You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, KFI AM six forty live everywhere on the iHeartRadio app. On any given day in southern California, hundreds of investigators are working more than ten thousand unsolved cases. That's thousands of friends and families who have lost loved ones, thousands of people who got away with a crime, and thousands of murderers who still walk the streets. Killers who may be your neighbor, go to your church, or could be dating a
close friend. For the next two hours will highlight cases that have gone cold, baffled investigators, or just needs that one witness to speak out. This is unsolved with Steve Gregory, Riverside County District Attorney, cold case number ri
IF one five to two four zero two a murdered Jane Doe. The Riverside County DA announced it had some evidence to get them closer to the identity of a woman who was killed in the early nineties and left buried under brush and shrubbery off Highway ninety five near Blythe In twenty ten, that woman's killer was convicted. In fact, Keith Hunter Jesperson, also known as the Happy Face Killer, confessed to the murder along with many others, but to this day,
the woman he brutally killed and left near Blythe has remained unidentified. So we headed out to the Riverside County DA's office where we spoke with senior investigator Ebony Cavanis about the mysterious murdered hitchhigh So in August August thirtieth of nineteen ninety two, an unidentified female body was located in off the highway ninety five, seven miles north of the city of Blythe. At the time, the body
was in moderate to severe decomposation. We had no leads regarding that case, and at the time the autopsy determined that the cause of death was undetermined. So fast forward from nineteen ninety two to nineteen ninety four, a reporter from the Oregonian newspaper received a letter from an anonymous writer who claims to have murdered
the woman that we found in Blythe along with four other women. So in that letter, he confessed to vettering five women and he signed the letter with a happy face, and that's when he was deemed the happy Face killer at that point. So in nineteen ninety five, Clark County Sheriff's Department from Vancouver, Washington arrested Jessperson for the murder of another woman. He confessed to that murder and also said he killed a total of eight women at that time,
one of them being the body that we found in Blyth. So in nineteen ninety six, Riverside Sheriff Investigator Rich Massan and Sergeant Rich dollar Hide went to sale in penitentiary to interview Jessperson, and during the interview he gave us information that coincided to the physical description of the female, the placement of her body, the crime scene, the location, and with all of that information were able to convict him January twenty ten for that Riverside homicide, in which he
was sentenced to twenty five years to life, serving that time in Oregon. At this point, though, the missing part of this puzzle is you still don't have an identity the woman, do you. We do not, and that's what we've been working very hard on trying to do. At this point,
we have no name or who she was. She had no identification on her, and nothing has come up to even help us with her identification whatsoever, other than submitting her DNA to family Tree and creating a family tree within that website is a directed to consumer website, and we were able to find some possible paternal relatives of hers, but they don't know who she is. They have no name for her, and didn't know that they had a sibling
that was missing. So now we're working on contacting the maternal side of the family. And that's why we're reaching out to the public because if anyone has any information regarding this homicide or maybe there's some similarities in a missing relative that they had, that they can reach out to us and provide us with some type of information. Did jesperson indicate at all who she might have been or did he ever have a name for her? He called her Claudia, but
that possibly is not her name. He said that she gave him the name of Claudia, but when we reinterviewed him in twenty twenty three, he said that may have not been her name. So he did provide us with a physical description of her, which definitely helped out when we had to do the phenoe typing and the sketches, So that was kind of the help that we got from him. He also was able to clarify a few things regarding the
murder, like maybe her lifestyle, her demeanor, the clothing. He verified a few of the sketches that we had, but other than a physical description, a timeline, and a possible name, he wasn't able to provide us
with much else. With your experience, he apparently gave you enough information that you were able to file the charges against him and get him convicted of the murder of this woman, right, correct, Yes, But do you believe he's being truthful that he doesn't remember much about her beyond that, or do you think or do you think he's holding back because sometimes serial killers like to hold stuff back. They do. I agree with you, there's no way
to determine if he's being truthful or not. But he was so detailed regarding the murder itself and the crime scene and her physical description when we found her, including her clothing, that we do believe some of the things he's saying is truthful. Also, his truck logs and fuel receipts show he was in the area during that time. So talk about jess Person, What is it
he did and who was he? So? Keith Hunter. Jesperson was a serial killer who killed women in Oregon, Washington, California, and Florida. So he states that he sometime the summer of nineteen ninety two, which we were able to determine that it was August of nineteen ninety two. He said that he was in a break check area conducting brake adjustments for a long haul truck that he drives. So at the time he was a long haul truck
driver and he drove a nineteen eighty nine purple Peterbilt long haul truck. He said that he was in a break check area off the Eye or Interstate fifteen South near the Cohoone Pass in the Victorville area. While he was working under his truck, he says he hears a woman's voice approach him and ask for a ride. Once he agrees to give her ride, he says that she waves to a man in a Alberson's truck who takes off, so he agrees
to take her for a ride. She wants to go to the Los Angeles area, and he said she's very adamant about it, and her familiarity with the different freeways in LA made him believe that she was familiar with the area. Also too, he said he doesn't know very many Albersons that are in that area, so he believes she may have come from the Vegas or the Barstow area, so he agrees to give her a ride at that truck stop. He says, I have a long haul delivery. I have to deliver
in Phoenix at a specific time. I can't take it to LA but I can take you to Cabazon. So they get in the truck, they drive to Cabazon. They continue I ten eastbound, stop at Cabazon for a brief period of time, he gasses up, does some adjustments to his truck. She decides she wants to continue on to India. Okay, so before we go any further there, we need to stop take a break. When we come back, we'll talk more about this unknown Jane Doe in Riverside County with
Ebony cavinists. But first, this is unsolved with Steve Gregory on kf I AM six forty k I AM six forty live and on demand on the iHeartRadio app. This is unsolved with Steve Gregory. Welcome back. Right inside the Riverside County District Attorney's Office downtown Riverside. We're talking with Ebany Kevinis She is a senior investigator with the DA's office here talking to us about a case from nineteen ninety two involving a woman who was murdered and to this day her identity
is unknown, but the killer is behind bars. Correct? Is that unusual epony that you usually that you can convict somebody of murder when the person the victim is unknown. Even the victim is unknown, there is still a homicide that occurred, So they very well could be convicted for the homicide. And
we have a Jane Doe or John Doe victim. Our job is to even despite the conviction, our job is to at least try to get them identified so their family would have an idea of what happened to them and that they can have some closure. Did you ever get to interview Jesperson. I did, Yes, I interviewed him in twenty twenty three, middle of twenty twenty three. Okay, I want to go there, but I want to go
back and finish what you were talking about. Before the break. Jess person in the truck and had the woman with him whom he called Claudia, referred to as Claudia, and they were at a truck stop in Cabazon that's correct, and he wanted to continue to Indio. Yes, so initially she said agreed that he can take her to Cabazon instead of going to the LA route. Once she was in Cabazon, she decided to continue with him to Phoenix. So from Cabazon they drove to the Coachella Valley, Indio area, and
they stopped at a Burns Brother truck stop. They had dinner. After dinner, they go back in the truck. They have an argument regarding money, and that's when he kills her inside the bed of the truck. Okay, outside the truck cab. So the argument with money was it presumed that she was a prostitute. That is not confirmed. That's Jessperson's narrative of it.
But we have no information to concern that confirm whatsoever that she was involved in any prostitution because he could have been charging her for Milager gas for all we know. Right, we have no idea, but he didn't offer any of those details. His narrative is that she was a prostitute. But unless it's confirmed, we're not going to label her as at got it. Got it, And then you said you got to interview him, So what was tell us what that was like, Well, I mean, where where did you
interview him at? I interviewed him at Salem Penitentiary and Oregon. Myself, an investigator from rbsite Sheriff Department, Amy Contreras, and I conducted the interview with Chess person. We just asked him to We studied up on the case very well. We wanted to see if there was any variation or changes to his story, or if there was any embellishment or any additional information he can provide us that he didn't provide the original investigators. So he was very cooperative.
During the interview. We showed him a few sketches. He pointed out the sketch that best fits Claudia. He also gave us a physical, maybe a more in debt physical description of her, and then he narrated the time that they had together and also the murder. What about it? What about your conversation with him really stuck out to you? What's the one indebible thing
that he told you that just really seared into your brain? I would say the most important part of the interview to me was he said that was the first time he had seen sketches of her. Whether that's sure or not. I don't know, but I feel that the fact that he was able to look at the three possible sketches we have and choose from one of those sketches, I think helped us out a lot in the case, and that seemed
to be the most important part to me. He very well could have seen the sketches and bellushed the truth, but I thought that's the part that kind of was seared in my mind. Had you ever interviewed a serial killer like that before? I have not. No, this was the first serial killer I've ever interviewed. What was that like going in there in person and sitting across the table from him, It was surprisingly normal. It was surprisingly calm.
He's very soft spoken. It's just a very relaxed demeanor. There was nothing, of course, when he's describing how he murdered her. That in itself is heartbreaking and shocking, But as far as anything exciting or different in the conversation, not much. It's a very very calm conversation, and each question I had he was very open to answer. What was his motive for
coming clean? He mentioned that, So I'm not sure if you're familiar, but one of the murders, but There is a woman who confessed to investigators. I believe it was an Oregon or Washington. She confessed to the murder and said her boyfriend committed the murder. He said that the fact that these two people who are innocent, went to jail for a murder he committed or was taking credit for his murder, led him to the confession. So it was either guilt or ego, either one. It could be yes, yeah,
yes. How many is he responsible for? Is or he's confessed to? He's confessed to eight? Do you suspect there's more? There is nothing to verify that there are more victims out there from him, So there's no evidence to verify there that he could have murdered more than eight. There is just stories of him speaking to other prison inmates confessing more murders. So do you when something like that happens, do you feel that you have to follow
up on those? Oh, we definitely follow up on it. We have a database that is ran by the federal government called VISCAP and it links commonalities and crimes with victims and with suspects. So he's been in VISCAP for a very long time. There are some links there as far as similarity and the
method a person was murdered, but the timeline is completely off. He even admitted that there are several investigators that show up to the prison to talk to him about a murder that they've had in their area, but the timeline is completely off. We're talking with Ebany Cavanists from the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. She's a senior investigator telling us about a serial killer, but one of
the women that he killed remains unidentified to this day. We'll talk more about that, but first, this is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty KFI AM six forty live and on demand on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is Unsolved. Welcome back. Right inside the Riverside County
District Attorney's Office downtown Riverside. We're talking with Ebany Kevinists. She is a senior investigator with the DA's office here talking to us about a case from nineteen ninety two involving a woman who was murdered and to this day, her identity is unknown, but the killer is behind bars. Correct, That is correct? Is that unusual epony that you usually that you can convict somebody of murder when the person the victim is unknown. Even the victim is unknown, there
is still a homicide that occurred. So they very well could be convicted for the homicide. And we have a Jane Doe or John Doe victim. Our job is to even despite the conviction, our job is to at least try to get them identified so their family would have an idea of what happened to them and that they can have some closure. Did you ever get to interview jesperson. I did, Yes, I interviewed him in twenty twenty three,
middle of twenty twenty three. Okay, I want to go there, but I want to go back and finish what you were talking about before the break. J just person in the truck and had the woman with him whom he called Claudia, referred to as Claudia, and they were at a truck stop in Cabazon. That's correct, and he wanted to continue to Indio. Yes, so initially she said agreed that he can take her to Cabazon instead of going to the LA route. Once she was in Cabazon, she decided to
continue with him to Phoenix. Ok So, from Cabazon they drove to the Coachella Valley, Indio area, and they stopped at a Burns Brother truck stop. They had dinner. After dinner, they go back in the truck. They have an argument regarding money, and that's when he kills her inside the bed of the truck. Okay, outside the truck cab. So the argument with money was it presumed that she was a prostitute. That is not confirmed.
That's jessperson's narrative of it. But we have no information to concern that confirm whatsoever that she was involved in any prostitution because he could have been charging her for milager gas for all we know, right, we have no idea any But he didn't offer any of those details. His narrative is that she was a prostitute. But unless it's confirmed, we're not going to label her as at got it. Got it? And then you said you got to interview him, So what was tell us what that was like? Well,
I mean where we where did you interview him at? I interviewed him at Salem Penitentiary and Oregon. Myself an investigator from Merversite Sheriff Department, Amy Contreras, and I conducted the interview with chess person. We just asked him to. We studied up on the case very well. We wanted to see if there was any variation our changes to his story, or if there was any embellishment or any additional information he can provide us that he didn't provide the original
investigators. So he was very cooperative. During an interview, we showed them a few sketches. He pointed out the sketch that best fits Claudia. He also gave us a physical, maybe a more in debt physical description of her, and then he narrated the time that they had together and also the murder. What about it? What about your conversation with him really stuck out to you? What's the one indelible thing that he told you that just really seared
into your brain? I would say the most important part of the interview to me was he said that was the first time he had seen sketches of her. Whether that's sure or not, I don't know, but I feel that the fact that he was able to look at the three possible sketches we have and choose from one of those sketches, I think helped us out a lot in the case. And that seemed to be the most important part to me. He very well could have seen the sketches and bellushed the truth, but
I thought that's the part that kind of was steared in my mind. Had you ever interviewed a serial killer like that before? I have not. No, this was the first serial killer I've ever interviewed. What was that like going in there in person and sitting across the table from him, It was surprisingly normal. It was surprisingly calm. He's very soft spoken. It's just a very relaxed demeanor. There was nothing, of course, when he's describing
how he murdered her. That in itself is heartbreaking and shocking. But as far as anything exciting or different in the conversation, not much. It's a very very calm conversation. And each question I had he was very open to answer. What was his motive for coming clean? He mentioned that, So, I'm not sure if you're familiar with one of the murders, but there is a woman who confessed to investigators. I believe it was an Oregon or
Washington. She confessed to the murder and said her boyfriend committed the murder. He said that the fact that these two people who are innocent went to jail for a murder he committed or was taking credit for his murder led him to the confession. So it was either guilt or ego either one. It could be yes, yeah, yes. How many is he responsible for? Is or he's confessed to He's confessed to eight? Do you suspect there's more?
The there is nothing to verify that there are more victims out there from him, So there's no evidence to verify that there that he could have murdered more than eight. There's just stories of him speaking to other prison inmates confessing more murders. So do you when something like that happens, do you feel that you have to follow up on those? Oh, we definitely follow up on
it. We have a database that is ran by the federal government called VISCAP, and it links commonalities and crimes with victims and with sus so he's been in VISCAP for a very long time. There are some links there as far as similarity and the method a person was murdered, but the timeline is completely off. So he even admitted that there are several investigators that show up to the prison to talk to him about the murder that they've had in their area.
But the timeline is completely off. We're talking with Ebany Cavanists from the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. She's a senior investigator telling us about a serial killer, but one of the women that he killed remains unidentified to this day. We'll talk more about that, but first, This is Unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty k I AM six forty live and on demand on the iHeartRadio app. This is Unsolved with Steve Gregory. Welcome back.
We're inside the Riverside County District Attorney's Office in downtown Riverside. We've been talking with Ebane Cavinists, senior investigator with the DA's office, about a Jane Doe that was discovered dead in nineteen ninety two near blythe and in twenty ten,
her killer was convicted and he now remains in a prison in Oregon. And Ebany, you were telling us that you had an opportunity to interview mister Jefferson, mister Jessperson apologized mister Jesperson and that you know, he was able to confirm a lot of information and you showed him some sketches and we were talking about these sketches briefly for the break. And I'm looking at one now that shows this rendering of a blonde woman. And how old was your Jane Doe?
Approximately, we're saying twenty five to thirty five years old. Okay, so young woman, yeah, young woman. And did he say that this this one that we're looking at right now, did he say this is the closest to her? You really? No, it's one of the original sketches. So that parabond rendering is brand new. Oh got it? We just got that. We just ordered that. So I have the three sketches. Do you need to see them? Well, yeah, I mean if you
have them handy. I apologize. I only printed the one to look at, but if you've got the others, I'm curious to find out which the one's Okay, oh, okay, one rendering well not rendering. It was a sketch. Okay, different, This is another sketch. And were these from back in ninety two? Yes? And he said these are more like it. He actually said that's when I was the braided hair. That's what
I was. Yeah, yes, Well he described her as having wild, shaggy, shoulder length blonde hair, so I think this was her version of making it shaggy or wild in some way. So what we did is we showed them this sketch and this sketch, and there was a third one. He said, not even close. So he said this was the closest look to her. And with the update he gave us as far as her appearance,
this was Corey Kopinski's final sketch. Interesting, okay. So then we got her DNA school photos from the corner for the DNA pheno typing and describe what the pheno typing is. The pheno typing is done by Parabond, and what they do is they take the DNA profile and the school photos, they upload that into their system. And what it does It predicts a person's physical features, their physical appearance, and their ethnicity. And what's the accuracy on
these? Pretty good? I mean, so if they were fairly new, got it? Okay? So they said, based on the DNA she had blue eyes, brown hair, European background, but he insisted that she had blonde hair, so they did a blonde rendition of her. Did it seem like at all that he was sort of guessing or did he seem pretty confident in his recollection of her appearance. No, he seemed pretty confident, pretty confident. There was no hesitation with him at all as to which ones looked
like her and which ones didn't. Did the two ever have sex? That is not confirmed because her body was mummified when we located it. He claims that they did have consensual sex, but there's no way that we can verify that. Now, when you say the body was mummified, how long had it been out in the open like that, anywhere from two weeks to a month. And when you said it was what was the stage of decomposition? It was moderate to severe decomposition. And then when you say modern to severe,
can you describe what that might look like? That is some partial skeletonized. I can't even say the word that's partial skeleton skeletonization, skeletonization? Yes, is that is that a word? It's a word. I read it. No, I'm serious, I read it. Okay. So the meaning that there was probably the skeleton is probably, uh, it's visible. No, she's just mummified. So when I said advanced to severe, when I say advanced to severe decomposition, that means there are some mummification on her body
parts. So I'm surprised out there, and when I'm looking at the aerial photo of where this was at and then out there in the desert like that, I'm surprised that it was mummified and not completely ravaged by wildlife. The possibility of it not being ravaged is because she was hidden underbrush. So I don't know if that helped with the state of composition. I don't know if
that slows it down. That's something a pathologists would know better. And you said that his reason for killing her was over money, right, He says, yes, they had an argument over money. She wanted to purchase some items in a gift shop at Burn's brother and then demanded some money from him. But that is his interpretation of why the argument ensued. Did he ever get into why he killed the other people? I mean, do the motives seem to match up? Yes, they upset him in some type of way.
What was the trigger? The trigger is demanding money, asking for money, just being what he perceived as rude or disrespectful. He even said one of the victims falsely claimed that he raped her and that was untrue. He just said that there was usually something that would trigger him into that state. As we wrap up here, Ebony, what is it you need from the
public. So what I need from the public is I need them to share this podcast, share our YouTube videos, our social media, share the sketches and the photo renderings of our victim, and talk with amongst themselves in the community if they believe they have any information whatsoever that would help us identify this victim, If they believe that she may be a relative that's missing from their family, or their family has some type of connection with this case, we
would love to get her identified, and we asked the public look to contact us at our Cold Case hotline which is nine five one nine five five five sixty seven. Also, they can email us at Coldcase Unit at rivcoda dot org. If they have their DNA profile uploaded in a direct to consumer database, they can move that profile over to jetmatch dot com or they can upload it into jetmatch and see if any of their DNA matches not only this case,
but any of our other code cases. Ebany Cavinists, Senior investigator with the Riverside County District Attorney's Office. Thank you very much for your time, good luck. Thank you, sir. You can see those sketches on my Instagram at Steve Gregory six forty. That's Steve Gregory six forty coming up another gruesome case of a woman dumped in the desert and later trying to find the Christmas night shooters of Riverside. But first, this is on with Steve Gregory
on KFI AM six forty. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand. You're listening to KFI AM six forty on demand, k I AM six forty heard everywhere live on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is unsolved. Our next story contains graphic content. This is Riverside County Sheriff's Case number A nine three zero eight nine zero one three, the sexual assault and
murder of Sherry Herrera. We're joined now by Jason Corey, he's an investigator with a Riverside County Sheriff's Department, and Mike Thompson, he's also an investigator, but he's with the Riverside County District Attorney's office. They both are a part of a cold case unit that's working in Riverside County to sell these cold cases from years ago, and we're talking today about one such case, nineteen ninety three a woman found in the desert near an on ramp eastbound ten Freeway
fifty miles east of Palm Springs. Gentlemen, welcome to the show. Hello, thank you for having us. So Jason give us an overview of this
case. So on March thirtieth of nineteen ninety three, at just about one o'clock in the afternoon, some folks just out enjoying, trying to enjoy the desert, just about like you said, about fifty miles east of Palm Springs, they found the deceased body of Sherry Herrera just off of the road, off the eastbound on ramp at Hayfield Road and Interstate ten out there in the
in the desert. Uh. It was it was hot that day, it was about the investigators noted it was about eighty to eighty five degrees uh, with with the slight wind blowing, and uh and these folks just happened upon a very very gruesome scene and uh and Sherry was was strangled to death. And then the investigation picked up from there and they just Cherry was a prostitute
in the local area. Would bounce back and forth between the Coachella Valley and blythe I believe to Larry all the Yeah, all the way up to TOI Larry uh and then uh and then anywhere in between. So there was a lot of folks that that the investigators interviewed just in that world, a lot of narcotics, uh different, she had pimps. There were folks that that they interviewed that were would send them to in different directions throughout the entire investigation.
Uh. And they end up interviewing several several folks that that they thought we were potential suspects and what kinds of folks. You can see several folks well, local local people out to out to the desert area. The folks that were local back then, not too sure where they're at where they're at now, I haven't I haven't researched to find out where they are, but
uh, known travelers throughout the area, no known drug users. There were several different theories that that Sharry had owed different folks money for for for drugs, different things. So it's you know, the investigators were taking everything in and just kind of getting spun in different directions. At at the time. This has got to be complicated to Jason because you are dealing with a prostitute, and that lifestyle lends itself to just multiple contacts in multiple locations, possible
multiple motive. Uh. You know, how do you sift through all of that? Well, now I have the luxury of going back and uh and and we do with with all three of us, we have the luxury of going back and reading everything. And then and then obviously in cases where we were able to have uh, where we get DNA, we're able to do that. You know, that kind of that helps us out tremendously because they
didn't have that technology back then. So we're able to use that technology now where we're able to I hate to say shortcut because we're certainly not shortcutting anything, but we're able to kind of work our way around all that nonsense that you know, those different directions that they were thrown into before with you know, well, you know Sherry owed you know, owed so and so money for for dope or Sherry you know she crossed so and so so they had
her killed. You know, those different directions that they that they were directed in back then. So now with other forensic evidence that we're able to use, we're able to you know, be able to to peel back those layers and say, okay, no, well, this person is excluded now through
forensic evidence. This person is excluded through forensic evidence, and then and so we're so it makes it easier for us to to utilize those tools, uh, to sift through all of that and kind of say, okay, hey, this part is nonsense and we don't need to really focus on that. Was Sherry's body clothed? Uh? No, she was. She was naked. She was and harsh partially partially nude. Yes, from the top of the bottom bottom. Okay, So you say she was strangled. Was she
strangled with like a ligature or was it by hand with a ligature? Correct? Actually, I believe it was both. I believe there was. They determined that there was both manual manual strangulation and the ligature strangulation. And was that that item found nearby? Yes, it was. Yes. That seems unusual or is that common? I don't know. That's having the ligature near the body or still on the body, still on the body, I don't know. That's all that uncommon? Okay, must be all the TV I
watch because everyone trying to you know, trying to cover their tracks. So what does this tell you then, Jason, that you've got a partially clothed woman who's a prostitute near an on ramp with a ligature still around her neck. What was it exactly? I don't recall what the exact what the ligature was exactly. I would was it a belt? I would be speculated,
Yeah, I don't remember. So what does that tell you in terms of possible motive or or whether this was a random or not random but spontaneous act or calculated act. Well, I think it was probably a spontaneous act, just just the sheer fact that she's she's out there dumped off the side of
the freeway, uh, in the in the desert. I mean that's however, when you know, when I say that, I mean it doesn't say it's not to mean that that he could have killed her some elsewhere and then taken her there and and dumped her in that location thinking it was remote enough to you know, get back on the freeway and escape. So but I don't think, you know, even in nineteen ninety three, I don't think folks were even you know, thinking of forensic evidence and leaving you know,
certain items of evidence. You know nowadays, I think you know, Obviously people are a little more understanding of that, and they have they have a better knowledge of of, you know, cleaning up a crime scene and and collecting things that that may may identify them forensically at a later time. I think they're better at at cleaning up after themselves now, whereas I think those things that were left behind, because you know, then they didn't think that
those would ever be used to to potentially identify them. Mike, you know, I know that you use this task or he is forensic genealogy? Is that something you were able to employ here we are we are employing forensic genealogy on this case. The ethnic predictors on forensic genealogy aren't one hundred percent definitive, but our ethnic estimates are that this person is an African American. We
have Unfortunately, the genetic matches are quite distant. So we are in the process of trying to build that family tree and identify some people who might be of a closer relationship to our potential suspect. That's you know, it's fascinating because you have to have some sort of evidence or whether it's DNA or some sort of a sample, right, correct, And so what were you able to to get from the scene or from the person or from the body of
Sherry that helped you with this. Well, there's a male DNA profile recovered from the victim, and would this be like bodily fluid type stuff? Yes, okay, and then and then that's that was plenty. That was enough to get you started. Then, correct, So back oh the mid nineteen nineties when DNA became very very common. They uploaded that profile into codis and there's no matches in codis, but it did lead to a match of another
victim in another state. Well, and that doesn't seem too uncommon with the fact that the ten is probably one of the biggest major thoroughfares you know, in this part of the country, right, correct? Correct? Was there evidence that you were talking about? Sherry was found in the desert near the on ramp, so in the dirt, and I've seen plenty of that because I've traveled to ten many times. And we're talking about back in nineteen eighty three. Was there a fence of any kind? Did the person walk out
there or did they both walk out there with their footprints? How did they get out there? I don't recall seeing that they documented any footprints in the area, but she wasn't very far off the side of the side of the road, and I don't recall off the top of my head. I know there was significant decomposition, but I'm not exactly sure how long she had been out there at that location. Hey, guys, I want to pick that up too. Let's talk more about that. But first, this is Unsolved
with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty. Kf I AM six forty heard everywhere live on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory, and this is unsolved. For more on this case than others, go to k dot com keyword unsolved. We're talking with Mike Thompson Jason Corey about the nineteen ninety three death of Sherry Herrera, a woman who was found in the desert strangled to death, fifty miles east of Palm Springs, actually the eastbound on ramp to Hayfield
Road. Before the break, guys, I felt like we were getting really deep into the forensics part of this, and I was asking you questions about how Sherry's body got out to the middle of the desert. Said there was no indication of footprints at this time. But let's go back a little further than do you have any kind of a timeline when was Sherry last seen and where Cher's last scene March twenty fifth, nineteen ninety three at a truck stop
in Tilarry and then she's recovered five days later with evidence of decomposition. On March thirtieth, in a very you had mentioned that you'd driven that stretch of road. Do you know how once you go east of Palm Springs you are isolated until you really get the b life that stretch of road. It's not uncommon at all or truck drivers, travelers, our veers just to pull off the side of the road to take a break, take a nap, et cetera. Yeah, and then the heat on top of that, this speeds
up the decomposition. So was the medical examiner able to estimate how long she'd been dead? I don't believe so several days days. So I mean, again, going back on March twenty fifth, this is the last time we know her to be alive. So so now, as a cold case investigator on this, going back to nineteen ninety three, last seeing at a truck stop, is that do you actually now there's really no need to go up to that truck stop, per se is there. But how do you where
do you go from there? Well, I think in this case the most important thing is the is the forensic genealogy to keep working that angle. And certainly, I mean that is something that that we we would be and we don't we don't rule anything out. I mean, we'll take a drive and we'll go we'll revisit these areas, look at them, just for our own personal you know, knowledge of these of these areas, so that way,
uh, you know, we're better educated about about these things. But with the with the DNA and knowing that it belongs to you know, a certain a certain well with it with the DNA, we're able to the friends of genealogy would just come into play a little bit, a little bit more. So, let you know, let those guys work there, you know,
use that investigative tool to narrow those down. And then from there, once they have, if they can put together a list of people that we can go back out and talk to, then we'll then we'll go, we'll go talk to those folks. Have you interviewed anybody on this case so far? No, No, We're we're really trying to work the DNA angle on it. Can we identify who that person is and then develop that person's profile? What takes this person to our victim? What takes us to the other victim?
Is there a nexus between them? And where's our suspect living? What is he doing for work? We suspect he could possibly be a truck driver, or you know, maybe he's just a traveler who uses the IEN corridor for personal purpose. It complicates things even more well, and like you had mentioned, we had mentioned, I mean, she was a prostitute, and unfortunately she wasn't in a great place in life. And frequently law enforcement is
accused of not caring about a victim because she's a prostitute. But those present a lot of unique challenges. If I did not come home tonight and I get reported as a missing person, you could ask my friend, my family, my coworkers, where was Mike? Where was he going? Oh, he was going to go meet Steve Gregory here at are so well did he show up? What time did he leave? Where did he go? Did
he use his credit card to buy lunch? And back then they didn't have the cell phone technology and things like that, But unfortunately and and yeah, prostitutions changed the ad of the internet, But you go back to the nineties, a prostitute working a truck stop. She gets into a car of somebody that she probably doesn't know, somebody that probably her friends don't know, to
go to a destination that she doesn't know about. Is she going to go on a long drive across country or are they just going to go down the street for a sexual purpose and then return. And so when you try to talk to her friends, who was she with, where was she going, you encounter those problems that you don't typically encounter on a traditional missing person's investigation. You don't have a financial footprint to follow to see where did they go,
where did they go next? Where did they go next? Unfortunately, they're in a circle of friends who are sometimes in the same bad place that they are where typically they don't cooperate with law enforcement, or maybe they just don't know. I saw her get in a truck with somebody who wasn't or I don't know what was distinctive about the truck. I don't know how long was she going to be gone, when was she going to be back?
And you just don't get those types of information, and so reconstructing what happened, when, where, why, and how can be very challenging forensic genealogy. You know something you're really leaning on, and it's fascinating to me that you even said you might have a suspect profile. But this information is only as good as the data that's inputed into it correct correct. So how do people, I mean, do I just submit my DNA to this database?
How does that work? Well? There are a number of direct consumer kits ancestry dot com, twenty three meters, my Heritage family Tree DNA. If you have completed one of those tests already, you can download your and submit it to jed match. Jed match is an online resource, a clearinghouse where people can submit their DNA for comparison between because obviously ancestry doesn't talk to twenty three and me doesn't talk to my heritage and etc. So I understand I'm
asking some people to do things that might make them feel uncomfortable. By submitting their DNA in a jed match, they might be identifying a cousin, a second cousin, some type of family member, identifying them to law enforcement. Cherry Herrera was not in a great place in her life, but she did not deserve to have what happened to her. She was viciously, sexually assaulted and murdered, and nobody deserves to have that. She's entitled to have the
person who did this held accountable for their actions. Gentlemen, I wish you the best of luck on this. This sounds like a complicated case. It sounds like it's you've got a lot of variables and just a lot of roadblocks, But I wish you all the success on this one. Thank you very much. Thank you guys. Coming up, the Christmas Night shooting of twenty sixteen in the city of Riverside. But first, this is unsolved with Steve Gregory on KFI AM six forty k I AM six forty heard everywhere live on
the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is unsolved. For the first time, surveillance video has been released showing an attack on two people in a car in the city of Riverside. It happened in a residential area. This is the case of the Christmas Night shooting of twenty sixteen. We're joined now by Riverside Police Department officer Javier Cabrera. He is a spokesperson for the Riverside Police Department, and we're talking about a shooting from twenty sixteen, happened Christmas
Day of twenty sixteen. So, first of all, officer, thanks for joining us. Appreciate it very much. Let's start with an overview of the case. So tell us about the shooting that that involved a carload of people and just shooters that came out of nowhere, and just give us a background if this actually occurred on Christmas Day in twenty sixteen, about ten or nine
pm. The victim, her name is Cassie Verett. She was sitting with the mail companion inside her vehicle on First Street between Main Street and an Orange Streak in our city. They were sitting inside of the car when all of a sudden, three hispatic males walking on the sidewalk without any notice, you
know, all a sudden produce handguns and begun firing into the vehicle. Cassie was able to start the car and didn't realize I guess she had in reverse, you know, sped hit the car behind her and then was able to drive away and then realized that she actually had been hit. There was blood inside the vehicle and she was able to drive herself and her companion to the
hospital or they were treated for their injuries. So what time of the day this was at ninth This is that night about ten o'clock after little shortly after a black at night. And so were you initially able to get information about how were you able to find out? I mean Cassie survived correct, right, so she was able to give you sort of an overview of what happened.
And you said she didn't realize she had the car in reverse, Well, yeah, she said it all happened so quickly that when the shooting started happening, she just wanted to get out of there. And she had said she didn't even know the cars were rebursed. She just got on the gas and the car went backwards. She hit a car that was behind her and then just threw it and drive and then drove out of there. You were talking about First Street between Maine and Orange. What kind of an area of
town is that? It's a it's a residential neighborhood. So is it just all homes around there, It's some more townhomes, yether, some homes townhomes, different types of residents is there? And were there street lights, I mean, was it illuminated? Yeah, there are streetlights there. So unusual I mean obviously shooting out of nowhere like that or random shooting or was it random We'll get to that in a moment. But is it unusual for that kind of a shooting to happen in this kind of an area of town.
Well, you know, some acts are you know, we considered random act, but we are right now, we really don't know if this was just a random act. We're trying to we're still trying to figure it out that night. Tell us a little bit about Cassie. What is she, what does she do? Who is she and what's her background? You know, I really don't know much about Cassie. She's just a family girl. And how old is she? But she was twenty two at the time. She's
almost I believe she's almost she's twenty eight now. Yeah, okay, so she a family girl and correct, We don't Yeah, she doesn't have any type of gang affiliations. Of the person she was with in her car, we believe he might have had some gang tie, so that you know, we're not one hundred percent sure because we don't have anybody in custody to confirm anything, but we have strong suspicions that they were possibly targeting him and unfortunately
he was colladibal damage. Was he is he a boyfriend or was a boyfriend at the time. I believe he might have been her boyfriend. We're not one hundred percent sure. And then what were you able to get from him? It sounds like he was in it all in right, He was grazed by a bullet. He had some like a small graze and he was treated at the hospital, released on the same night. What were you able to get from him? We interviewed him, got some information, description on suspects,
what he believed of the subsect, suspect descriptions. He was fairly cooperative towards the beginning of the investigation. And what about his background? I mean, was there anything about his behavior or anything that legitly believed that he might be involved in a gang? After they conducted some follow up investigation, they I can't confirm ate night, but there are some type of gang ties that
he was involved in. Did that make you guys suspicious right off the bat, well, you know you were assuming that, Yeah, definitely, most likely he was the target, not Cassie. So We're talking, by the way, with Officer Javier Cabrera with the Riverside Police Department about a shooting on Christmas twenty sixteen, happened in the evening hours in a residential area of Riverside.
You're kind of going down this gang path because you said there might be some affiliations of some sort with the boyfriend of this Cassie that was hit. The gang affiliation. Let me back up, then, how many documented gangs do you have in her reside? I have to look that up. We have, we have quite a we have we have some gangs. Yeah, I'm not gonna we do have some things in the city active. I mean to the point where it's it's a problem or is it just or do these
gang related crimes crop up and then they die down? Correct? Yeah? We don't comparable to like other cities like La We don't have that big of a problem, but the problem still exists. So you know, and I know you weren't the investigator there that now you're just you're sort of accounting the story for so I know that you may not know a lot of the nuances of it, But what were you able to get from him other than a
suspect description. Was there any indication or suspicion based on his body language or anything that might have led you to believe that there was something more to this that night. No, we didn't get anything from him. So now you've got Cassie, who is you saying? She was in her twenties early twenties at the time. What about the man, the young man? You know what, I really I don't have that information right now. So fast forward
to today. Then have you had to now that you released this video and we'll talk a little bit more about that coming up, But have you been able to talk to Cassie again or this boyfriend again? Have you been able to get anything new from them? We talked to Cassie and some family members of her hers and but we had not been able to We didn't talk to the male companion. Are they still together? No, not together. They don't even she doesn't even know where he's at or she hasn't got to hold
him or anything. Now, when you talk about this residential area, were there any other crimes or is that a what sort of your crime mapp? What does your crime map look like for that part of town? There's been some crimes that in that particular area, some gang activity in that area. So when you say gang activity, can you be more specific, just you know, different types of crimes that we could possibly label as gang related,
robberies, assaults, mersalts, yeah, shootings, things like that. I mean, it's a big neighborhood, So it's just that particular street, maybe not that particular street, but the actual neighborhood, the surrounding areas. Yeah, we've had shootings and different things that are possibly gang related. What about the demographic for that area? What's the demographic? Usually that area is predominantly predominantly Hispanic and African American. Okay. Socioeconomic, I mean it's just a
wealthier area of town. Is it a not so wealthy area? I would say, like middle class, middle class yeah, okay, so typically probably very quiet neighborhood, working class families for the most part. Yeah. Yeah, so this is an unusual occurrence. Yeah, I would say that. Okay, when we come back, we're going to talk more about is shooting in twenty sixteen happened on Christmas Day and in the city of Riverside. We're talking with Officer Hovier Cabrera. But first, this is unsolved with Steve Gregory
on KFI AM six forty. KFI AM six forty heard everywhere live on the iHeartRadio app. I'm Steve Gregory and this is Unsolved. We're talking with Javier Cabrera. He's an officer and spokesperson with the Riverside Police Department about a shooting. Not really sure if it was random or targeted, but it was a shooting on Christmas Day twenty sixteen, actually took place around ten o'clock at night
in a predominantly middle class neighborhood of Riverside. And before the break, you know, we were talking a little bit about possible gang affiliation between the boyfriend of the woman that was driving, and you said, you're not really sure yet that there might be, might not be. It wasn't really determined. But now what kind of brings us together is you've released a video that shows Cassie throw the car into reverse, you know, rush backwards. It shows
what appears to be the guys opening fire. So this is a video that you just recently released, you know, in the month of April. Why now and not then? Okay, back then, when the actual incident occurred, we were actually working and invest doing several investigations. Well, when the incident occurred, one of the investigators was a homicide and two or water or maybe even two of the suspects on this video that we obtained that night.
There are physical characteristics and different things led us to believe that they might be the same people, it might be related. So then we were kind of like, you know it, we probably compromise the investigations that we were already deep into if we released that video. So that's when we decided not to release that video because of the ongoing investigations that were taking place. Well, that's kind of interesting. So then, and I suppose that I'm just correct
me if I'm wrong here. I'm presuming that since there was no death included or involved rather in this shooting we're talking about now, that it didn't seem to be as big of a priority in solving the homicide prior. Well, it's still always a priority, you know, because this is somebody's daughter, it's somebody's family member that and it's still always a priority. But we still have to maintain the antivity of the other investigations, and we don't want to
compromise that. That's a tough spot to be it is. Wow, I don't think I've heard of something like that where you've had to sort of stop one investigation in favor of another because the information might be the same in both cases. Right when we really stopped her investigation, we continue to work diligently with what we had, just the actual video we couldn't release to the public. I see, I see, Okay, that makes sense. So then
if you've released the video now some what six years later? Correct? Almost six years? Almost six years later? Yeah, so are we to take from that either you solved the previous homicide or you just hit a brick wall, you know what, the previous ones. I'll be one hundred percent honest, I'm not one hundred percent sure if if those were actually solved, as a possibility they were, I would have to research by the actual report number
and go back. But somebody gave the green light for the release of the video, correct, meaning that it would no longer be a compromise those old investigations. Yeah. Interesting. I hope you can maybe tell us about that because I'd still like to know how that came to be. That's so fascinating. So now explain, because you obviously people are listening, Explain what's on the video? What did the video show you? The video shows obviously the
Cassie is parking insider white Malibu on the curb. When first one Hispanic mal appears. He's like a heavy set of Hispanic mail. He appears walking kind of ahead, kind of looks like he's like checking out the whole situation, checking out the scene. He's walking first, and as he walks past her car, the other two Hispanic males follow behind him. And as right as the other two spac males reached the front of the car on the sides.
They were passing along the side along the car on the sidewalk, that's when the heavy set his spag mill turns. Everybody pulls out their guns and they start opening fire on the vehicle. And where did the rounds go through the windows or how where did they see the video it shows him going through the front windshield, you go through the I believe the side door. The car was hit multiple times. We found a total of ten ten spent shellcasings at
the scene. Ten spell spent within three weapons correct, So it looks like they shot ten times. Yeow, it's miraculous, Yes, that nothing more happened to them. It was it truly was see with her because she got hit three times and it was just she's fortunate that, you know, she's still here with us. And so what else did the video show you did? Were you able to get enough of a description of the suspects? We have a description, correct, And like I said earlier, the video was
not released to the public, but it was released internally. And so how did you use that internally? Then? And you were talking about the previous case, so so did you how did that work? Did you reach out to other investigators in the department say, hey, watch this, do you know these guys? Correct? What we do is we'll release it department wide for the our sworn officers, and then a lot of times it's a lot
of our department has very proactive officers. They're constantly out there and they contact a lot of people. And along these years they'll be they'll know they contacts
one of the people that I remember names, they'ren where they live. And then in this case, a couple of our former gang intelligence detectives saw the video and they like, you know what, they resembled some people they they might have been counted the encountered in the past, so they all of a sudden we had now a couple of persons of interest and where did that take you? Well, once we established the persons of interest and we were able
to put together photographic lineups. We actually put three photographic lineups a tree, separate times for Cassie to the victim to look at the photographic lineup with one of the persons of interests in it, and she wasn't able to identify anybody on any of the three occasions. And the male companion participated in two of them, and he also was not able to identify anybody. Do you think
that's a house soon after the incident happened that you had the lineup? And the only reason I'm asking that off serious because I'm curious that is this a case of based on your experience of the trauma still or or do you think
they just didn't get a good look? You know what? It could be both a little bit of both, because sometimes it's either two things could happen when something traumatic like this happens to somebody, they have a spitting image of the person, they won't forget their face, or it'll be the complete opposite. They won't remember. So that's that's the unfortunate part when they don't remember
exactly. In this case, you know, there was some street lighting, but it was a little you know, it could have been a little dark. It might have been hard to actually get a good look at their face. And it probably happened so quick, so as she heard the gunshots, she's probably like trying to get out of there, you know. Yeah, yeah, so that's one of those things. So the persons of interest that you had, is this a case of where you just let them go and
that's it, or do you put any surveillance on them? No? We did all that there was. The person's interest led to search warrants, the residences, parole searches, probation searches, surveillance, and unfortunately it just it didn't go anywhere. Just ted ends. Were these guys clean from this particular case. Yeah, we didn't find any webpas history correct for this particular We were not able to put this shooting, you know, them as the shooters.
So what is it you want from the public, You know what, just see the video, maybe you recognize somebody, maybe you've hurt something, maybe you know, you never know, somebody might have said something, you might talked about it, you heard somebody talk about it. You just never know. So we're hoping that maybe showing this video might shed some light, maybe some new set of eyes. We'll see something and they can, you know, we can get some new leads and reopen this case. Well.
Of course, people are free to and should be encouraged to call the Reverside Police Department if you'd like, though, you can also hit pound two fifty on your cell phone and say the keyword unsolved and leave any information there. We'll make sure that investigators get that. So, Officer Cabrera, thank you so much for your time. Much appreciated and good luck. We hope that you solve the case. Awesome, Thank you so much, and that's going
to do it. Unsolved with Steve Gregory is a production of the KFI News Department for iHeartMedia, Los Angeles. Robin Berlucci Program director Chris Little, news director. The program is produce by Steve Gregory and Jacob Gonzalez. The digital producers Andro Momo, the field engineers Tony Sorrentino, and the technical director is David Callaway. Coming up next, it's Coast to Coast, but first this is KFI AM six forty Time Now for a news update. KFI AM six forty on demand