The Bride to Be Murder 1970

On the 7th of March 1970, Judith Ann Hakari left Sutter Memorial Hospital in East Sacramento around 11:30pm after her regular shift as a Nurse.  Before Judith left the Hospital the 23-year-old nurse called her fiance, Raymond Willis to tell him she was on her way home. They had planned to meet at Judith’s apartment at 1720 Markston Way around midnight that evening.

Located on F Street between 51st and 53rd, Judith’s route home from the now-defunct hospital was only a ten minute drive down a major thoroughfare. A co-worker had seen Judith leaving Sutter Memorial that evening in her new car, driving north on Howe Avenue from Fair Oaks Boulevard. Somehow Judith disappeared into the darkness of the night, presumably en route to her apartment.

Judith's fiance was waiting for her arrival in her apartment. While it has never been explicitly stated, the fact that Raymond Willis later reported getting ready for bed while he waited for his fiancee suggests he was planning to spend the night. His concern grew by 1:30am that Judith had not arrived home, he said that, around 1:45am, he went out to check the parking lot. There he found his fiancee’s 1968 Mercury Cougar—with the light blue body and the black top in its assigned parking space. The door was ajar, the keys lay on the floor, and Judith Ann Hakari was nowhere to be seen.

Raymond Willis claimed he searched the parking lot and complex in search of Judith, at 2am he made two phone calls: the first to his fiancee’s parents, the second to the Sheriff. When Sacramento Sheriff’s Officers arrived at the Markston Apartments, Raymond’s father and Judith’s brother had joined in the search.

Investigators found Judith's scarf in the Cougar, along with buttons from her blue and white polka-dot coat on the passenger side of the backseat. Detectives later revealed that they also recovered two hand-ripped strips of a Cannon-brand ribbed towel from the back seat. The towels were commonly used in “institutions having a large number of showers,” like school gyms and health clubs.

After this discovery the investigation stalled, in the pre-technological age there was little else to go on. The only clear thing, was that Judith Ann Hakari was missing. Everything else, the why, where and how, remained a mystery.

Judith Ann Hakari was born in Sacramento, growing up at 4532 Sycamore Ave in Northern Sacramento. Judith's Father Wilho originally from Finland, worked as a maintenance foreman at McClellan Air Force Base.

Judith was described as shy and fastidious by those who knew her. At 23, she was tiny: only 5’2″ tall and roughly 120 pounds, with dark hair and eyes and a fair complexion. As a child she was seriously injured when she was thrown from a horse and needed, “thousands of shots and plastic surgery.” Wilho believed the care she’d received had been what sparked Judith's interest in medicine, she graduated from Mira Loma Senior High School in 1964 according to the Sacramento Bee. After briefly attending American River Junior College, Judith attended Sac State in the fall of 1965. Presumably, she graduated in 1968 or 1969.

Judith started dating Raymond John Willis, a student living at 5425 San Francisco Boulevard, while finishing her bachelor’s degree in late 1968, according to the Sac Bee, Raymond Willis told the Bee he and Judy decided to get married in November 1969 although they did not become officially engaged until January. Their wedding was just three months away when Judith disappeared.

After passing the state exam to become a registered nurse in 1969, Judith decided to move out of her parents home, wanting to live on her own for a while before committing to long term cohabitation with her soon-to-be fiance. Judith found herself a lovely apartment at the Markston Road Complex, while her brother and then boyfriend had reservations, Willis said they worried living on the ground floor would open Judith up to trouble but, she didn’t fret. At the rear of the complex, a brick wall prevented anyone from getting a prime view into the living space, plus being at ground level meant she could move the family piano into her apartment.

Hours before Judith disappeared, an unfamiliar man in his early twenties, described as red haired and bearded, of medium build, and roughly 5’7″—5’9″ tall, reportedly showed up at Sutter Memorial Hospital asking about “Judith.” Those who knew Judith called her “Judy.” Investigators and loved ones wondered if this mystery man was looking for this Judith, unaware she was really a Judy but, as Judith’s parents noted, there were at least three Judith's working at Sutter Memorial that evening.

Later in the evening, a Sheriff’s Deputy parked at the intersection of Arden Way and Markston Road noticed two suspicious vehicles near Judith’s apartment. A half-hour after the last confirmed sighting of Judy, a brown car with its headlights off turned into the Markston Apartments. Shortly after and just one block west, a motorist was nearly struck by a dark blue, 1960-model sedan that sped away at a high speed. Investigators could not determine if the two drivers were related to each other, never mind connected to Judith’s abduction. Once again, the case stalled.

On the 25th of April 1970, Leonard Theis and Susan Reed travelled from their Sacramento home to visit a remote part of Placer County, near Weimar. Now boasting a population of nearly 400,000, the Placer County of 1970 was home to less than 80,000. The county came into existence in 1851, five years after James W Marshall discovered gold on the nearby south fork of the American River. With agricultural abundance and the Southern Pacific Railroad’s move to Roseville in 1906 Placer County became a key area of industry in the Central Valley, to this day, the area can’t shake its touristy, Gold Rush roots.

Spending the day exploring the north fork of the American River Canyon, Theis remembered an old mine and abandoned cabin he’d previously explored in the area.  He persuaded Reed to make a short detour to look at the abandoned mine before heading home, in the mouth of that mine at around 5pm, the couple noticed a human knee protruding from a thin layer of dirt. And there, in a shallow grave, they discovered the partially decomposed body of Judith Ann Hakari.

Theis gave the following account in the April 27th edition of the Sac Bee:11

We saw a knee protruding from the dirt between the cabin and the mine, a shaft which goes about five feet into a slope. I thought it was an animal. But I’d never seen an animal with a knee like that. It shook us up, disturbed us quite a bit. We decided to get out of there. “We were riding back, toward Weimar, when I thought: ‘Was it an animal or not?’ I got worried about it, and decided I had just better call the authorities, just in case. “So we called the telephone operator in Weimar. She contacted someone and told us to stay at the phone. In a few minutes, a Colfax policeman and a deputy from Placer County arrived. They followed us back. “A sergeant joined us. The officers got a crowbar and started probing around. We stood back a ways and didn’t actually see what they found, but they told us they had uncovered the rest of the leg and a foot. The sergeant told us the foot was that of a young woman.”

Detectives told The Bee, that Judith’s body was buried in a white canvas laundry bag manufactured specifically for the San Joaquin school district. They also revealed that a zip-up hooded sweatshirt was found beneath her body, although found in her nursing uniform and Sutter Hospital name tag, Placer County Sheriff William A. Scott revealed that Judith had been sexually assaulted before her death. Her bra was ripped in half, and her underwear were found beneath her body.

A familiar strip of ribbed towel found loose around her neck indicated Judith was gagged with the towel, beaten, and then strangled with a nylon stocking. The state of decomposition necessitated conclusive identification by dental records.

In 2016 the Sacramento Sheriffs Office put Judith Ann Hakari's Case back in the news in the hopes of finding DNA evidence but as of yet nothing has come to fruition. Micki Links a retired homicide investigator said of the case.

"The evidence in this case was pretty degraded…but with the newer technology that we have, we are hoping some of that evidence can be reanalyzed and hope to find some DNA….

“She had been sexually assaulted and battered about the head and strangled. And to this day, we have not found the perpetrator… The bottom line is, a case from 40 or 50 years ago where someone was murdered and taken from their family is not any less important than the homicide that happened yesterday.”

Judith Ann Hakari's parents never saw justice for their daughter, ensuring her legacy would live on they established the Judith Ann Hakari Memorial Scholarship Fund which still helps to fund aspiring nurses attend college today. Judith Ann Hakari is interred at the Sierra Hills Memorial Park Cemetery in Sacramento.

This case is very interesting in respects to the Golden State Killer, Jospeph James DeAngelo. There are a few details here which do point to him as the perpetrator of this crime, we can only hope the DNA evidence they still have will link him to it but first lets look at the initial scene.

Judith's car was in her usual parking spot so we know she nearly made it home, was the Killer lying in wait for her, did her know her movements, had he been stalking her? It's possible due to the area where the complex was situated and Judith living on the ground floor that this is what first attracted a possible peeper though it's also possible the killer followed Judith on her way home from the hospital.

We could surmise that on exiting her vehicle she was either quickly abducted into another vehicle or lured there by dishonest means. That no screams are heard also tells us it must have happened very quickly and Judith had recently done studies in Psychology where upon it was thought if you followed kidnappers demands etc you had a better chance of survival where in fact the opposite is true so it could mean that Judith calmly went with the Perpetrator thinking this to be the case.

From the details of the case it appears only the keys, scarf, jacket & strips of towel that was found in and around the scene, her purse or I.D was not found in the car so its probable that the perp took this. With the car door being ajar it appears Judith was attacked as she came out of the car and this is where she possibly dropped the keys.

Some form of resistance must have occurred for the buttons to have come off the jacket, the most intriguing find for me is the hand torn pieces of Cannon Brand Ribbed Towel lying in the back seat. From the recovery of Judith's body we know that a piece of this towel had been used to gag so it's probable pieces were also used to restrain at some point.

This could possibly be the first time we see part of the M.O of the Golden State Killer. Throughout his EAR/ONS crimes there would always be torn/cut towels in victims homes, either precut or taken from towels the victim had in the home. To me there is a definite link there, the towel seemed to play a large part in GSK's ritual.

That Sacramento State University is within the local vicinity and we know Joseph James Deangelo applied to the Uni there in the Winter of 70/71 attending there until 1973. He had been working for the Sierra Hoist Company during this time after leaving Sierra College with his Police Science Degree in the Summer of 1970. Did DeAngelo come across Judith Ann Hakari on his trips to the University? Apart from the University link we also have Judith's Father who worked at McClellan Air Force Base, a military link, plus we have the young man asking for Judith at the hospital, as in a lot of EAR/ONS cases, these links are always usually present, medical/military/education.

The Sheriff's Deputy who reported seeing two suspicious vehicles that night, describing the first as a brown car with it's headlight's turned off which he watched turn into the Markston Complex, it is possible that this was the perpetrator. As we have seen in several EARS/ONS cases, witnesses have described seeing cars parking or pulling away with no lights on.

Judith had been brutally beaten to the head, sexually assaulted and then strangled with her nylon stockings. The details that we know of this crime do correlate with JJD's M.O, it is known he would use towels to gag, bind, which is possibly why there are no ligature marks mentioned though it does state that her bra had been ripped in two so it's possible that the bra had been used in this way. JJD always centered a lot of the anger around the head, the nylon stockings are interesting as I have always wondered why JJD used stockings in a couple of EAR attacks where investigators were not sure of their purpose as he had poked a hole in the nylons each time.

The place where Judith's body was found lies around 45 minutes by car from Sacramento, Weimar is also not far from Roseville around 28 miles where JJD would eventually start out as a Police Officer so it's fairly certain that he knew his way around these parts. I do think the Golden State Killer, Joseph James DeAngelo should be seriously looked at regarding this case, who knows there just may be enough DNA to charge him.

(info taken from The Bride to Be at preetydeathseller.com)