting on the assumption that Marina had been kidnapped.

Two days later, on Wednesday, January 1, 1969, at about 2:00pm, a woman discovered a purse in the 8800 block of Mulholland Drive, and turned it over to the police. Inside the purse were Marina's credit cards and compact. However, one contemporary newspaper clipping — the Wed., Jan. 1, 1969 edition of the LA Evening Citizen News — says differently: "An examination of [Marina's] car revealed the emergency brake was pulled up all the way, which takes a good deal of strength, according to detectives. The girl's small purse was on the seat of the car, but her glasses, which she needs to drive, were not inside."

Later that same day, at approximately 4:00pm, a man named Frank G Turner of Sherman Oaks was walking his Great Dane in the area; the dog was "loping along the road" when it "stopped suddenly and peered intently into the brush. When Turner checked the cause of the dog's curiosity, he saw the face of the dead girl." He reported the body, which was soon identified as that of Marina.

Marina's body was found "hidden" in heavy brush at the bottom of a thickly-wooded ravine. She was found down a 30ft embankment off a fire road off of Mulholland Drive — which was apparently known as a lovers lane, according to at least one clipping — near Coldwater Canyon Drive in the Hollywood Hills.

The fire road in question is likely Maxwell Fire Road, which is off of both Mulholland Drive and the similarly-named Coldwater Canyon Avenue; the actual Coldwater Canyon Drive is only roughly 0.3mi southeast. It is also possible that the "fire road" actually refers to Berman Trail or Chaparral Trail, as fire roads are also often called "fire trails"; both trails are also much closer to Coldwater Canyon Drive, and both lead directly from LAFD Fire Station 108. Maxwell Fire Road is about 0.8mi northwest of where Marina's purse was found. One clipping also stated that, "Searchers said the ravine was so overgrown with brush that a helicopter circling the area for days did not spot the body."

Marina was stabbed six times, mainly in the chest. Her throat was cut, severing her carotid artery. She had two black eyes and apparent blunt force trauma on her body, having been beaten with a small blunt object. She bled to death. Some articles state there was no evidence of rape, while others say that it was never conclusively determined whether or not any sort of sexual assault occurred. However, "authorities believe her death was the result of an attempted rape." According to one clipping, "Sheriff's Lt. White said the girl had been dead since early Monday morning," i.e. shortly after Eloise heard the commotion outside her house. Footprints were apparently found at the scene, though this did not produce any leads.

To my knowledge, no one has ever been arrested in connection with Marina's death, and it is still unsolved to this day.

There have been some theories online that Marina was a victim of Manson Family member Bruce Davis, however I haven't found anything to substantiate this. Marina Habe has also been brought up many, many times across various Zodiac forums and online circles.

Her murder is quite similar to that of Reet Jurvetson in 1969, and comparisons were made in reports at the time, but investigators have never found a solid connection between the two. Furthermore, four months after Marina's death, another teenage girl, Rose Tashman, was found murdered off of Mulholland Drive; Rose had been strangled. Marina, Reet, and Rose's cases are all still unsolved.

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WRITE-UP COMPLETION DATE: January 26, 2025
LAST UPDATED: June 11, 2025

Cases mentioned above that are also present on this timeline: Rose Tashman, Reet Jurvetson
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DEC 29 1968 - JAN 1 1969
LUNAR PHASE: waxing gibbous
ZODIAC SIGN: capricorn
DAY OF WEEK: Sun. - Wed.
EVENTS: Dec. 31 = NYE (1 day after kidnapping, 1 day before body found); Dec. 25 = Christmas (5 days before kidnapping)
Dec. 30: Moon-Pleiades 21:58; Jan. 1: Venus 45.3*E, Moon Apogee 10:13

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