Throughout the 1960s and 70s, from Los Angeles to San Francisco, Californians were terrorized by multiple killers including notorious serial killers like the Zodiac Killer, the Hillside Stranglers, Herbert Mullin, and Ed Kemper. While the decade may have ended with these killers disappearing or apprehended, the threat of violence and murder simply moved north.Though less known than his contemporaries, David Carpenter was no less prolific and frightening a killer than those men mentioned above. Nicknamed “The Trailside Killer” by the press, Carpenter terrorized Point Reyes and Santa Cruz County for a decade, assaulting, kidnapping, and killing at least eight people, but he was suspected of more. Like those other killers, Carpenter had a long history of violent and antisocial behavior going back to his childhood, including multiple arrests and incarcerations. How was it that a man with such an alarming history of violence could go uncaught for a decade?Thank you to the Incredible Dave White of Bring Me the Axe Podcast for research and Writing support!ReferencesAssociated Press. 1980. "Trail Killer will strike again." Santa Cruz Sentinel, December 1: 1.Burkhardt, Bill. 1979. "Woman found murdered on Mt. Tam." San Francisco Examiner, August 21: 1.Graysmith, Robert. 1990. The Sleeping Lady: The Trailside Murders Above the Golden Gate. New York, NY: Onyx.Keraghosian, Greg. 2020. "'Do not hike alone': For 21 months, the Trailside Killer terrorized Bay Area's outdoors." San Francisco Chronicle, October 25.Leader, Lewis. 1980. "Identification ends dad's long quest." San Francisco Examiner, December 2: 2.San Francisco Examiner. 1960. "MP's shots foil attack on woman." San Francisco Examiner, July 13: 1.—. 1961. "Presidio attacker gets 14 yrs." San Francisco Examiner, March 10: 11.—. 1960. "Sex case insanity plea." San Francisco Examiner, October 8: 5.Santa Cruz Sentinel. 1970. "Boulder Creek girl attacked." Santa Cruz Sentinel, January 29: 22.—. 1970. "Grand jury indicts con." Santa Cruz Sentinel, July 17: 7.—. 1970. "SLV kidnap suspect flees Calaveras jail." Santa Cruz Sentinel, April 27: 1.The People v. Carpenter. 1997. S004654 (Superior Court of Los Angeles County, April 28).The People vs. David Carpenter. 1999. S006547 (Superior Court of San Diego County, November 29).Todd, John. 1980. "Tam closed in hunt for clues." San Francisco Examiner, October 16: 1.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.
Chapter 1: Who are the hosts of the Morbid podcast?
Hey weirdos, I'm Ash. And I'm Elena. And this is Morbid. This is morbid. Oh, oh, it's like Trixie and Katya show.
Oh, yeah.
Because it's their show and not yours.
Oh, they're so funny.
I love them a lot. They make a midlife. They're kind of like us, actually. They are. I saw I don't know if it's recent or not. I saw a clip of their show the other day. And I think Katya was house sitting for Trixie. And Trixie was like a little intense. And Katya was like, I can't handle this. And I was like, that is us. Yes.
Trixie.
Trixie.
oh yeah i don't think um i mean we got we got some good stuff happening but it's in the background and will be something you guys know about in a little while yeah like like months but like well but be psyched about that yeah it's pretty cool my water is loud
It's loud.
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Chapter 2: What is David Carpenter's criminal history and parole story?
Damn. Which I think is like pretty fucking rad. The competition girly in me just wants to start wearing a watch when I sleep to be like, I got more sleep than you. You probably would. I would, yeah. But I'd win, so. Yeah.
You would.
Unless I win that. But it would feel like a win. Yeah. Would it? Yeah. I feel like it wouldn't. I'll take that win. You got to take your W's where you can get them. It's true. Right now, especially, we got to take all the W's we can. I'll scoop that W right up.
Speaking of W's and the opposite of them, which is an L. Wait.
Yeah. Like a loft.
Yeah.
The way you looked at me like, what? I was like, how is that an L? That's fair. Wow. I'm sick. Okay. She's on that cold medicine. Hey. So speaking of L's.
She's a scissor pin. Like losers. We're talking about David Kappender.
Oh.
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Chapter 3: What happened during the murder of Barbara Schwartz on Mount Tam?
I mean, failing superbly into oblivion. I have one of those coming up, too. Yeah, several times they should have kept this guy behind bars, and they just kept letting him out, kept giving him slaps on the wrist.
For like...
He would keep reoffending. Rape and that kind of thing. Yeah, and he kept escalating too. It's like, what are you doing? And when we last talked about this, we talked about Etta Kane and John Kane, the couple who were very established hikers. Etta had gone out by herself and she hadn't returned home. They had eventually found Etta dead, unfortunately.
And when we last talked about it, poor John had just kind of like withered away after she died. Yeah. um it's very very sad now that had happened in um like early fall now a few weeks later on september 6th david carpenter was discharged from the halfway house because remember he had been paroled to a halfway house where he was being like conditioned to kind of go out back into society it was a
A specific halfway house that was for, like, felons who were being reintroduced into society. Yep. He never should have been among them. He should have been kept in jail. Yeah, no, he's not the kind of person that can be reformed. No. So he was discharged from the halfway house and returned to his parents' house.
Lucky them.
Which I was like, ew. His former probation officer, Rich Wood, said, I'd gone over to the house a number of times before he got home from work. I talked to the parents to see how he was doing, and as far as anyone would say, him moving back into the house had really not caused any problems, and things seemed to be going well. That's really all they could go on at that point.
A few months later, in February 1980, David found work in a keychain distributor and seemed to be meeting all the requirements for his parole. Okay. But this is kind of what he does.
Yeah, he meets all the points that he has to.
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Chapter 4: How did David Carpenter injure himself after the murder and what was the police response?
By the time the police arrived to the spot, because they immediately called the police. Yeah. By the time they got to the spot where Barbara had been last seen, her attacker was nowhere to be seen, and Barbara had bled to death from multiple stab wounds. Oh, my God. Where she was stabbed. Yeah. Barbara Schwartz's death was the second murder on the mountain in a pretty short period of time.
And like we had talked about before, there had been deaths on this mountain, of course. But as far as they knew, there wasn't any murders before this. Right. But unlike Etta Kane's murder, this time there was evidence recovered at the scene. In addition to finding a butcher knife that investigators were virtually certain was the murder weapon, they also found a pair of blood-stained eyeglasses.
Oh, shit. That'll tell you a lot. Which is always wild when they are in such a frenzy that they leave something that important. Now, there's no way of knowing who these glasses belonged to, but the prescription was a very heavy bifocal. That, if matched to the right person, could be a very compelling evidence if it was in a trial. Yeah. This is not a regular bifocal.
It's a very thick, heavy bifocal. Now, in their first examination of the body, it looked like Barbara had gone to great lengths to fight back. Sergeant Keating said she was repeatedly stabbed, but she put up a hell of a fight. Now, based on her defensive wounds, sheriff's detectives actually strongly suspected that Barbara's killer had most likely, very likely been wounded in this attack.
Good.
Yeah. Now that night, a little past 7 p.m., David Carpenter arrived at the emergency room. Oh, imagine that. In Peninsula Hospital in San Mateo, about 35 miles from where Barbara Schwartz's body had been discovered. Stupid ass. He had a deep cut on his right hand and his thumb.
When the attending doctor asked how he got this injury, David said, quote, there was an attempted robbery at a 7-Eleven store in Burlingame. Burlingame, excuse me. I was attacked and injured by the holdup man. Now, so he's claiming, I tried to stop a holdup.
I am a hero.
I'm a hero, and I got hurt there. So... The hospital policy was that any injuries sustained during an illegal act had to be reported to police. That makes sense. So the doctor did that. Despite no report of a robbery ever having been received in that area, the officers that interviewed David Carpenter just accepted his story. And they allowed him to go on his way after being stitched up. What?
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Chapter 5: Who were some of the other victims linked to the Trailside Killer?
Lamont's cousin's death is just one of many, and powerful forces are working to keep the truth buried. With never-before-heard interviews and shocking revelations, Death County PA pulls back the curtain on one of America's darkest institutional secrets. This isn't just another true crime story. It's happening right now. Follow Death County PA on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts.
You can binge all episodes of Death County PA early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus.
Last year, Long Crime brought you the trial that captivated the nation. She's accused of hitting her boyfriend, Boston police officer John O'Keefe, with her car. Karen Reid is arrested and charged with second-degree murder. The six-week trial resulted in anything but resolution.
We continue to find ourselves at an impasse. I'm declaring a mistrial in this case.
But now the case is back in the spotlight. And one question still lingers. Did Karen Reid kill John O'Keefe? The evidence is overwhelming that Karen Reid is innocent. How does it feel to be a cop killer, Karen? I'm Kristen Thorne, investigative reporter with Law & Crime and host of the podcast, Karen the Retrial. This isn't just a retrial. It's a second chance at the truth.
I have nothing to hide. My life is in the balance and it shouldn't be.
I just want people to go back to who the victim is in this. It's not her.
Listen to episodes of Karen, The Retrial, exclusively and ad-free on Wondery+.
So it wasn't until the next day that San Mateo police received the all-points bulletin about Barbara's murder. And by then, the interviewing officers had completely forgotten about him. Like, they just didn't even put the pieces together. Come on. So things were relatively quiet in the months after Barbara Schwartz's murder.
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Chapter 6: How did the authorities connect the multiple murders on Mount Tam to one killer?
Later, they said they sounded like noises in rapid succession from a backfiring motorcycle. But they couldn't really tell where it was coming from. They were having trouble pinpointing it. Because sometimes when you're...
in an area like that yeah sounds sound like they're coming from either one place when it's a totally opposite one or they sound like they're coming from everywhere even certain sounds i feel like do that like yeah we'll be watching tv sometimes and it's a sound on tv that sounds like it's coming from like the back of our house yes that happens to us all the time too i'll i think it's the girls like coming down or like ask yelling my name or something and we'll always be pausing and like listening or going upstairs there's so many times where i'm like was that our alarm yeah i'm like what the fuck was that yeah
So that evening, Rick and Cindy had plans to meet Cindy's sister, Alice, for dinner. And when they didn't show up, she got very worried. And around 9 p.m., she called her brother and explained the situation. But he was like, I don't know, don't overreact. He was like, maybe wait until tomorrow, see if Cindy shows up for work. Which I was like, okay. I don't really understand that.
But Alice said Cindy was supposed to work at her job on Sunday morning. I was a little overprotective, I think, and I didn't want to worry anyone. Which, like, I get that. But the next day, Cindy didn't show up to work, and she wasn't heard from from anybody. So Alice and the rest of the family started taking everything a little more seriously, and they reported both of them missing.
A few days later, on October 15th, a third body of a murdered woman was discovered on Mount Tam. Damn. A research scientist and former Peace Corps consultant, 26-year-old Ann Alderson. So she was visiting her parents in San Rafael over the holiday weekend when on October 13th, she just decided to go for a solo hike on Mount Tam.
Oh.
So she was literally visiting. Like, wouldn't have been there otherwise. And again, a research scientist and Peace Corps consultant. That's crazy. Like, come on. So she had just wanted to go out for a solo hike on Mount Tam, and days later, a witness named John Henry told police he'd seen Anne sitting alone in the amphitheater around 5 p.m.
and had considered warning her about the recent attacks that had occurred on the mountain. He just wanted to be like, you should just be a little careful here.
Yeah, especially like being alone.
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Chapter 7: What was the public reaction to the Trailside Killer's crimes in the San Francisco area?
So O'Connell and May had gone out for a walk along the national seashore at Point Reyes on November 28th. And when they failed to return home that afternoon, they were tourists, so people were like, where the fuck would they have gone? Right. They were immediately reported missing. It was in a heavily wooded and sparsely traveled area on Mount Tam where they were found.
They were both, unfortunately, murdered. They were nude and had been shot in the head, both of them. Gosh. Based on the initial evaluation, it looked like Diane O'Connell had been strangled by, quote, something like a narrow piece of cord of wire. And a pair of women's underwear had been shoved in her mouth.
Oh, my.
There was no evidence to indicate that O'Connell had been raped. Shauna May, on the other hand, had been sexually assaulted before being shot, and there were ligature marks around one of her wrists, which indicated she had been bound at some point. Yeah. Now, the discovery of two more murder victims on Mount Tam was bad enough.
But less than an hour later, rangers discovered the decomposed remains of Cindy Moreland and Rick Stowers, about 200 yards from where they found O'Connell and May.
Jesus.
Both bodies were found lying face down in what appeared to be a shallow, very crudely dug grave. Bullet wounds were in both of the back of their heads. They had been in the woods for about seven weeks at this point. So they had undergone a lot of decomposition. And Cindy's remains had to be identified through dental records. That's always so sad. Yeah.
When they left Moreland's house on the day they went missing, neither Cindy nor Rick had said anything about going hiking. That's the problem. So when they were reported missing, they just never thought to look in the area of Mount Tam because no one knew they were hiking. Right. It was like a... It was just like a spontaneous thing. Now, the body count now is at seven. Jesus.
And the sheriff's office finally started, you know, we're like, you know what? I think there is one killer that's responsible for all these victims. It doesn't feel like... Just a coincidence. Right. Sheriff Al Hallenstein told reporters the two most recent victims may have been slain by the killer to draw attention to the earlier killings.
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