Torrey Pines State Beach Murders // 429
48:00 Share

Thank you.

What is going on, true crime fans? I'm your host, Heath. And I'm your host, Daphne. And you're listening to Going West. Hello, everybody. Big thank you to Jackie for recommending today's case. This is such a weird one in the way that two separate murders occurred almost in the exact same spot.

years apart and they're both such disturbing crimes. Yeah, and it's not a place that you would expect something like this to happen. It happens on a beach, which is the most interesting part that these two bodies were found years apart on that same specific beach. Out in the open. Yeah, and almost in the same way, right? Yeah, absolutely. So many similarities that we're going to talk about today.

So thank you guys so much for tuning in. Again, big thank you to Jackie. And without further ado, let's just dive right in. All right, guys, this is episode 429 of Going West. So let's get into it. ♪♪♪

Deep in the ocean, an orca pod is on the hunt. But these aren't your average orcas. These guys are organized. Marketing team, did you get those social media posts scheduled for the seal migration? Aye aye, Captain. We even have an automated notification for all pod managers when they go live.

They use Monday.com to keep their teamwork sharp, their communication clear, and their goals in sight. Monday.com. For whatever you run, even orcas. Go to Monday.com to dive deeper.

Most weight loss plans are one-size-fits-all, not taking into account each person's individual needs. Noom is here to change that. Noom Weight uses psychology. That's why they say, "Losing weight starts with your brain, but it also takes into account your unique biological factors, which also affect weight loss success."

The program helps you understand the science behind your eating choices and why you have cravings. Everyone's journey is different, so your daily lessons are personalized to you and your goals. One of the great things about Noom is that it's nourishing instead of restrictive. They focus on progress instead of perfection.

You don't have to give up carbs, or anything for that matter. Have cravings? Food FOMO? Noom can help you lose weight while still enjoying your favorite foods. To date, Noom has helped more than 5.2 million people lose weight. Stay focused on what's important to you. With Noom's psychology and biology-based approach, sign up for your trial today at Noom.com.

That's N-O-O-M dot com. In the 1970s and 1980s, two teenage girls were brutally murdered on a San Diego beach six years apart, mere yards away from each other.

An investigation just as twisted as the murders themselves brought three suicides, more questions than answers, and the possibility that a serial killer is still on the loose. These are the stories of Barbara Nantes and Claire Huff, also known as the Torrey Pine State Beach Murders. ♪♪

Barbara Jane Nantes was born on September 28th, 1962 in Lakewood, California, which is a city in LA County situated between Long Beach and Los Angeles proper. She joined parents Judy and Ralph and older sisters Lorraine and Sue and was later joined by a little brother named Tom. Barbara was known to be incredibly bubbly and friendly and was a favorite among teachers and peers alike.

In high school, she made the varsity cheerleading team as a sophomore, which actually marked the first time in the history of her school that an upcoming junior was on the varsity team. Her mom, Judy, smiled as she described Barbara as, quote, a popular, defiant, beautiful, pain in the ass, wonderful daughter. God gave her to me to keep me humble and it worked.

When she was 15, Barbara's sister Sue introduced her to 17-year-old Jim Alt, and they instantly liked each other. Jim was a very typical Southern California boy. You know, he was a surfer. He had bleached blonde hair, like it was like white. And they were both just super outgoing and fun and the life of the party. So it seems like they perfectly complemented each other.

On the second weekend of August in 1978, Barbara's parents, Judy and Ralph, were going away to visit some friends, and they asked a family friend to stay behind with their four kids.

But when they left, against her parents' wishes, Barbara and Jim, along with their friend Rick and his girlfriend, headed for their favorite place, the beach. You know, it's a summer weekend. They want to go hang out together. Yeah, this feels pretty typical of like a Southern California friends and couples and teenagers. They want to go hang out.

They want to spend some time at the beach. They want to just hang out and enjoy the surf. Absolutely. And of course, from their perspective, they're saying, we're just going to the beach. What could go wrong? Yeah, absolutely. So on Saturday, August 12th, 1978, the couple's headed down for Torrey Pine State Beach, which is a very popular destination for Southern Californians. And it's located about an hour and a half from Barbara's home, just north of San Diego. This is a beautiful beach. But just so you guys know, this was definitely not the closest beach because...

The closest is like 20 minutes away from her, located in Long Beach. So there's technically no reason to go down here, but people like different beaches for different reasons. They offer different things. Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, even us, if we go to a beach on the weekend, sometimes we don't actually like going on the weekend because...

Because it's so busy. So busy. Yeah, depending on what beach you go to. And that's a good example because sometimes we don't want to go to Zuma. We want to go up to Matador, which is a lot further. So sometimes, you know, depending on what you're looking for, you pick a different beach. So they decided to go to this one, even though it was a little bit further. And like you're saying, the beach was packed that day. So, you know, they were surfing and swimming until the sun went down. They had a great day.

Then in the evening, they joined a group of men partying on the beach for a little while before breaking off to go to sleep. Because instead of making a drive back to Barbara's house, you know, making that hour and a half long drive, they opted to camp out on the beach. So yeah, keep in mind there's other people there that night. The beach wasn't deserted like, you know, most would be after sunset. There's people partying in there.

Yeah, definitely. And we don't know the extent of these men that they were partying with. We don't know how old they were, how many men there actually were there, but it seems like they pretty much just came upon like this beach fire and were like, hey, let's just sit around and chat. Exactly. Exactly.

Well, around 9:30 PM, Rick and his girlfriend went up to their car to sleep there, but Barbara and Jim stayed down on the beach, zipping their sleeping bags together and falling asleep on the sand. Jim's last memory of Barbara was a happy one, as he said, quote, "Just her laying in my arms, us talking, looking at the stars."

And that seems like just such a beautiful last memory of Barbara. Absolutely. Well, the next thing that Jim knew, hours later, he woke up to complete darkness and silence, except for crashing waves. His eyes were nearly swollen shut. He had been mostly thrust from his sleeping bag and winced from the throbbing pain in his head when he woke up. He fumbled around in the sand for Barbara, but he couldn't find her.

So then, Jim stumbled up to the parking lot where his friends were asleep in their car. Collapsing on the concrete next to it, he tapped on the window and told Rick to go down to the beach to find Barbara. Having no idea what happened to himself or his girlfriend. Around 6:00 a.m., as paramedics raced to the parking lot to tend to Jim, Rick ran back down to where the couple had spent the night in search of Barbara.

Well, around 6:30 a.m., Rick came across Barbara's naked, lifeless body near Lifeguard Tower 7.

Jim had been badly beaten with a rock and log from a nearby fire pit and knocked unconscious during the attack, which kind of explains his terrible injuries here. I mean, yeah, he was beaten with a rock and a log in the head. So it kind of seems like somebody just picked up something that was nearby and decided to brutally beat this young couple. Yeah, and not that it was necessarily then premeditated, but they came upon them and

and, yeah, are using the resources around them, like the heaviest things they could find to beat these people. Yeah, so it was kind of a miracle that he'd been able to drag himself to safety and seek help. Well, Jim was transported to Scripps Memorial Hospital and rushed into surgery, but sadly, 15-year-old Barbara was already dead by the time help got there. She had been bludgeoned multiple times in her head and strangled.

But that wasn't all. Whoever committed this act was clearly a depraved and evil animal, because aside from the horrific life-ending crimes against her, there was sand in her mouth, one of her breasts had been cut open, and she had been sexually assaulted. Once police assessed the scene and confirmed that Barbara was very much deceased, detectives got in touch with their parents out of town, and they were in utter disbelief that something this terrifying could happen to their beloved daughter.

Jim Alt suffered a traumatic brain injury and fell into a coma for days. Like, he even had to undergo surgery to have a metal plate installed in his head. Which he still has to this day. Yeah. Well, when he awoke, he had no memory of what had happened. So obviously, detectives kind of briefly entertained the possibility that the murder could have been carried out by Jim himself. But, I mean, obviously with his injuries and them being so severe, that was definitely impossible.

And it just wasn't at all in his character to do something like this. Yeah, he was not a violent person. And, you know, of course they're going to question this because it's like, oh, well, why did you live? But he was beaten so severely. He couldn't have done this to himself. Yeah. But of course, it's kind of convenient as well. And police's eyes at first saying, oh, and you don't remember the attack?

But he really didn't. I mean, what is he going to do? Beat the shit out of himself with a rock and a log? Like, let's be real here, people. No, and that's why they ruled him out. So despite the shock at the gruesome nature of the crime against a young member of their community, there were no advancements made and no suspects, leads, or persons of interest ever publicly announced.

So this heinous crime just sort of faded into obscurity when no leads came along. That is, until 1984, when a nearly identical case breathed new life into Barbara's. Claire Penelope Huff was born on September 30th, 1969 to parents Penny and Sam, and grew up alongside a brother named Matt.

Now, they lived in Cranston, Rhode Island, which is a suburb of Providence, but they did make frequent trips to Claire's grandparents who lived on the West Coast, just blocks from Torrey Pines State Beach. Claire's parents lovingly described her as a gentle, funny, and kind person. She loved 80s rock music, especially Journey, Unbreakable,

Ozzy Osbourne, Van Halen, and Kiss. All right, so she's got excellent taste in music. Yeah, you know, this is the 80s, and she is a young teenage gal. And in the summer of 1984, 14-year-old Claire, along with her brother Matt and her best friend Kim, flew out to California from their Rhode Island home to stay with her grandparents in San Diego and hang out on the beach for a few weeks. You know, again, she's young, and she's a little bit of a kid.

It's the summer, she wants to have a nice trip and really soak up the warm Southern California beaches. So Kim, who again is Claire's friend, remembers Claire wanting to sneak down to the beach one night after her grandparents had gone to bed. And they just sat in the sand together, enjoying watching the waves late at night while listening to music on Claire's boombox. You know, a nice summer evening. But eerily, Kim...

Kim recalls being haunted by the feeling that something bad was going to happen. And she urged Claire to leave the beach with her right away. Like something suddenly just came over her and she wanted to get the hell out of there. I hate those. Like, I hate those kinds of feelings when we talk about that in cases. I know it's so foreshadowing. It's so foreshadowing. And people have these crazy feelings that they're in danger in some way. Yeah. Like this intuition. So, you know, she's,

telling Claire, I have a bad feeling. I want to leave. So Claire said, okay, let's go. And after that, she still had such a bad feeling that she told Claire, you know, please don't come back here alone at night because I feel like something's going to happen to you, which is again, so uncanny considering what happens. But Kim couldn't stay to make sure that Claire would listen to her because the next day she

Kim had to fly back home to Rhode Island. And guess what? Just days later, Claire was gone. On the evening of Thursday, August 23rd, 1984, just over six years after Barbara was killed on that very sand,

Claire returned to the beach by herself and never made it back to her grandparents' house. Around 5 a.m. on the morning of Friday, August 24, 1984, a beachcombing local named Wallace Wheeler was walking a beach as the sun rose and came upon 14-year-old Claire's bloodied body near Lifeguard Tower 5,

on Torrey Pine State Beach, just a few hundred yards from where Barbara's body had been recovered years earlier. Remember, Barbara's body was found by Tower 7. Claire is being found by Tower 5. And here is what Wallace told the police, quote, I was in the habit of shining my flashlight over the beach to see if cans or anything else was in range of the light. It appeared someone was sleeping, so I quickly turned my light off and moved toward her.

The scene, the state of Claire's body, and even how she was positioned when left behind was nearly identical to Barbara's murder.

I mean, this really is identical. It feels... Yeah, it feels exactly that way.

So she appeared to have been sexually assaulted and most disturbingly, her breast had been mutilated just as Barbara's had been. Like everything is matching. Yeah, that's one of the weirdest details to me is like here we are six years later and the killer used the same method to mutilate Barbara.

It's very, very eerie. Well, cigarette butts had been left behind at the scene, which are believed to belong to Claire's killer. The last time her grandmother saw her, she had been in bed.

But sometime after her grandparents and brother retired for the night, she slipped out with her backpack and her stereo, stopping at a convenience store to purchase a pack of cigarettes before heading down to the water.

Now, some investigators speculated that Claire headed out that night to meet a boy. But Kim really didn't think so, saying, quote: "My theory is that she snuck out, that she was sitting there listening to music, and someone saw a crime of opportunity, and Claire didn't hear them until it was too late."

When her parents raced across the country to be there at the scene of the discovery of their daughter's body, they were greeted on the beach by Wallace himself, the man who had discovered their daughter's body. And weird enough, this guy told the Huffs that he was psychic and that he had been communicating with their daughter.

Yeah, and they think he's kind of an oddball anyway as they're talking to him. You know, they're going through something extremely traumatic and he's saying, oh, hey, I'm Wally. I'm a psychic. That's what he said to them. And so they are letting the police know, we don't know how we feel about this guy and if maybe he's guilty. So the police actually said, keep quiet.

talking to the guy because he might feel so guilty that he'll confess if he is involved in this. Yeah, and it's smart that they actually tipped the investigators off on Wallace because I'm honestly not positive that police were going to look into him any further than, hey, I discovered the victim's body, you know? And here's what they learned about Wallace.

So, Wallace was known to be a pretty eccentric guy. He was a divorcee with two children and a former lieutenant in the army. In his latter years, he suffered from unpredictable mental health and bouts of depression. He was living with his sister at the time just around the corner from Claire's grandparents' house.

Those who knew him recalled that his mental health had suffered a very steep decline in recent years, and that he now spent most of his time combing the beach and collecting cans.

So if he's not guilty, you know, a nice thing to do, collect cans on the beach, you know, report a body that you see. Like, otherwise, nothing nefarious about the guy necessarily. Well, yeah. More of an oddball. More of an oddball. Doesn't seem like, you know, he's a dangerous man at this point. But he did tell Claire's parents that he sincerely felt that he could help solve her crime if he was able to communicate with her enough.

So the three of them kept in touch so that her parents could potentially kind of get a confession out of him. And he was also questioned numerous times by the police. So, yeah, it seems like they're definitely at least doing their due diligence and what they can to see if he's their guy or if this is somebody else.

And actually, Wally began sending Claire's parents these long, rambling letters detailing his communication with their deceased daughter, which Penny and Sam found very disturbing and again, extremely odd. In one vision, he described seeing Claire's attacker, who allegedly had a high forehead,

long hair, and a missing ear. A missing ear. That's pretty strange. Super specific. He told them, quote, I believe he immediately attacked and strangled her and described the attack by saying, quote, he was crouched over her shoulders and I just don't have a clear picture of what he was doing, but would think it was when he mutilated her.

Wallace was never found to have any connection to the murder and was soon ruled out of suspicion completely. And also alongside this, the letters eventually did stop coming in. So he really did just seem to be this guy who happened to come across her body and who claimed to be a psychic and apparently just wanted to help. Yeah, it feels like he was just trying to make some sort of connection to the crime, even though...

He was just the guy that discovered her body. That's it. Well, to kind of wrap up what happened to him, he actually in 1988, so only four years after Claire was murdered, at the age of 65, Wallace leapt off the top floor of his 13-story apartment building. I mean, that does feel kind of suspicious considering

considering that it was just four years later. But at the same time, police are saying, you know, there really is no connection to this guy. Yeah, this was more than likely just a very tragic and strange thing to happen within the case itself.

But was very separate from it. And also we do have to remember that he was struggling from some mental health issues as well. Right. And also some depression. So this does align. So true. Well, after Claire's death, her parents actually found this informal will that she had written out. And to them, Claire had left the message, quote, Mom, Dad, you're the greatest. You made me realize how precious and beautiful life is.

Thank you. I could list all the wonderful things you've done, but everyone would fall asleep. I love you both. So pretty wild that at 14 years old, she had already written these out because it wasn't just to her parents. She also wrote something to her best friend, Kim. And that letter said, quote, Kim, you made me learn what a true friend is. I love you. Stay gold.

She also left a note about how she wanted all the, quote, good, usable parts of her body to be donated to those who needed them. So, another very, very strange thing

thing to write. Like, what are the chances that she would be murdered and mutilated and then she happened to write these things earlier and even say this about her body? It's so crazy. So, to the frustration of her grieving parents, her case did grow stagnant alongside Barbara's and their families didn't even know about the Marion cases actually until 2008. Like,

So many years pass without each family knowing about the other family, which is also wild because in 2008, they were uploaded side by side into the San Diego cold case website and police indicated that they believed that the cases were linked. For decades, the cases went without any leads until 2012.

Though both girls were killed before the proliferation of DNA testing, there were swabs taken from each of them. And those swabs eventually linked Claire Huff to two men. One was a serial rapist from the area, and the other was an investigator. ♪♪

What is going on, true crime fans? There's a new podcast that we think you guys are gonna love called Fear Thy Neighbor. On Fear Thy Neighbor from i-D, hear true stories about the victims of deadly neighborhood disputes. As you guys know, most violent crimes that capture the public's imagination are about serial killers or crimes of passion. But what happens when the person you fear the most is living right next door?

♪♪

♪♪

We've covered a lot of cases where people are killed by their neighbors. So listen to Fear Thy Neighbor wherever you get your podcasts.

As you guys know, Heath and I personally love to put on our sleuthing caps. And we know you do too. Yeah, you guys are true crime listeners and you love a good mystery. Especially when they have a ton of twists and turns. That is why you guys are going to love June's Journey. Step into the role of June Parker and search for hidden clues to uncover the mystery of her sister's murder.

Engage your observation skills to quickly uncover key pieces of information that lead to chapters of mystery, danger, and romance. I mean, it really has it all, and that's why Heath and I love to play after a long day where we can just do something fun and solve a fictional mystery. One of my favorite parts is that I get to

customize my own luxurious estate island. Just let your imagination run wild when you're decorating it. Also, you can chat and play or against other players by joining a detective club. How cool is that? June needs your help, detective. Download June's Journey for free today on iOS and Android.

Me and Heath's favorite season by far is fall. I know you love summer, but fall is really the best. You know, we have football games, we got pumpkin spice lattes, and we got cozy, chilly weather. So what are you going to need for that? A comfy sweater from Quince. Yeah, and Quince is actually known for their Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $50. All Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands.

which is why, like Keith said, you can find cashmere sweaters for $50. I mean, that also includes beautiful leather jackets, cotton cardigans, soft denim, and so much more. So you're probably wondering how they're able to do that. Well, they partner directly with top factories and cut out the cost of the middleman, which passes the savings on to us. And the really cool thing is that

Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices. Love that. And of course, premium fabrics and finishes for that luxury feel in every piece. We just got some amazing new sweaters, jackets, and pants from Quince. I mean, they seriously have all the staples.

And not only are they high quality and affordable, but they're super stylish. Get cozy in Quince's high quality wardrobe essentials. Go to quince.com slash going west for free shipping on your order and 365 day returns. That's q-u-i-n-c-e dot com slash going west to get free shipping and 365 day returns. quince.com slash going west.

♪♪♪

In November of 2012, DNA found on Claire's jeans linked her to a serial rapist who had spent his entire life committing brutal crimes against women. Ronald Clyde Tatro was born and raised in Illinois and described as a loner and the black sheep of his family. He served in the army for six years and then moved to the police force after he was discharged.

But just two years into his service as an officer in Hot Springs, Arkansas, he was arrested for assault and battery. Now, he claimed that he went home with a woman that he thought was a sex worker, but when he discovered that she was not, he beat her out of frustration. What? Yeah, it gets even more wild than that. Like, as if that's okay? Like, oh man, I thought she was a sex worker, so I'm just gonna beat her. Not, no? Yeah, why would you do that?

But before he even began serving his sentence for that crime, he was arrested for a kidnapping and sexual assault in 1975. He kidnapped a retail employee, raping her at knife point, beating her, and then leaving her for dead in a field. Now, thankfully both of these women did survive, but Ronald posed a very clear threat to society.

When asked his motivation for the latter rape, he claimed that his wife was raped by a police officer, so he abducted and raped that police officer's sister. However, this claim was never corroborated, and it's probably pure bullshit.

So after his second brutal attack on a woman, he checked into a psychiatric center for evaluation due to a self-proclaimed "compulsion to rape." That's what he said. Ugh. A compulsion to rape. This guy is a complete piece of shit. According to the psychiatrist who evaluated him ahead of his trial, Ronald had, quote, "no control over his violent and lustful physical urges towards women," which apparently he had been plagued with since his childhood.

That is unacceptable. Yeah, it's just not right.

So after being released on April 1st, 1982, he relocated to San Diego, California for a fresh start. Which was just over a couple years before Claire was murdered. But despite all of this, Ronald managed to trick another unsuspecting woman into marrying him, and the two had children together.

After their inevitable divorce, his ex-wife, Sharon, told investigators that he had frequently bound and raped her and that he also confessed to raping and potentially murdering a young woman while driving across country.

When Sharon heard that her ex-husband was a suspect in Claire's 1984 rape and murder, she was, as the reporter who interviewed her said, Sharon explained, Ron told me that he had raped a girl on his way home from Fort Lewis, Washington. He thought he had killed her and left her for dead.

And actually, Sharon didn't even really believe him at first. She thought that he was, I mean, this is not something that somebody would joke about anyway, but she probably just didn't want to believe it because it was such a horrific thing to hear. And maybe she was terrified of him anyway because she didn't tell law enforcement right away, but she did tell them later.

So six months before Claire's murder, Ronald was a suspect in the murder of a local sex worker, 22-year-old Carol Ann DeFlees. She was brutally stabbed to death on Friday, February 25th, 1984, after telling a friend that she had a date.

Now, her case remains unsolved, and Ronald was never formally connected to her murder. But then, on June 25th, 1985, Ronald was arrested yet again for abduction and sexual assault. So in that situation, Ronald approached a 16-year-old girl whose car had broken down, and he offered her a ride.

But when she was safely inside his vehicle or unsafely inside of his vehicle. Thank you. Yes, so true. Ronald used a stun gun on her to disable her and then began driving her somewhere where he could sexually assault her. Now, thankfully, the victim was able to escape and Ronald was arrested and he served two years in a California prison.

This infraction violated the terms of his parole back in Arkansas, as you can imagine. So he was sent back and forced to complete the rest of his 40 year sentence. Hallelujah. Finally, but that didn't work again because he was released early. Once again, this time in January of 1997. And

And three years later, he was arrested for an attempt to sexually assault a co-worker. So no matter what, this guy is not stopping. He will get out of prison and do it again. No, yeah, just throw him in a cell, throw him in a cell.

Throw away the key. Lock the man away. And here's how he connects to Claire's case. Now, Ronald Tetreault's DNA was found in eight of the bloodstains on Claire's jeans, as well as on the zipper flap, which was torn, and in three of the stains on her underwear. So this is a lot. There's no way this DNA would get there if he was not involved in her murder.

Absolutely. This wasn't just like, oh, you know, we found a piece of his hair on her shirt. Like he's in the bloodstains. He's on her undergarments. He's involved, right? Yeah, he is absolutely cooked at this point. So finally confident that they had a suspect after nearly 30 years, the San Diego Police Department sought him out for questioning. But Ronald had died the year prior.

On Wednesday, August 24th, 2011, Ronald drowned in what seemed to be a mysterious boating accident. His body was pulled from the Holston River in Sir Goinsville, Tennessee after what looked like a routine fishing outing.

The medical examiner listed his cause of death as accidental, but investigators noted that he had neatly lined up his belongings like his wallet, his hat, and his glasses inside the boat. The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency wrote in their report, quote,

Also, his autopsy revealed that he had ingested sleeping pills before going underwater, so take that how you will. And also, just so you know, this happened on the anniversary of Claire's death, so may or may not be connected there too. In January of 2014, investigators received yet another hit on the DNA recovered at the scene of Claire's murder.

A very tiny amount of DNA was found on a vaginal swab that was linked to a man named Kevin Brown. But shockingly, he was one of their own. Kevin worked as a criminalist for the San Diego Police Department crime laboratory until his retirement in 2002. So this guy's supposed to be helping the case, but a microscopic amount of Kevin's seminal fluid was found on Claire's genital swab.

So this definitely could have been a confirmed link to his involvement, but it just wasn't that cut and dry. Both Kevin's lawyers and fellow criminalists who had worked alongside him in the lab attest to the possibility of cross-contamination.

Kevin was working in the same lab in which Claire's DNA was being tested, though he did not handle her case. Interesting. Right, so from 1982 to 1985, Kevin was working as a forensic analyst in the serology division of the San Diego Police Department crime lab, analyzing fluids such as blood, semen, and saliva.

Though it sounds pretty outlandish, employees would occasionally bring in their own seminal fluid to test as a control subject. Without DNA technology, male lab analysts took to using their own semen samples to test evidence against, and were admittedly not very careful about avoiding cross-contamination.

The San Diego Police Department insists that this was not a possibility in Claire's case, however, announcing, quote, we have absolute confidence that there is no basis for any cross-contamination. So they're admitting that in some cases in their lab could have been possible at different times, but in this case...

It's not possible. There is no cross-contamination, meaning if Kevin's fluid was found in a sample taken from Claire's crime scene, then he must in some way be involved and have had contact before Claire's murder with Claire. Exactly. And we are going to talk a little bit more about that here in just a second.

But I mean, either way, Kevin was a pretty surprising choice for a murderous co-conspirator. I mean, he was a man of the law, a church-going retiree who loved to garden and fish, and he was a devoted husband to his wife of 20 years, whose name is Rebecca.

According to Rebecca, he was gentle, sweet, kind, and quote, one of the good ones. But detectives working this case were not entirely sure. Well, now that they were confident that at least Ronald Tetra was involved, they considered the possibility that the men had teamed up to assault and murder Claire Hough.

Here's the thing. When Kevin was brought in for questioning, he claimed that he had never met nor heard of Ronald. But then his bachelor pass before meeting Rebecca came under a little bit of scrutiny. Coworkers claimed that his nickname had been Kinky because of his antics outside of work.

And due to his kind of meek nature, he struggled to meet women. So before his marriage, he apparently frequented a lot of strip clubs and he hired a boudoir photographer to take nude photos of women. And obviously none of this is illegal or inherently bad or negative at all. But we're mentioning it because even after he started working in the lab, a female coworker of his, again in the lab,

that he put on a pornographic film at work and once read aloud to her a passage from the report of a sexual assault and told her that he thought it was funny. So obviously both of those things are just incredibly unprofessional and super red flaggy. But in Claire's case, Kevin is saying that he wasn't involved at all. Again, he didn't know Ronald. So he said, hey, I'll take a polygraph examination to clear my name.

But crazy enough, this only made things worse. Because during it, he was shown a picture of Claire and indicated that he knew her, but later said that he meant that he knew of her case, which, of course, was infamous in the area. When Kevin was told that DNA found on her genital swab linked him to her, he said, quote,

I must have had sex with her. Like saying essentially he can't remember and maybe this is somebody that he had a consensual sexual relationship with. But remember this, Claire was only 14 years old. So...

he assumed, I guess, that they were referring to an ex-girlfriend of his whose name was Claire. This is kind of how he backed that up. Oh, I thought you were talking about somebody else. Because back in the 80s, Kevin had dated somebody named Claire who was in her late 20s. When asked if he had sex with or killed Claire Hough, he again said no. And the polygraph examination indicated deception.

When asked if he knew or was associated with Ronald Tetreault, Kevin said no, but the test question came back as inconclusive. Well, at this point, investigators had heard enough. The San Diego Police Department served the home of Kevin and Rebecca with a search warrant and removed more than a dozen boxes of evidence. But Kevin felt the world was closing in on him.

And Rebecca was so concerned about her husband's well-being that she asked her brother to remove all the guns from their home. But in October of 2014, her worst nightmare came to fruition. When Rebecca returned home that day, she found out that Kevin wasn't there. He had left behind a Bible turned to a passage highlighted about being wrongfully accused.

Then, the following day, which was October 21st, 62-year-old Kevin was found hanging from a tree in Cuyamaca Rancho State Park, near where he and his wife owned a cabin. Rebecca said sadly, quote, I totally understand why he did it.

He knew that there would be people who would think, even if he went to court and was found not guilty, that would believe it. And this was going to tarnish his reputation that he prided himself in. Three days after he ended his life, the SDPD publicly named Kevin Brown as a suspect in Claire's murder. After his death, Rebecca Brown filed a wrongful death lawsuit against the police department, and she actually won six million dollars.

Her attorneys argued that there were no actual sperm cells found on or inside Claire's body. Not Kevin's or Ronald's or anyone else's. Her autopsy revealed a single vaginal laceration, but the autopsy could not confirm whether it had been sexual or performed with an object. Kevin's DNA was later found on the corner swab of Claire's mouth and genitals after he had been exposed to it inside the lab.

Though Rebecca maintains her husband's innocence, both the San Diego Police Department and Claire's parents, Penny and Sam, say that they are absolutely confident in the findings and believe that it's possible that the men acted together. But unfortunately, I mean, so many questions remain, and even more so in the murder of Barbara Nantes, whose investigation, 46 years later, has yet to name a single suspect. So if Rebecca

Ronald is involved in Claire's. It's impossible for him to be involved in Barbara's because he was imprisoned in Arkansas at that same time that she was murdered. So it's just so hard to know what to say here because their cases were so unbelievably similar. Almost everything was identical and yet there is no connection in DNA or suspects. So what is the answer here?

Well, on top of this, Kevin and Barbara didn't have any sort of connection at all. And he was actually in school in Sacramento at the time of her murder. So yeah, still. So it's not possible for either of those two people suspected of Claire's murder to be behind Barbara's.

But there's no way that just by chance they're the same. So is there another suspect that committed both of these murders and Ronald and Kevin really aren't involved at all? Which again, it's hard to believe because of how much of Ronald's DNA was found at the scene of Claire's murder. So it's so confusing. But what makes it even more so is since the announcement of the connection of Ronald Tetreault and Kevin Brown to Claire's murder,

Police have concluded that the cases of Barbara and Claire were not connected. It's so weird to me that...

There was no connection between these two murders that essentially looked exactly the same. And, you know, then you have to wonder if this is a copycat situation or, again, if there is a connecting suspect that police have not been able to find yet. But strangely, another teen was murdered on this very beach near where the girls were found just months after Barbara's murder. And his case remains unsolved as well.

So that story goes on the morning of May 17th, 1979, a bicyclist came upon 14-year-old Adam Ashley's body lying in the sand on Torrey Pines State Beach near Lifeguard Tower 4.

It was the day before his 15th birthday and sadly, he wasn't even reported missing until after he was already dead. And his murder was somewhat similar in the way that he had been bludgeoned in the head and discarded in the sand, but there has never been any suspects in the case. So are these cases connected or are they completely unrelated?

Well, it is very interesting that all three of these bodies were found near lifeguard towers. They were on the exact same beach. They were all bludgeoned to death. I mean, it is so strange. And also, they were killed within this six-year period. Yeah, and again, such close proximity. Like you said, lifeguard towers for...

five, and seven. So all in the very same area, all had been bludgeoned, all were laying dead on the sand, all were teenagers. I mean, it's a little bit different that Adam was a male, but does it mean, like, I don't know. Again, what are the chances that

Three teenagers happened to be murdered in almost the exact same spot in such similar circumstances across six years of time. And they're all committed by different people. This is a safe area. This is a very public beach. It's a beautiful area.

What are the chances? I don't know. I don't know. Yeah, it's very confusing to me. Well, if you have any information about the murder of Barbara Nantes or any of the murders at Torrey Pines State Beach, please call the San Diego Police Department at 619-531-2000. ♪

Thank you so much, everybody, for listening to this episode of Going West. Yes, thank you guys so much for listening to this episode. If you want to see photos of this episode and all the other cases that we've covered on Going West,

head on over to our socials. We're on Instagram at Going West Podcast, and we're also on Facebook. Yes, would love to know your thoughts on this case. I know there's not a ton to really go off here, but the circumstances are just too similar for me to be comfortable. Yeah, absolutely. So thank you guys again, and we will see you on Tuesday. All right, guys. So for everybody out there in the world, don't be a stranger.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪

Stop by O'Reilly Auto Parts for the power, performance, and reliability of a new Super Start battery. Visit OReillyAuto.com. O, O, O, O'Reilly Auto Parts.