The Keddie murders, an unsolved quadruple homicide, have left a dark shadow over the small town of Keddie, California.
The brutal killings took place over the night of April 11-12, 1981, in house No. 28 of the Keddie Resort.
The victims: Glenna Susan “Sue” Sharp, her 15-year-old son John, his 17-year-old friend Dana Hall Wingate, and Sue’s 12-year-old daughter, Tina Louise Sharp, who was reported missing after the crime.
The bodies of Sue, John, and Dana were discovered on the morning of April 12 by Sheila Sharp, Sue’s 14-year-old daughter, who had spent the night at a friend’s house.
Tina, however, was nowhere to be found.
What followed was an investigation that, over the years, has failed to produce answers.
The case remained unsolved despite multiple leads, suspect interviews, and the discovery of new evidence over the years.
The nature of the crime, the brutality, and the chilling lack of answers have kept the case in the public eye, fueling theories and speculations about what really happened that night.
The horrific events of April 11–12, 1981, began like an ordinary day.
Sue Sharp and her children had been living in Keddie after relocating from Connecticut in 1980.
Sue had separated from her husband, James Sharp, and had started a new life in northern California, where she rented house #28, a spacious home in the quiet Sierra Nevada town of Keddie.
That afternoon, Sue, along with her daughter Sheila and her younger son Greg, had driven to Quincy to pick up her son Rick, who had been attending baseball tryouts.
On the way home, they crossed paths with John and his friend Dana, who had been hitchhiking.
Sue offered them a ride, and they were dropped off in Keddie at around 3:30 p.m.
Two hours later, John and Dana were seen hitchhiking back to Quincy.
Later that evening, Sheila, who had plans to spend the night with the Seabolt family in the neighboring house #27, left house #28 around 8:00 p.m., leaving her mother and siblings at home.
Tina, who had been at the Seabolts’ home, returned to #28 at about 9:30 p.m. after briefly asking what time it was.
What happened next remains unclear.
The following morning, Sheila returned to find a scene that would haunt her for the rest of her life.
She discovered the bodies of her mother, brother, and friend in the living room of the house.
Sue, John, and Dana had been viciously murdered.
Sue’s body was found on the floor near the sofa, nude from the waist down, gagged with a blue bandana and her own underwear.
She had been stabbed in the chest and had a horizontal slash across her throat that cut through her larynx, and there were signs of blunt-force trauma on her head.
John had also been stabbed, with his throat slashed, and Dana had been manually strangled.
Both John and Dana showed signs of blunt-force trauma, with injuries to their heads that were caused by a hammer.
Blood spatter evidence suggested that the murders had taken place in the living room, and a hammer and knives were discovered at the crime scene.
The brutal nature of the murders left investigators stunned.
Tina, the youngest victim, was missing from the scene.
At first, Sheila assumed that Tina had been kidnapped by the killer.
However, the discovery of Tina’s remains years later would reveal an even darker twist.
In 1984, three years after the murders, Tina’s skull and bones were found near Feather Falls, California, around 62 miles from Keddie.
Her remains were found buried in a shallow grave, a chilling reminder of the violence that had been perpetrated on that fateful night.
Despite the discovery of Tina’s remains, the mystery of who killed Sue, John, Dana, and Tina remained unsolved.
Investigators followed several leads, but the case grew cold as time passed.
Over the years, new evidence emerged, including the discovery of a hammer in a pond in 2016, and new DNA evidence that was sent to labs for analysis.
But as of today, no one has been charged with the murders, and the case remains a cold, unsettling mystery.
For decades, speculation has swirled around the case, with theories ranging from a random act of violence to the possibility of an inside job, with suspects that included family members, acquaintances, and even former residents of the area.
There have been allegations of multiple suspects, but no concrete evidence has ever surfaced to connect any one person to the crime.
Some have even suggested that the motive could have been drug-related, while others point to the possibility of a personal vendetta or a stranger attack.
The case has fascinated and horrified true-crime enthusiasts, who have followed the investigation closely, yet the lack of closure for the families of the victims remains heartbreaking.
Sue’s surviving children—Sheila, Rick, and Greg—are left to grapple with the loss of their mother and siblings, and the uncertainty of knowing that their killers may never be brought to justice.
As time goes on, the mystery of the Keddie murders continues to cast a long, dark shadow over the community of Keddie, California.
The house where the murders took place is no longer standing, but the memories of that horrific night and the search for answers remain etched in the minds of those who lived through it.
Despite the passage of time, the pain and trauma of the Keddie murders still resonate with the families involved, and the unanswered questions continue to haunt those who seek justice for the victims.
The case remains open, and with every new lead or piece of evidence, hope arises that the truth will eventually be uncovered, and the lives of Sue, John, Dana, and Tina will not be forgotten.
But until then, the Keddie murders remain one of California’s most chilling unsolved mysteries.