The Abduction/Murder of Elaine Louise Davis

On Monday 1st December 1969 Elaine Davis, 17 years of age who was a Pleasant Hill High School Senior disappeared from her home at 158 Pioneer Ave, Walnut Creek, believed to have been abducted by one or more assailants whilst she had been babysitting her 3 year old sister, Heidi. Her glasses and purse containing four dollars were left in the house, her parents described Elaine as shy, with no boyfriend or relationship problems at the time of her disappearance.

Her mother had driven to nearby Concord at 10:30 pm to pick up her husband from work and was only gone for 45 minutes, there were no signs of a struggle but if Elaine had left willingly she would not have left without her purse or glasses as well as leaving her 3 year old sister alone in the house both parents concerns ultimately grew in the coming hours and days.

Neighbours described seeing several strange vehicles in the area including a Volkswagen, but on the night of Elaine Davis' kidnapping, which is how police classified the crime, no one had witnessed anything unusual.

The Police believed Elaine had been abducted from a rear sliding glass window as parts of Elaine's clothing has been found in the backyard. The police had few leads until Friday 5th December when one of Elaine's brown loafers with a gold buckle was found on a freeway ramp of Stone Valley Rd on Highway 680 in Alamo. An extensive search of the Danville and Alamo area under the guidance of Detective Sergeant James Battles unearthed no other clues and despite numerous offers of rewards by a generous public, the case didn't make much headway. 

On December 16th 1969, after an extensive search in and around the Walnut Creek home, a Gold Brass button believed to have come from the Navy Style Coat that Elaine Davis had been wearing at the time of her disappearance, was found to the back of her house.

On the same day, a resident of North Gate Rd, approx 4 miles east of Elaine Davis' Home reported that her daughter had been stalked by a 30-35 year old male for several days. The young girl had been followed to and from her high school bus stop, travelling to Ygnacio Valley High School. She also received two disturbing phone calls asking if her parents were home. On the Monday at 6 pm "a car drove past the residence three times while the girl's parents were shopping. After the third time, there was a knock at the door and a man repeatedly said "I know you are home alone. Can I use your phone-my car has broken down". Lieutenant Holthus said the home was staked out but the man did not show up.

Then, a San Jose housewife, Mrs Jeffield Sullivan revealed she had found the Navy-style coat worn by Elaine Davis on the day of her disappearance. She had actually found it on 3rd of December only two days after the young girl's disappearance, on a remote stretch of Highway 17 between San Jose and Santa Cruz. Unfortunately, Mrs Sullivan was unaware of its connection to the Elaine Davis case and took the coat home to be dry cleaned, effectively wiping away any potential forensic evidence. The missing button found behind the Davis home was matched to the other buttons on the coat, thereby determining unquestionably that the coat was that of Elaine Davis. The police stated the coat was discovered 65 miles south of San Francisco, a mile from Santa's Village, a Christmas themed amusement park located in Scotts Valley, California.

On the 19th of December 1969 the body of a young woman was discovered floating off Light House Point near Santa Cruz. The body was decomposed with extensive damage, described as a partial torso with arm-bones and parts of the legs. The body at the time went unidentified and Elaine had been buried as a Jane Doe until 2001 when Law Enforcement exhumed the body to confirm that it was Elaine Davis that had been found all those years ago. Due to the length of time it was hard to confirm exactly what killed the young girl, but there was cartilage damage to the neck.

Had the abductor and murderer of Elaine Davis killed her on the 3rd of December near the location of Santa's Village where her Navy-style coat was found? Had the killer kept her alive for several more days, eventually depositing her body at Light House Point in Santa Cruz, before ditching the coat on Highway 17 near Scotts Valley on his return to the Bay Area? This avenue was examined as a possibility by detectives investigating the baffling case. The Navy coat and brown loafer were found 64 miles apart.

Joseph James DeAngelo was 24 years old at the time of these crimes, a Student at Sierra College, Rocklin, California. He met his Girlfriend Bonnie the same year in the Summer/Fall of 1969. It is not known where JJD was living at the time, whether he had student accommodation or living at home in Rancho Cordova which would have been approx 30 min drive from the college.

Rocklin is approx 1 hour 30 mins from Walnut Creek and may have taken less time due to less traffic on road etc than today so we know JJD could have taken a drive to Walnut Creek, Elaine's body was found floating at Lighthouse Point, Santa Cruz, if we estimate that she was killed on or around the 3rd of December it would mean her body had been on the water for around 2 weeks. It is not known where Elaine's body had entered the water so we can't say for certainty that Elaine had made it to Santa Cruz with her abductor.

As JJD is a Student at the time it's possible the College was on break or his work load had lightened and he found the time to go to Walnut Creek that night. The Police report stating that she had been taken through a back sliding glass door is certainly part of the Golden State Killer's M.O as well as parts of clothing found in the backyard. The Brown Loafer Shoe and Navy Jacket being found on the motorway are also reminiscent of later crimes where we see him place items belonging to his victims to possibly throw Law Enforcement off. I feel JJD did this throughout his life, diverting attention to clues he knew Detectives would be left cold on.

Another point of interest is that as the East Area Rapist JJD had attacked in San Jose Attack No 40 & 41 at Havenwood Drive and Kesey Lane, San Jose so he was familiar in the area. I also find it interesting that he was back here on 4th Nov & 2nd of December 1978, was he revisiting the area where he had killed Elaine Davis in 1969 possibly the 2nd? in San Jose.

Joseph James DeAngelo with Girlfriend Bonnie in 1969

You can see from this photo JJD holding a pair of Glasses, they don't appear to be Sunglasses which is interesting considering Zodiac wore Glasses. I haven't come across any info as to if DeAngelo needed glasses for reading etc. Another point to make with DeAngelo is I can see why witnesses would say he was blonde, brown and red brown as due to different lighting it can be difficult. Above he looks like he has Brown hair with a reddish tint but the pic below he is Light Blonde, did he dye his hair?

The San Jose Cryptogram

On November 21st 1969 a suspected Zodiac letter was received. The FBI file read: 'Re Butte tel to Bureau 11/21/69. Enclosed herewith for the FBI laboratory are two copies of the letter received by (redacted) San Jose PD, San Jose, California on this date. As noted, the message reads (redacted).  The laboratory is requested to have the Cryptogram Section attempt to immediately decipher the message and furnish the results to the San Francisco Office. For the information of the Bureau and Sacramento, after a cursory analysis, officers of the San Jose, California PD, believe widow in message may be Mrs (redacted), San Jose, California. San Jose PD instituting 24 hour surveillance on Mrs (redacted).' A further page read: 11/24/69 - 'Copy of handprinted note beginning "There's no doubt I will do my Thing!" and ending with the symbol (drawn crosshairs). Results of examination: The ciphertext portion of Qc33 is not readable using previously recovered key. Its brevity precludes further cryptanalytic examination at this time. The furnished interpretation of  "- + 62 + -" as representing "1620" can be neither proved nor disproved analytically. The = between "November" and "8" could represent the number "2". Such interpretation would be based on inferences drawn from the date of the postmark, not from cryptanalytic examination.'  (see below for FBI files).​ 

The FBI have not released the Letter which is mentioned above so we have no way of knowing what it said other than he was "going to do his thing". It is interesting though that a Zodiac Letter should appear in San Jose a few weeks prior to Elaine's disappearance from Walnut Creek, is it possible that he had left Elaine's body in San Jose, in the bay area?

The next Zodiac Letter was written to Melvin Belli on the 20th Dec 1969, what I find of interest here is he states "I will lose control again and take my nineth & possibly tenth victom. Please help me I am drownding." is this a referral/confession to the 2 girls he has already killed and left in the waterways of San Jose & Marin County on the 1st & 10th December 1969.

I am unsure if Zodiac would have given a true number of how many people he killed and I suppose you have to ask yourself with all the codes, misdirections, letters & calls can we really say with confidence he is being truthful, what if anything can we ascertain from them other than he is a cold bloodied killer who loves to hunt, taunt his victims and law enforcement and wants to continue in his obsession of collecting slaves.

The case of Elaine Louise Davis is extremely similar to the following December 10th abduction and murder of Leona Roberts, only 9 days after Elaine's abduction, we will look at this case further in my next blog.