On July 26, 1971, the body of 15-year-old Gloria Crummett was found just north of Lemmon Valley. She had been reported missing just 10 days prior. To make the tragic discovery even worse for this teen's family, her body was discovered on what would have been her 16th birthday. The details surrounding this teen's disappearance and death have never been fully clarified in news reports, or even in documents shared by investigative bodies. However, the slain teen's loved ones say that she died by blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Crummett had run away from home shortly before she was reported missing, after having a fight with her mother. She was a "troubled" teenager, who spent her time hanging around a rowdy crowd -- primarily bikers. She was known to associate with two gangs: The Hells Angels and The Misfits. When her body was discovered near Lemmon Valley, motorcycle tire tracks were present. Several persons of interest have been questioned, and even polygraphed, in association with Gloria's murder, but no arrests have ever been made. Her loved ones have long-suspected that the crowd she ran with has kept the truth of her death a secret for all of these many years...[Gloria Crummett is pictured below, in a photo taken not long before her disappearance and murder.]
The body of 20-year-old Julia Woodward was found on March 25, 1979 in a hilly area near Lemmon Valley. The attractive young woman died by blunt force trauma to the back of her head, but very few other details have ever been publicized in her case. What is known, is that Julia was living in California at the time of her death, but had traveled to the Reno area in order to look for employment. Unfortunately, what she found wasn't a source of income, but rather the end of her young life. In the year 2015, detectives reopened this cold case due to the advancements made in forensic science. However, it's been over a year since the case reopened and no other movements have been made in this case. [Julia Woodward is pictured below]
On November 02, 1979, the skeletal remains of 17-year-old Jeannie Smith were located in Lemmon Valley, Nevada. The girl had been missing for a little over a year by the time her remains were found, and like the prior two girls found slain in the area, she died by blunt force trauma. She was also put in to a shallow grave, approximately one mile from the location where Julia Woodward's remains were located just a few months prior. Very few details are available in this case, and it's not currently known if authorities in Reno have continued actively investigating it. [Jeannie Smith is pictured below in the only known photograph of her, taken before her mysterious homicide]
The body of 16-year-old Cindy Cook was located on January 25, 1981 -- just a day after she went missing. She was found near Cold Springs Drive and what is currently known as Village Parkway. However, she resided in Lemmon Valley, which is where she was last seen before she disappeared. Cindy left her home on foot, and was reportedly hitchhiking to the Lemmon Valley Shopping Center on the day she was last seen. A cause of death has never been released in her homicide, but her case remains listed as an unsolved murder. [Cindy Cook is pictured below]
These four women all share multiple things in common:
- All were murdered by blunt force trauma to the back of the head (with the exception of Cindy Cook, whose cause of death isn't being released by authorities)
- All were attractive teenagers, with the exception of Julia Woodward, who looked young enough to be mistaken for a teen.
- All wore their hair parted in the middle, and had slender noses and big smiles.
- All were discovered near Lemmon Valley, and one of them actually lived in the area when she was murdered.
- All four victims had either been hitchhiking, walking or otherwise on foot at the times of their disappearances and deaths.
The region surrounding Lemmon Valley, Nevada (couple-hundred-mile radius) has seen a lot of serial killer activity over the course of the past 50 years. In fact, convicted killer Joseph Naso had once resided in Lemmon Valley. Joseph Naso is known as the Alphabet Killer, because he chose victims whose first and last initials were the same. This incredibly particular MO makes it easy to disregard any possible connections between Naso and the four murdered Lemmon Valley girls. It's also easy to disregard a possible connection, because Joseph Naso didn't move to Northern Nevada until 1994 -- 23 years after the first unsolved Lemmon Valley murder. Of course, it is a rather startling coincidence that he lived in the same area where these girls were found, especially since one of the victims had a first and last name with the same initials: Cindy Cook. It should be noted that, for the most part, Naso's preferred method of murder was strangulation. However, he is known to have killed at least a couple of his victims by means of blunt force trauma. With the exception of the dates not lining up, it's hard to ignore the possibility that Joseph Naso may have something to do with the deaths of at least one of these women. Nonetheless, authorities in Nevada have never drawn any connections -- and they'd be stupid to not at least investigate the possibilities.
I intend on digging deeper into these cases, in search of evidence that can back up the serial killer theory that I have. It's no coincidence that these four young women all died by such similar circumstances, and it's no coincidence that all four of them shared connections to the Lemmon Valley area.
Is there a serial killer currently living in Lemmon Valley?
People move -- especially prolific serial killers. Joseph Naso had committed crimes since the 1950s, which spanned from one coast of the country to the other. However, some people aren't so easy to uproot. That makes it absolutely possible that someone could currently be residing in the Lemmon Valley area, who has information that could close one or all of these unsolved homicides. If there is a single person living in Lemmon Valley that is responsible for these four (or more) homicides, then this person could be anywhere between the ages of 60-years-old and 80-years-old. This could be an elderly man that is known and loved in the community, someone's grandfather or fatherly figure. This could be someone who has gotten away with serial murder for the past 45 years.
On the other hand, this person could be long dead. Or he could be long-gone from the Lemmon Valley area. At any rate, it's very clear that these four women share far too many similarities for each of their deaths to be isolated incidents.