The phone caller to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino was most likely the murderer of Donna Lass, but who was it that rang security guard Gordon Petrovich on either September 7th or 8th 1970 stating that he was "Mr. Davis" and claiming that the young 25-year-old nurse would not be coming to work because she had been called out of town for a family illness? This individual appeared to know two crucial factors about Donna Lass: [1] That her family lived out of town (they lived in South Dakota), and [2] The surname of her landlord. If she was murdered in the few hours after she was last seen at 1:50am on September 6th 1970 at the casino, they should have made the phone call to buy time on that day but they didn't. A complete stranger killing Donna Lass after she left the casino on the 6th wouldn't have known the name of her landlord, and the residency of her family. 

The private investigator's report stated Mr. Davis had accompanied subject (Donna) on an inspection tour of the apartment on September 5th 1970, and his inventory sheet is dated September 5th 1970. Also with him was Frank Desimone". Even if this was 9:00am in the morning, Donna Lass, had she set off for work at about 5:00pm that evening (for her 6pm shift), would only have been living at her new apartment for 8 hours if she was abducted outside the casino or on her way home in the early morning hours of the 6th. It would mean she had never slept at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartment.

Several possibilities have been put forward. She could have been coaxed from her work station by somebody claiming they needed urgent assistance in the parking lot and abducted, or she could have been lured to somewhere within the casino, murdered, and surreptitiously removed at a later date. Donna may have been offered a lift home and murdered in her apartment by somebody she trusted, or driven elsewhere. Or she could have walked home and been abducted along the way, or the moment she arrived at her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road home. Another possibility is that Donna Lass could have arrived home safely and gone to sleep, to be murdered at this juncture by somebody entering her apartment. She could also have been murdered later, on September 6th, 7th or 8th (depending when Gordon Petrovich received the mystery call)..We could wade through all these options forever, so the best approach is to discover how the phone caller knew the name of her landlord and that her family lived out of town. 

Testimony from Nick Davis (Donna's landlord} stated that he received a call from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel security office on September 11th 1970 enquiring on the whereabouts of Donna Lass (so they knew he was her landlord and knew his phone number). This means that Donna Lass could have informed the casino of her new address and the name of her landlord when she arrived to work on September 5th 1970, or the Sahara Tahoe Hotel security were given this information by somebody else. But who else would have known that she now lived at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments, let alone the name of her landlord, "Mr. Davis", by the time she was last seen?

​Donna inspected the apartment on September 5th 1970, accepted the accommodation and then went to work a few hours later, where she was last seen at approximately 1:50am on September 6th 1970. The only people that could possibly have known this information would have been the casino itself, or friends/work colleagues that she told between the time she signed the rental agreement on September 5th 1970 and 1:50am on September 6th 1970. This information is not going to be known by a random abductor from the casino parking lot, or a stranger snatching her from the street while walking home. We also have to factor in that the perpetrator likely knew that her family lived in South Dakota, and by making the phone call claiming a family illness out of town, he was affording himself plenty of time to cover his tracks.

​If he had known Donna Lass when she moved to South Lake Tahoe in early June 1970, he had plenty of opportunity to know about her family circumstances in the intervening 3 months, but could only have learned about her new apartment and the name of her landlord from the moment she put pen to paper on September 5th 1970 to the time she was last seen. Even if he was the person who recommended the apartment complex to her in advance of September 5th 1970, it is not certain she would have accepted the accommodation until after the inspection. This information could only realistically have been known after she signed the contract. 

While working from 6:00pm to 1:50am on September 5th and 6th 1970, what work colleagues and friends could she have told about the name of her landlord - who would then make a mental note of this name for the purpose of a murder they knew they were soon going to commit - to use on September 7th or 8th as a delaying tactic. Does this sound plausible? If Donna had informed the casino of her address and the name of her landlord when arriving for work on September 5th 1970, the only people who would know this information, were the people who could reasonably gain access to her written details.

Without access to this information, the notion that somebody would make a conscious decision to remember the spoken mention of her landlord's name (had she ever told anybody), knowing they were going to kill Donna Lass in the coming hours and then make a phone call to the casino they worked at, or frequented as one of her male friends, takes some believing. But if the person who made the phone call using the name "Mr. Davis" had access to this written information at the casino, he is in danger of drawing the police to people who worked at the casino, including himself. It is possible that this was a mistake by the killer, who was desperate to buy time by using the credible name of her landlord to deliver the message. 

​Somebody who knew Donna Lass had signed the rental agreement at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments and knew the landlord's name, could have been another resident at the complex. Such a person had the opportunity to abduct her if she had made it back to this location in the early morning hours of September 6th 1970 (or on September 7th/8th), but how many people at this complex would Donna Lass have told about her family "living out of town" in the few hours between signing the contract and leaving for work? In those few hours she could have spoken with a neighbour who asked where she had moved from - and at some point she told them she was originally from South Dakota. This scenario isn't implausible.    

On November 18th 1970 the private investigator interviewed taxicab driver Raymond Jacobs, who lived at apartment 11 of the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road complex when Donna Lass went missing. Her apartment was number 6. Sometime between September 6th 1970 and November 18th 1970 he had moved to 3780 Aspen Avenue, a multi-family residence, 530 meters south of the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments. He stated "he observed the subject on many occasions, and that he drove a cab on the street at the same time the subject was getting off work, but had never seen her on the way home walking. He had not observed any male companions around her apartment on any occasion". Bearing in mind Donna Lass moved into the apartment on September 5th 1970 and was last seen at 1:50am on September 6th 1970, how did he "observe the subject on many occasions" and how could he possibly have observed "male companions around her apartment on any occasion". Only if Donna Lass was alive on September 5th, 6th and 7th could this be somewhat true.

The only way Joseph Stephen Holt, responsible for the murders of ​Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, could have reasonably known the name of Donna's landlord and that her family lived out of town, was if he was either in the casino on September 5th or 6th 1970 and had picked up this information by word of mouth, or had coerced this information from her for the purpose of the phone call. It's unlikely a stranger to Donna would need to force information from her to to buy time, yet somebody known to her may want to create this necessary breathing space, knowing that they could come under suspicion, Forcing information from somebody you've abducted to create a delaying phone call isn't the likeliest of scenarios, however, since we now know that Joseph Stephen Holt was responsible for the murder of Brynn Rainey in 1977, in which a phone call was made to her place of work (the Sahara Tahoe Hotel) to excuse her absence, it doesn't seem inconceivable in 1970. After all, both Donna Lass and Brynn Rainey's family lived a considerable distance from South Lake Tahoe, in South Dakota and Ohio respectively. I still doubt the involvement of Joseph Stephen Holt in the murder of Donna Lass, so if it isn't him, the focus should still remain on the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and anybody that knew she signed that rental agreement with Nick Davis just a few short hours earlier.

FURTHER READING: THE MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL TO THE CASINO RE-EXAMINED ​

Identified murderer Joseph Stephen Holt, responsible for the murders of ​Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, had a love of skiing (a passion he shared with Donna Lass). When murderers dispose of bodies they often choose locations they are familiar with, so I thought I would identify the four main ski resorts around Lake Tahoe in 1970. The four locations were the Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort next to his 1390 Keller Road address, the Diamond Peak Ski Resort, the Pallisades Tahoe Ski Resort (formerly Squaw Valley) and Donner Ski Ranch (Northstar Ski Resort opened in 1972).

If Joseph Stephen Holt drove from his 1390 Keller Road home towards the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, he would pass by Van Sickle.Park where the body of Brynn Rainey was found on August 20th 1977. From here, heading northwards, he would pass the Diamond Peak Ski Resort and Incline Village (the advertisement that featured on the Pines card). Heading westwards he would reach the Northstar Ski Resort where a human skull was found in 1986, then he would have gone past the Donner Ski Ranch and Clair Tappaan Lodge (the Sierra Club on the Pines card), before continuing westwards and arriving at Yuba Gap, the location of Donna Lass' skull. Traveling to Yuba Gap from his home on the west side of Lake Tahoe, he passes the Pallisades Tahoe Ski Resort (formerly Squaw Valley), the Donner Ski Ranch and Clair Tappaan Lodge. The attempted double murder of Heidi Hoffman (16) and Lenny Parsons (19) on December 13th 1969 occurred on Saddle Road by Heavenly Valley Ski Resort. All of these "Lake Tahoe areas" are "around in the snow". 

As stated in previous articles, the person who phoned the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on either September 7th or 8th claiming to be Mr. Davis and that Donna Lass had been called out of town for a family illness, was almost certainly the murderer of the young 25-year-old nurse. An individual who knew that she worked at the casino, knew her family lived "out of town" and knew where she lived by using the surname of her landlord, Nick Davis. This sort of information is unlikely to be known by a stranger who just randomly abducted Donna Lass from the street. This individual chose to phone the casino to seemingly buy time for his actions. The murderer of Donna Lass could have been somebody living at the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments or an individual who worked at, or frequented the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, picking up relevant information about her circumstances in casual conversation. 

Although many people lived at the Pioneer Trail Road apartments, the private investigator's report into her disappearance only mentioned Raymond Jacobs, a local taxicab driver, who moved away from the apartments shortly after she vanished and relocated to 3780 Aspen Avenue. Was this the reason the private investigator focused in on Jacobs, who he recruited to provide him with information? Somebody living at the apartments at the time of Donna's disappearance would have certainly known the name of her landlord, Mr. Davis. Or was this information acquired by the killer through interactions with Donna Lass at the casino?

Recently we have been delving into the life of murderer Joseph Stephen Holt, who strangled both Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, because we now know that he most likely made a phone call to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel after the abduction of Brynn Rainey, who also worked there. If Donna Lass was murdered by Joseph Stephen Holt, can we place him inside the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino at the relevant time?

​The answer is no - but if he was living at the 1390 Keller Road home in any of the weeks up to her disappearance - we can place him just 596 meters from a woman who knew Donna Lass and had drinks with her on several occasions after her work shift ended. A woman who also knew Jo Anne Goettsche, the close friend of Donna Lass who once lived with her in San Francisco and came to visit Donna Lass at the time she went missing. Jane Allen stated that although she wasn't a close friend of Donna Lass, she drank with her after hours - and according to the timeline of the private investigator - Jane Allen saw Donna Lass the night of September 2nd 1970, just three days prior to her last being seen alive. So is it possible Jane Allen could have crossed paths with Joseph Stephen Holt and spoke with him?

In 1970, Jane Allen lived at the once home at 4180 Saddle Road, a cul-de-sac address only 596 meters from 1390 Keller Road. Any time she wanted to leave this address by car, her only exit route would have taken her onto Keller Road. Her quickest route by vehicle to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel would have had her passing the 1390 Keller Road home, heading towards the Pioneer Trail Road apartment of Donna Lass. Had she decided to leave her 4180 Saddle Road home on foot, her safest route based upon the terrain (shown by the red line), has her entering the eastern side of Bridle Road and traveling westwards to Keller Road, 40 meters shy of 1390 Keller Road. Her other possible route has her traveling westwards on Crest Road, emerging 140 meters above 1390 Keller Road (shown by the blue line). If Joseph Stephen Holt was living in South Lake Tahoe at the time, did she ever get to know him through the close proximity of the two addresses?

If the two had ever sat together (as acquaintances) at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino for after hours drinks, it isn't beyond the realms of possibility that Joseph Stephen Holt could have met Donna Lass through Jane Allen. We know that both Joseph Stephen Holt and Donna Lass shared a passion for skiing. And we know that two phone calls were received by the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in 1970 and 1977 excusing the absences of Donna Lass and Brynn Rainey, with the latter call almost certainly placed by Joseph Stephen Holt. Jane Allen is the only person I could find who knew Donna Lass and Jo Ann Goettsche, that I could place in close proximity to an address accessible to Joseph Stephen Holt.

THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR'S REPORT INTO THE DONNA LASS DISAPPEARANCE 

Recently a few researchers have been looking into the murders of Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Andersen (16) in 1979, who were both victims of Joseph Stephen Holt in the South Lake Tahoe region. A recent contributor to this website, Joseph, pointed me in the direction of another murder in South Lake Tahoe approximately 11 months before the disappearance of Brynn Rainey. 

On September 2nd 1976 at about 6:30pm, Kathleen Keohane (17) was spending some time with her fiance Mike Warren at Carrows Restaurant, where he was working as a dishwasher. She had decided to leave the restaurant for a walk to pass some time, planning to meet him back at the restaurant when his shift ended at 10:00pm. She never made it back and was found face down and fully clothed in shallow water under the Upper Truckee River Bridge 12 hours later.(6:30am). Investigators determined that Kathleen Keohane had been struck in the back of the head several times with a heavy blunt instrument, causing a massive skull fracture.

When she left the restaurant she had told her fiance she was going to head to the "Y", which is the shape formed on a map by the intersecting Highway 50 and Interstate 89 at Tahoe Valley. Kathleen would have traveled along Lake Tahoe Boulevard. This was a 4.5 mile journey, so would have taken her at least 3 hours to walk there and return back to Carrows Restaurant at 9:30pm. Had she completed the outward journey, she would have been about 4,000 feet from where her body was found. 

The location of her body under the Upper Truckee River Bridge was 3,900 feet from where Carol Andersen's body was found on Sundown Trail in 1979. Both murdered teenagers were found fully clothed. The Sahara Tahoe Hotel, where both Brynn Rainey and Donna Lass worked, was 3,400 feet from Carrows Restaurant. Donna Lass would have walked along Lake Tahoe Boulevard in 1970 had she decided to walk to her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartments from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in the early morning hours of September 6th. Brynn Rainey would have walked along Lake Tahoe Boulevard in 1977 had she decided to walk to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel from the Bittercreek Saloon shortly before her shift on July 25th. Carol Andersen would have joined Lake Tahoe Boulevard on June 30th 1979 had she decided to walk to her Lower Kingsbury residence after leaving a party on Regina Road. Kathleen Keohane would have been walking along Lake Tahoe Boulevard after leaving Carrows Restaurant. Four females, four murders, one road.   

Thanks to Joseph for highlighting this case.

After Donna Lass was last seen at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 6th 1970, Gordon Petrovich, security guard at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, stated that somebody calling himself "Mr. Davis" had rang the casino on either September 7th or 8th and reported that Donna Lass had left town because of a family illness. The landlord of Donna Lass, Nick Davis, said he first learned of the family illness story from Bob Morgan of the South Lake Tahoe Police Department on September 11th 1970, so he couldn't have been the "Mr. Davis" who rang the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on September 7th or 8th. The caller was most likely Donna's killer, buying time after the murder. It is now clear that the Sahara Tahoe Hotel informed the police of Donna's absence from work after not hearing from her for a few days. They must have made this call to police sometime sfter the call received by Gordon Petrovich, and before the call made by Nick Davis on September 11th. This sinister phone call from the killer successfully bought him valuable breathing space. 

Recently we learned that in an episode of "Bloodline Detectives" with Nancy Grace entitled "The South Lake Tahoe Strangler", Joe Alexander, the Deputy District Attorney of El Dorado County stated "One of the interesting facts in this case is that an unidentified male called Brynn Rainey's employer and informed them that she would not be showing up for her shift at the casino where she worked. We certainly don't know for sure who that was that made the call, but under the circumstances, and the fact that Brynn at that time was likely already dead, it would strongly suggest that the killer made that call in order to buy more time before people knew she was missing". This information was backed up by the host, Nancy Grace, who added "While detectives tried to trace that mystery caller, they also pieced together Brynn Rainey's last known movements". But there was something else in the documentary that supports the fact that Brynn Rainey's killer rang the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and relayed information to quell any worries over her absence from work - and it must have been pretty compelling. 

There is a good chance it was convincing because the Sahara Tahoe Hotel didn't report Brynn Rainey missing to the police in the three weeks that followed this phone call. The "Bloodline Detecives" episode Investigator John Gaines stated "She was due to work at 2:00am on the 25th (July 1977). She never showed up for that work shift. On August 15th (1977) her landlord reported her missing. The landlord said he had seen her around the last she had been seen, which would have been around July 24th, and that he had not seen her since".

​In the Donna Lass case the phone caller on September 7th or 8th 1970 didn't ring the casino in the 16 hours after her last shift ended at 2;00am, suggesting that if he had abducted her on September 6th he may have known that Donna Lass wasn't due into work at 6:00pm on September 6th 1970 at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. The caller also stated that she had been called "out of town" for a family illness. So how did he know her family didn't live "in town"? A murder on September 6th and a call to the casino on September 7th would very likely have failed had she been married. Therefore, was he somebody fairly close to Donna, who knew her marital status, knew her work pattern and knew her family lived in South Dakota approximately 1,560 miles away. A phone call in this instance would have bought plenty of time for the killer. Or did he coerce this information out of her primarily for the purpose of the phone call?

​Brynn Rainey fell in love with South Lake Tahoe and had moved there from Ohio, which was a journey of 2,240 miles. She took up employment at the Crystal Range Motel located at 941 Emerald Bay Road, working as a maid, before becoming a Keno runner at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in April 1977. So if her killer had rang the Sahara Tahoe Hotel on July 25th 1977 and used the "called out of town because of a family illness" ruse, it would have been just as effective as the deceit used in the Donna Lass case. It must have been something along these lines because she was excused from work on July 25th 1977 by a male caller and wasn't reported missing until August 15th 1977 (and not by the casino). This information was corroborated by the newspapers of the day. Does this show intimate knowledge of the life of Brynn Rainey, which also appeared to be the case with Donna Lass? Both women lived alone in rented accommodation overseen by landlords.

​Did the killer in 1970 and 1977 spend considerable time with each victim after their abduction, thereby necessitating the phone calls in order to buy time? If he had killed and disposed of them within hours, why would a phone call be necessary? Or was a phone call made in each case to delay any impending investigation into their murders, because he had some previous interactions with both women at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and feared the police may come knocking at his door? The burial of Brynn Rainey and the deposition site of Donna Lass ​74 miles from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel (possibly buried) showed a marked deviation from the murder of Carol Andersen in 1979, who was just dumped by the side of the road in plain sight. But she never worked at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel.  

FURTHER READING: THE MYSTERIOUS PHONE CALL TO THE CASINO RE-EXAMINED 

Carol Ann Andersen (16) had left a party in Regina Road, South Lake Tahoe at approximately 11:30pm on June 30th 1979 and her body was discovered in the early morning hours of July 1st 1979 by a passing motorist on the edge of the road on Sundown Trail, 3.8 miles by road from the party. Carol was fully clothed, but her shoes were discovered 1/4 mile away on Golden Bear Trail (see map below). There was evidence of strangulation and ligature marks on her wrists, and her bra had been pulled up under her shirt, with scratch marks noted on the right breast. The murderer, Joseph Stephen Holt, lived at 1390 Keller Road at the time of the Brynn Rainey murder in 1977, which was located only 350 feet from Regina Road and a 4 mile drive to Sundown Trail.. However, another address linked to him in the US Index of Public Records from 1978 to 2015 (one year after Brynn's murder, and one year before the murder of Carol Andersen) was 1101 Sierra Boulevard, South Lake Tahoe. This location was just a 1.8 mile drive to Sundown Trail. 

After he had abducted Carol Andersen and did whatever he did, he drove to Sundown Trail and dragged the young girl's body to the side of the road and continued westwards. Because Sundown Trail was effectively a dead end, he must have traveled west and then turned south on Lodgepole Trail, before heading northeast on Golden Bear Trail. Carol's shoes were found on Golden Bear Trail about 1/4 mile from her body, so Joseph Stephen Holt realizing her shoes had likely come off inside his vehicle, probably tossed them out of the vehicle window at the southern edge of Golden Bear Trail before exiting the area.

Brynn Rainey (27) was abducted by Joseph Stephen Holt after leaving the Bittercreek Saloon at Sandy Way and Takela Drive at approximately 10:00pm on July 24th 1977​, who was due at work at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel at 2:00am for her shift. Her body was found a month later in a shallow grave at Stateline Stables at Van Sickle State Park, with her purse and casino identification found about 30 feet from the gravesite. It is thought she was strangled and sexually assaulted. Stateline Stables (at the time) was approximately 1.6 miles drive from 1390 Keller Road (the 1977 residence of Holt).

So if he used the 1101 Sierra Boulevard residence in 1979 when Carol was murdered, he would never have disposed of a victim more than 1.8 miles from either residence. Therefore, if he was responsible for the abduction of Donna Lass in 1970 from somewhere close to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel or her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road home, why did her dump her body 76 miles from 1390 Keller Road? Was this his first murder and he was being extremely cautious, or was he known to Donna Lass (unlike Rainey and Andersen), so took greater precautions to delay any resulting investigation into her murder?

​However, It does appear that greater effort was used in the body disposal of the two women who worked at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel. Donna Lass was eventually found 74 miles from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, and Brynn Rainey was found in a 2 foot deep shallow grave. There may have also been delaying tactics with the two Sahara Tahoe Hotel employees, with the killer ringing the casino and excusing their absence in 1970 and 1977. Whereas Carol Andersen was just dumped on the side of the road in plain sight. A connection between Joseph Stephen Holt and the two Sahara Tahoe Hotel workers may have caused him to want to buy time and delay any investigation into their disappearances. If Donna Lass been discovered in a 2 foot shallow grave in 1970 we may have had our answer by now.  

​READ THE PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR'S REPORT INTO DONNA LASS  

At the time of Brynn Rainey's murder in 1977 Joseph Stephen Holt was living at 1390 Keller Road. We know he lived in South Lake Tahoe in 1974, but we don't know for certain whether he had vacationed or visited the area before moving there. There is some evidence pointing to his family owning the 1390 Keller Road residence prior to 1970, so it's perfectly feasible he could have stayed at this location at the time of Donna Lass' disappearance on September 6th 1970. He was listed at this address from 1971 to 2015 in the US Index to Public Records, so it's possible he stayed at an earlier time.

​Two reasons that Joseph Stephen Holt may have chosen to visit South Lake Tahoe in the years before moving there was his passion for skiing and swimming (according to his obituary), making this an ideal place for permanent residency. The love of skiing was something he had in common with Donna Lass, who when speaking to Joan Bentley at the casino just before the end of her shift on September 6th 1970, said that she was looking forward to skiing that upcoming winter. For Joseph Stephen Holt, the 1390 Keller Road location was ideal to pursue that passion, with the Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort right next to the Keller Road address.

Opening in 1955, the Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort is situated on 3860 Saddle Road and the Heavenly Village base location on 4080 Lake Tahoe Boulevard. I am currently unsure what facilities (if any) were available at 4080 Lake Tahoe Boulevard in 1970 but it would be very interesting to find out, because had Joseph Stephen Holt left his 1390 Keller Road address on foot (or by car), his quickest route to the base location of the Heavenly Ski Resort (or the Sahara Tahoe Hotel) would have taken him alongside the 3893 Pioneer Trail Road apartment of Donna Lass (shown by the red line on the map below). With a common interest in skiing it is not implausible that they may have crossed paths - quite literally. The Heavenly Mountain Ski Resort was extremely close to both addresses on their south side.

Assuming that a sinister phone call was received by the Sahara Tahoe Hotel in 1977 stating that Brynn Rainey wouldn't be turning up for her shift at 2am, the one big difference between this and the phone call received on behalf of Donna Lass in 1970, was that the caller in Donna's case knew the name of her landlord (Mr. Davis). This could indicate a more personal connection to Donna Lass, rather than a killer who just performed a random abduction from the street. Knowledge of her address would be required.  

Thanks to all the contributors that have made the last three articles possible. 
Further reading:   ​THE 1970s, ONE ROAD, THREE MURDERS    
​ANOTHER SINISTER PHONE CALL TO THE SAHARA IN 1977 

Thanks to the great work of researchers Adam and Andrew Gray we now have more information about Joseph Stephen Holt and the murders of Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Ann Andersen (16) in 1979, who both lived in South Lake Tahoe. What we don't yet know is whether Joseph Stephen Holt had ever visited or vacationed in the region prior to moving there in 1974. If he was prepared to move to South Lake Tahoe and begin a career in the real estate business, one would have thought he was already accustomed with this area and liked it enough to move there. How many people are prepared to move house and relocate without knowing anything about the destination they are moving to? Visit the previous introductory article on this subject. 

​At the time Joseph Stephen Holt murdered Brynn Rainey in 1977 he was living at 1390 Keller Road, just 4,400 feet from the once address of Donna Lass at 3893 Pioneer Trail Road in 1970. Had he visited this specific area of South Lake Tahoe in 1970 and thought it was a good place to live? Every residence associated with Joseph Stephen Holt is situated on the south side of the lake, with four of them within a 4.3 mile radius of 3893 Pioneer Trail Road. If he was responsible for the disappearance and murder of Donna Lass in 1970, did he consider this area the ideal hunting ground for his depravity and choose to set up base here in 1974? But this isn't where the coincidences stop? 

In an episode of Bloodline Detectives with Nancy Grace entitled "The South Lake Tahoe Strangler", Joe Alexander, the Deputy District Attorney of El Dorado County stated "One of the interesting facts in this case is that an unidentified male called Brynn Rainey's employer and informed them that she would not be showing up for her shift at the casino where she worked. We certainly don't know for sure who that was that made the call, but under the circumstances, and the fact that Brynn at that time was likely already dead, it would strongly suggest that the killer made that call in order to buy more time before people knew she was missing".

​If this is correct, it means that Joseph Stephen Holt rang the Sahara Tahoe Hotel to delay any investigation into Brynn Rainey's murder (She was carrying her casino ID). This is the exact playbook used by the murderer of Donna Lass, who phoned the Sahara Tahoe Hotel and stated that Donna Lass wouldn't be turning up to work at the casino because of a family illness. Nowhere in this documentary did it mention Donna Lass or reference her case whatsoever. This could mean that both Brynn Rainey and Donna Lass both went missing traveling to and from their 2:00am shift at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, followed by a phone call from the killer excusing their absence. This information is difficult to ignore.  

Joseph Stephen Holt moved to South Lake Tahoe to begin a career in real estate, so had he shown any interest in the property under construction at Incline Village in 1971, that featured in the mailing of the Pines card on March 22nd 1971. A newspaper article stated that 'the site depicted on the 'Pines Card' was from an advertisement published last Sunday by several newspapers. It was an artist's rendition of houses among the trees at a Boise Cascade Company project at Incline Village, where construction has just begun on the development. While much of the Sierra area is under several feet of snow, Incline Village has only two feet on the ground. Police went to the area to determine if a search is possible'. ​Chief Lauritzen, who was involved in the search for Donna Lass, remarked that "there's no point to a search at this time. It's unlikely a victim would be uncovered before spring". Is it conceivable that Joseph Stephen Holt, an intelligent individual, mailed this postcard to shift the attention of Donna's murder onto the Zodiac Killer?  

Thanks again to Adam and Andrew Gray for the information used in this article. 
Further reading: The 1970s, One Road, Three Murders 

Joseph Stephen Holt was identified in 2019 through DNA to be responsible for the murders of Brynn Rainey (27) in 1977 and Carol Ann Andersen (16) in 1979, both in South Lake Tahoe. Unfortunately he had already died in 2014 so he escaped justice.

​Brynn Rainey had headed to work on Sunday, July 24th 1977 at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel for her 2am shift, when she decided to stop off at the Bittercreek Saloon close to Sandy Way and Takela Drive at approximately 10:00pm. This was the last time she was seen alive, being found strangled at Sunset Stables a month later. So had she been abducted as she traveled to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, the reverse of Donna Lass on September 6th 1970, who some believe was abducted as she exited the Sahara Tahoe Hotel, or during her journey home? Both Donna Lass and Brynn Rainey were last seen alive at the end and near beginning of their 2am shift, who both worked at the same establishment. The distance from the Bittercreek Saloon at Sandy Way and Takela Drive to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel is 1.86 miles by crow.

Carol Andersen had gone to a party on June 30th 1979 near the Heavenly Ski Resort on Regina Road, and decided to leave sometime between 11pm and 11:30pm rather than accept a lift from partygoers. Carol was found facedown over the curb line on Sundown Trail on July 1st 1979. Where she went after leaving the party is unknown, but had she headed toward her lower Kingsbury home, she would have likely joined Lake Tahoe Boulevard at some point.

​Lake Tahoe Boulevard joins Highway 50, which would have taken her past the Sahara Tahoe Hotel situated 1.7 miles by crow from Regina Road, and just shy of lower Kingsbury, which sits just beyond the California/Nevada border. If she had decided to walk home from the party it was a 45 to 50 minute journey. Had she had left the party and traveled on Ski Run Boulevard to Lake Tahoe Boulevard, this location would have placed her only 3,400 feet from the Bittercreek Saloon where Brynn Rainey was last seen. She would have had to head east along Lake Tahoe Boulevard, the same route that Brynn Rainey would have needed to take to reach the Sahara Tahoe Hotel for her 2am shift. Donna Lass would also have had to walk along Lake Tahoe Boulevard to reach her 3893 Pioneer Trail Road home in 1970, had she chosen this option. Although it may seem extremely unlikely, all three females could have been abducted on the same road. The apartment of Donna Lass is 5,000 feet from Regina Road and 400 feet from Lake Tahoe Boulevard.   

"Joseph Stephen Holt was born on November 8, 1947, in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the first child of an airline pilot and a high school teacher. Shortly after his birth, the family began moving around various locations before finally settling in San Jose, California, where Holt spend most of his youth. After graduating from the Cupertino High School, he studied political science at the UC Santa Barbara and later UC Berkeley, receiving a bachelor's degree. He moved to South Lake Tahoe in 1974, where he soon began a career in real estate, holding down that job up until his death. As a realtor, he frequently travelled between San Jose and South Lake Tahoe, and was regarded as very familiar with the area". Taken from Wikipedia. 

The overriding question, is did Joseph Stephen Holt ever visit South Lake Tahoe prior to moving there? As a 22-year-old man he may have vacationed there in September 1970 (or many times) - and liked the location so much - he decided to up sticks after his stint at the University of California in Berkeley and move 140 miles northeast (by crow) to South Lake Tahoe. Just because he didn't move there until 1974, doesn't mean he had never visited there previously. But was he there on September 6th 1970? The last seen locations of Brynn Rainey and Carol Andersen are tantalizingly close to the apartment of Donna Lass, so could the intelligent and articulate Joseph Stephen Holt have befriended Donna Lass several years earlier? 

​FURTHER READING: ​ANOTHER SINISTER PHONE CALL TO THE SAHARA IN 1977 

Thanks to Canadian filmmaker Andrew Gray (Druzer) from the Citizen Detective YouTube channel, who inspired this article.   

This is the third and final instalment re-examining the Pines postcard (March 22nd 1971), and determining whether the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole were really designed to point us toward the deposition or burial site of Donna Lass, using the measurement of inches and a map scale as the conduit. This idea was rejected by some commenters on VT Squire's Reddit post regarding my analysis of the postcard as a directional tool.

​Wolf4968 stated "Does anyone really think the Zodiac, or the hoaxer/card sender, sat and measured cards by the hundredth inch, thinking, "There's the skeleton key to this whole thing, that they'll never figure out!!!".? Really?" The Zodiac Killer took the time to create at least 30 communications and mail them to the newspapers, he encrypted several messages in ciphers and codes, using a period 19 shift in his design of the 340 cipher, and mailed a Phillips 66 Map and code, challenging us with "P.S. The Mt. Diablo code concerns Radians + # inches along the radians" so we could unearth his bomb. So does Wolf4968 think that the Zodiac Killer would really sit down and measure the distance in inches between two points on a postcard using a standard classroom ruler, that would take but a few seconds? 

The more important question is determining whether the punch-hole on the Pines postcard was intended to identify a deposition or burial location, and was its positioning relative to the pasted "Sierra Club" of any significance? What we do know is that the Clair Tappaan Lodge "Sierra Club" on Donner Pass Road is directly in line (on the east-west axis) with the location of Chubb Lake where the jawbone of Donna Lass was found on December 31st 1985. The pasted "Sierra Club" on the postcard is also perfectly aligned with the punch-hole on the east-west axis. The distance between the center of the punch-hole and pasted "Sierra Club" was 2.19 inches (2 3/16 inches}, which equated to 14.02 miles using the map scale of 6.4 miles to the inch. This was the distance (by crow) between Clair Tappaan Lodge and the location of Donna's remains near Chubb Lake (to within a few hundred meters).

​It must be noted that after the jawbone and teeth were discovered on December 31st 1985, Sheriff Donald A. Nunes stated that a more detailed search would be conducted on January 4th 1986 looking for more remains at the 5,300 feet elevation. Later in January a skull was discovered near to where the jawbone was found.

The area close to the eastern side of Chubb Lake sits at an elevation between 5,300 and 5,400 feet, so matches the elevation described by Sheriff Nunes and the location of the jawbone described in the newspaper as "found in 2 inches of snow, a mile northeast of Interstate 80 by Melvin Bennett, who along with his son was enroute to fish at the reservoir". Yuba Gap sits at an elevation of 5,790 feet, Yuba Pass sits at 6,710 feet and Emigrant Gap sits at 5,200 feet. Despite these observations, we need to go further and see if the Zodiac Killer did anything else to support the notion that he identified burial or deposition sites using directional markers.

Sometime in May 1971, the Zodiac Killer mailed the 148 character cipher and letter, using language straight out of the Ed Gein handbook, when he wrote "I will skin three little kids and make a suit from the skin", and "I will send a patch of human skin if their is some left over". Ed Gein, known as "The Butcher of Plainfield", dug up corpses from the cemetery to make an array of ghastly household objects from human skin, and began to fashion a "woman suit" so "he could become his dead mother and literally crawl into her skin". So when the Zodiac Killer threatened to "skin three kids and make a suit from the skin", it is almost certain he was referring to the murdered Kathy Snoozy, Debra Furlong and Kathy Bilek, who, he was not only claiming as his victims, but who he was threatening to dig up from the cemetery, just like Ed Gein previously.

This theme of burial sites would continue on July 13th 1971, when the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card with pasted text, stating "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The postcard was referring to Kathy Bilek, who was stabbed in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga (near Monticello in San Jose) on April 11th 1971. Kathy Snoozy was buried in the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery in the Monticello neighborhood of San Jose. The Zodiac Killer used the phonetic namesake of Kathy Bilek and the location of Monticello to identify the burial location of Kathy Snoozy, who he had previously claimed alongside Debra Furlong on November 8th 1969.

​Somebody would later visit the cemetery housing Kathy Snoozy on September 18th 1973 and remove a tombstone from the grounds, placing it at the front gates with the pseudonym "Zodiac" scrawled on it. We don't know for certain whose tombstone it was, but it doesn't take much guessing. This person had desecrated a gravesite at the Oak Hill Memorial Park & Cemetery, but thankfully they fell short of removing body parts from the depths. 

When the Zodiac Killer wrote in the Los Angeles letter on March 13th 1971, stating "The reason I'm writing to the Times is this, They don't bury me on the back pages like some of the others", I am not sure he was aware that "burial" was to become a feature of all his next three communications. The overlapping features in the Pines postcard and Monticello card are fairly obvious from the standpoint of directional markers. The Pines postcard contained "pass Lake Tahoe areas", "Sierra Club" and "around in the snow". The Monticello card had "in the woods". and "near Monticello".

We know that Kathy Bilek's body was found "in the woods near Monticello", so it's likely the body of Donna Lass would have been found "around in the snow" near the "Sierra Club" had she been discovered in March 1971. The remains of Donna Lass were found approximately 14 miles from the Sierra Club. The remains of Kathy Snoozy were buried nearly 10 miles from the Villa Montalvo woods. The Monticello card was identifying the location of Kathy Bilek's body in the Villa Montalvo woods in Saratoga, by using the Monticello gravesite of Kathy Snoozy as the directional tool. The Pines postcard also contained two key markers by having the "Sierra Club" location and the punch-hole to identify the "burial" site of Donna Lass. Hopefully, this goes someway to showing how "burial locations" and "body sites" would become the main focus of the Zodiac Killer in 1971. The 148 character cipher/letter and Monticello card were simply continuing the theme of the Pines postcard, mailed on March 22nd 1971. If the Monticello card is ever released to the public it will be curious to see what positions relative to one another the Zodiac Killer pasted the wording "in the woods" and "Monticello", and the distance between them. Or whether it was unnecessary in this instance because he named Monticello.  

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]

The newspaper cutting from 1986 describing the discovery of Donna Lass' remains stated that Melvin Bennett on his way to Lake Valley Reservoir at Yuba Gap discovered the remains one mile northeast of the I-80. In other words, while traveling to Yuba Gap he discovered the remains one mile northeast of this location. Yuba Gap is situated on Interstate 80. The red arrow in the image below points to the approximate location of her remains (jawbone). The red cross in the image below is the position 14.02 miles from the "Sierra Club" of Clair Tappaan Lodge. This was the distance found in the Pines postcard between the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole (body location) in the previous article. This means that the estimated location of her body, shown by measurements in the Pines postcard, was only 1,000 meters away from where the jawbone of Donna Lass was ultimately found. The remains of Donna Lass were found close to Chubb Lake Road, Forty-Niner Way and Gonelson Canyon Road, the latter of which sits approximately 500 meters from the jawbone location described in the newspaper. All accessible from Highway 20. We have to note that the description of "one mile northeast" is obviously an approximation by the newspaper. It could be, as an example, anywhere from 0.7 to 1.3 miles from the I-80 at Yuba Gap. The word "northeast" can also be interpreted to some extent. Slight changes to the angle and distance could make the location identified from the Pines card calculation slightly more accurate (or less so). Either way, the proximity is noteworthy.

Although these calculations were done with hindsight, had they been presented before the discovery and identification of the remains of Donna Lass, they would still be rejected. If I had said in 2020 that body parts of Donna Lass will eventually be found just below Chubb Lake based on calculations involving the Pines postcard - and in 2023 they were shown to have been found just 1,000 meters away from my prediction - what do you think people would have said? They would have said "coincidence" and dismissed the findings as sheer luck. This may well be correct, but what if it wasn't. It would prove that the designer of the Pines postcard created it with purpose and the full knowledge of Donna Lass' "burial site".

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART ONE)
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART THREE]

Several months ago I analysed the Pines postcard to see if the punch-hole and pasted "Sierra Club" text were used by the author of the postcard to show the burial or disposal site of Donna Lass, who was last seen at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 6th 1970. Because the author had pasted the words "around in the snow" upside down, it gave me the idea to rotate the postcard through 180 degrees and measure the distance from the edge of the pasted "Sierra Club" (Clair Tappaan Lodge) and the center of the punch-hole. The remains of Donna Lass were discovered somewhere by Camp Spaulding or Yuba Gap, which were perfectly aligned with Clair Tappaan Lodge on the east-west axis, just like the punch-hole and "Sierra Club" on the postcard. I made the mistake in the earlier article of assuming the postcard was the US standard size of 5.8 X 4.2 inches. The postcard used by the author was a USPS Abraham Lincoln 4 Cent Blank Postcard that measured 5 9/16 by 3 1/4 inches (5.56 by 3.25 inches). 

I really don't mind individuals challenging claims made on this website, but am highly suspicious of people like VT Squire, who has consistently trashed everything I've ever written, with little to no exception. So in response to his Reddit article picking apart my analysis of the Pines postcard (and in the interest of fairness), I have decided to analyse his claims, without bias, that my measurements and conclusions were incorrect in my previous article - from which he correctly pointed out some flaws. His analysis of the postcard width using a crude scale and pixel count from border to border was 5.39 inches (well inside my assessment of 5.80 inches). Therefore, in reality, the distance between the punch-hole center and "Sierra Club" was 2.122 inches according to VT Squire, giving us a distance of 13.58 miles (2.122 multiplied by the map scale of 6.4 miles/inch). My measurement of 15.3 miles west of Clair Tappaan Lodge to the location of the body (or to the center of punch-hole) was nearly 2 miles off according to VT Squire. However, the historical records show that this postcard was 5 9/16 or 5.56 inches wide, not the 5.39 inches calculated by VT Squire. But he was closer than me.        

The above image was taken from a seller on Ebay who provided a handy scale next to the ​USPS Abraham Lincoln 4 Cent Blank Postcard. I checked numerous other sites regarding this postcard and its exact measurement was 5 9/16 inches in width (5.56 inches). Less than my original estimate by 0.24 inches, but 0.17 inches more than that given by VT Squire. I then took the image used by VT Squire (with small scale) and color tinted the edge to define the exact size of the postcard beyond the pasted advertisement. I then superimposed this image exactly over an original of the blank postcard and placed a ruler from one edge to the other measuring 5 9/16 inches (5.56 inches). This enabled me to measure the distance between the center of the punch-hole to the edge of the "Sierra Club" pasting. It measured 2 3/16 inches (2.19 inches). To get the distance in miles I had to multiply 2.19 by the 6.4 inches/mile map scale (6.4 X 2.19) = 14.02 miles. Therefore, the distance between Clair Tappaan Lodge and Camp Spaulding/Yuba Gap where the remains were found, should be 14.02 miles if the postcard was an accurate representation of her final resting place. The distance of 14.02 miles west of Clair Tappaan Lodge lands slightly south of Chubb Lake, just over a mile shy of Camp Spaulding, and 400 meters shy of Yuba Gap. For all intents and purposes, the distance in miles between the pasted "Sierra Club" and punch-hole of 14.02 miles, is where the remains of Donna Lass were found in 1985/1986. The punch-hole (not the center) does extend to 2 5/16 inches (14.78 miles), which travels beyond Yuba Gap and to the edge of Camp Spaulding, that lies south of Lake Spaulding. 

VT Squire's analysis was pretty accurate and forced me to reassess my original article regarding the deposition site of Donna Lass. But his claims that I attempt to manipulate data to achieve a desired result is false. If I make mistakes I will endeavour to correct them, as shown by this re-examination. Hopefully, he will now do the same in his Reddit post.. 

A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART TWO]
A RE-EXAMINATION OF THE PINES POSTCARD [PART THREE]

Although much of the following has been covered before, I feel it is necessary to re-examine certain elements of the Donna Lass case, a 25-year-old woman, who worked as a nurse at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in Stateline, Nevada, and was last seen at this location on September 6th 1970. Sixteen years later, in 1985/1986, some of her remains were found near Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, but were only belatedly identified as her in December 2023. This breaking news caused a major stir in the Zodiac Killer community with renewed hope - but as happens in many cases - this awakened story has effectively disappeared from the discussion forums once again, and an unspoken resignation has returned that no further developments will be forthcoming. One of the key questions surrounding her murder was the question of Zodiac involvement, which will be examined here.

Still persisting to this day, some Zodiac sleuths are still claiming that the individual who created the Pines postcard and mailed it to the San Francisco Chronicle on March 22nd 1971, was insinuating that Donna Lass was their twelfth victim. However, the postcard never claimed Donna Lass as victim number 12 on March 22nd 1971, only that they "sought" her when she had the potential to become victim number 12. The Zodiac Killer claimed 10 victims on April 20th 1970 and 12 victims on June 26th 1970, when Donna Lass was still living and working in San Francisco for much of this time.

She had left for her new job at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on or around June 5th 1970. Her savings account at the Bank of America located at 3701 Balboa Street (close to where she lived at 4122 Balboa Street) had remained dormant since early June. So if the Zodiac Killer had "sought" Donna Lass as victim number 12 in San Francisco, then he had trailed or stalked her between April 20th 1970 and June 5th 1970. The Dragon card mailed on April 28th 1970 showed no movement in the victim count, so this window could potentially narrow from April 28th 1970 to June 5th 1970. If this were the case, then the Zodiac Killer had a maximum of 39 days in which Donna Lass could have been "sought" as victim number 12. The fact that Donna Lass worked and lived close to the Presidio Heights murder of Paul Stine, at a time when she had the potential to become the Zodiac Killer's twelfth victim, certainly wasn't lost on the designer of the Pines card. By fashioning a postcard that combined both South Lake Tahoe and San Francisco, its creator was attempting to convince law enforcement that there was a connection between the Zodiac Killer and the missing nurse, navigating through two states and lasting several months.

If Donna Lass was killed by somebody she knew, then creating a Pines postcard shifting the attention toward the Zodiac Killer could be seen as beneficial to the murderer. However, this postcard was mailed 6 1/2 months after the nurse went missing, so any benefit gained by such a move would have drastically diminished. You would expect somebody hoping to focus attention toward the Zodiac Killer and away from them, to have crafted the postcard in the early part of the investigation by overtly claiming her murder, not insinuating this in a cryptic communication the following year. Also, if the phone caller to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 7th/8th was the murderer of Donna Lass (and author of the Pines postcard), he could easily have implicated the Zodiac Killer by phone on any date between September 6th 1970 and March 22nd 1971, but we know of no "Zodiac Killer" calls between these dates.

The creator of the Pines postcard didn't just fashion any old communication, they took the time to add a "Forest Pines" advertisement onto face of the postcard and searched for relevant directional text in the form of newspaper cuttings to paste onto it, while punching a hole in the top right corner and scalloping all four sides. Then they acquired the knowledge to know that Donna Lass would have been "sought" as victim 12 in San Francisco at the appropriate time she lived and worked there. This person placed some considerable thought into the design of this postcard, unlikely to have been created by somebody attempting to shift the disappearance of Donna Lass toward the Zodiac Killer, who could have done so with far less effort. The time and effort, along with the subtlety employed in the creation of this communication, is something we know from previous Zodiac correspondence. 

This subtlety was clear to see, when four months after the arrival of the Pines postcard, the Zodiac Killer mailed the Monticello card on July 13th 1971 claiming the murder of Kathy Bilek on April 11th 1971, again using a retrospective victim total. The pasted text read "Near Monticello Shought Victims 21 ...... In The Woods Dies April". The Zodiac Killer was retrospectively claiming he "sought" Kathy Bilek before her murder, just as he had done with Donna Lass from San Francisco to South Lake Tahoe. If he didn't murder Kathy Bilek when using this tactic, what are the chances that he killed Donna Lass but was telling the truth on this occasion? To establish whether the Zodiac Killer knew Donna Lass from San Francisco and/or South Lake Tahoe enough to trail her from one state to another, we have to return to the phone call received by security guard, Gordon Petrovich, at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino on September 7th/8th 1970. We have to determine if the phone caller knew Donna Lass to some extent, or was a complete stranger. The following section is taken from a previous article.     

It is fairly obvious that the story of the mysterious phone call to the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino didn't originate from the police, so its origin must have come from the killer of Donna Lass for the following reasons. The security guard at the casino, Gordon Petrovich, claimed he received a phone call from somebody calling themselves Mr. Davis on either September 7th or 8th, who stated Donna Lass had been called out of town for a family illness. If Gordon Petrovich had murdered Donna Lass, it would be totally ridiculous to pretend he received a phone call from Mr. Davis about an illness in the Lass family, that he knew would be denied later by the landlord of Donna Lass, Nick Davis. This could only have served to draw suspicion upon himself. Also, why would Nick Davis ring Gordon Petrovich and report a family illness that never was, if he had murdered Donna Lass? Once the family illness story was found to be fake, likewise, Nick Davis would have brought suspicion upon himself. Neither of these two men would have had anything to gain by fabricating a story of illness in the family of Donna Lass, that would eventually be found out to be a lie. 

When Donna Lass began working at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino in June 1970 it would have been her responsibility to supply the casino with her contact details (phone number and/or current address), and encumbent upon her, to acquire the contact details (phone number) of the casino in case she needed to ring them in the event of unforeseen circumstances, such as an illness to herself, family illness, accident or medical emergency  By September 6th 1970, this most certainly would have been done. If Donna Lass had really received an urgent message from her family because of an illness, what would have been the appropriate response - waste valuable time trying to locate her landlord, Nick Davis, asking him to ring the casino on her behalf - or simply making the phone call to the casino herself by using a public payphone or asking to use her landlord's phone? If the relations of Donna Lass did have an illness in the family and only had the phone number of Nick Davis by way of contacting her, he would have then made contact with Donna Lass, who would have rang her family back enquiring about the gravity of the situation, before contacting the casino. Any phone call received by Gordon Petrovich of the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, on behalf of Donna Lass, makes little sense. The only person who had anything to gain by reporting a family illness on behalf of Donna Lass, is an individual who knew that Donna Lass was incapable of making the phone call herself, because she was either under duress at the time, or dead.   

According to Jo Anne Goettsche, who was visiting Donna Lass during this period, she had no way of contacting Donna Lass by phone when she arrived at the casino and found her friend absent. Therefore, Donna Lass had no phone in her apartment. But this still doesn't explain the obvious path Donna Lass should have taken if she had somehow received a message from her family about an illness. She would have notified her workplace by using the nearest convenient public or private phone. Or made the call en route to South Dakota (apparently without her vehicle). If the family of Donna Lass had wanted to contact her in an emergency, what phone number would Donna have given them? She would have given them either the phone number of Larry & Ann Lowe (where she previously lived), the Monte Verdi apartment landlord (if she had relayed this to her family yet) and the casino. Or any combination of all three.

Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartments, so how likely is it that the family of Donna Lass had the phone number of the landlord, Nick Davis, to even ring him about a family illness? And even if they had, why would Nick Davis bypass Donna Lass and inform the casino of the family illness himself, rather than informing Donna Lass of the family illness and her taking responsibility in notifying the casino?

The mysterious phone call using the name of Mr. Davis, which he denied was him, must have come from a murderer familiar enough with Donna Lass to know the name of her landlord. Another question that must be asked - is how many people (then or today) would know the name of their friend's landlord? Taking into account that Donna Lass had just moved into the Monte Verdi apartment complex, there may have been some friends that would have known her plans, but how many of these friends would have known that her landlord was called Mr. Davis? One such friend (or casual acquaintance) that may have been privy to this information, would have been somebody who lived at the Monte Verdi apartments themselves. Possibly somebody who informed Donna Lass previously that the Monte Verdi apartments were a good place to live. Often, people move into future premises on the recommendations of others - usually friends they trust.

The Zodiac Killer was clearly familiar with San Francisco on some level, so it is feasible he could have known Donna Lass from the Letterman General Hospital where she worked, or from activities outside of her employment. He could have lived or worked close to her 4122 Balboa Street address - and chose Presidio Heights as a suitable location for his October 11th 1969 murder based on local knowledge.

​It is also possible that when Donna Lass went missing in South Lake Tahoe and the newspapers printed her previous employment at the very park the Zodiac Killer claimed he escaped into, the Bay Area murderer would almost certainly have known that linking himself to her disappearance was an opportunity too good to turn down. He must have calculated that investigators would forge the connection between South Lake Tahoe and San Francisco through her profession, and hopefully boost his credibility on March 22nd 1971.

​The delay between the Donna Lass disappearance and the arrival of the Pines postcard may have been an indication he wasn't her murderer. He could have waited 6 1/2 months to satisfy himself the young nurse wasn't just missing, or that her real murderer would likely not be found. On the other hand, it is possible he was unaware of the Donna Lass story until early 1971.

Establishing a connection between the Zodiac Killer and South Lake Tahoe in advance of Donna Lass' murder was further confused by several threatening phone calls (reported in the Sacramento Bee newspaper on December 15th 1969) aimed towards school buses from Incline Village and Tahoe City in November 1969. There may have been a fair number of hoax Zodiac calls throughout the years, but this person claimed to be the Zodiac Killer and threatened Incline Village by Lake Tahoe, nearly 1 1/2 years prior to the mailing of the Pines postcard which contained an advertisement of Incline Village. This, on its surface, appears to lend credence to the Zodiac Killer being responsible for the Pines postcard. Or, that he wasn't responsible for the 1969 threat and somehow gained access to the Sacramento Bee newspaper article after the fact (had kept the newspaper when bought, or kept a cutting in his possession from the time), or had it stored in his memory bank and decided in 1971 to choose anything he could find in the newspapers concerning Incline Village to paste onto his postcard, so as to cement a connection between both. By issuing a second malicious threat involving Incline Village, maybe the Zodiac Killer was hoping law enforcement would take his latest threat more seriously, just as he had done by adding "sought victim 12" onto the postcard and again linking himself back to activity in the Bay Area and vicinity.            

The murderer of Donna Lass, when traveling from South Lake Tahoe to the body deposition site (had this been his route),  bypassed innumerable earlier and more remote locations where he could have separated himself from her body, assuming she was dead. Yet he chose to select an area popular with campers, fishermen and hikers, which appeared far riskier. This may suggest a familiarity with the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, because killers will often choose a deposition site based on knowledge and risk level, rather than areas they are totally unfamiliar with. The murderer of Donna Lass could have known pockets within the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap that presented minimal risk in darkness, despite it being a popular area with locals and tourists alike. This is an argument for "better the devil you know" over uncertainty. If this deposition site was chosen because the killer was a previous or frequent visitor to this location in Placer County, while simultaneously knowing the name of Donna Lass' landlord, we could be looking for somebody known to Donna Lass whose history is connected to this tourist destination. He may have stayed, drank or eaten at any of the several lodges or establishments that lay close to Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap. He may even have visited this area with Donna Lass during the brief three months she lived at South Lake Tahoe. I certainly don't know with certainty, but I strongly suspect that the killer and victim in this case were known to one another, in absence of the Zodiac Killer.   

"Considering the fact that offenders transporting a dead body are subject to time, distance, speed, weather, geographical, and effort constraints (Häkkänen et al., 2007), it is not surprising that in the current study, most offenders did not travel to dispose of the body, but rather, left it at the murder site. Similarly, as most sexual homicides are committed by strangers, it is possible that as suggested by Häkkänen et al. (2007), offenders see no rationale for making the effort to dump the body at a different location. Offenders with stranger victims may perceive the risk of moving the victim's body to be greater than that of being linked to the crime should they simply leave the body at the attack location". Research Gate. The distance traveled by the murderer of Donna Lass to dispose of her body appears to indicate a desire to delay the analysis of her murder, in which family, friends and work colleagues would inevitably become the first port of call for investigators. A complete stranger, with no prior links to Donna Lass, will be less likely to feel the need for concealment. The distance from the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino (now the Golden Nugget) to the area of Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap is approximately 80 miles. The phone call to Gordon Petrovich at the casino claiming Donna Lass had left town for a family illness is extremely likely to have been placed to diffuse any concern when Donna Lass failed to return to work. This would buy the killer more time to relocate the body and clean up any incriminating evidence. The need to buy time until the police come knocking is far more relevant to somebody known to Donna Lass than a stranger.   

The Zodiac Killer claimed "slaves for the afterlife" and "victims" all over the state of California, only deviating from this, when he insinuated a hand in the disappearance of Donna Lass from Stateline, Nevada on September 6th 1970, by suggesting he "sought" her as "victim 12" when she had previously lived in San Francisco. Despite stating that he sought her as victim 12, the Zodiac Killer never outright claimed her as a victim. Not once between July 31st 1969 and April 24th 1978 did the Zodiac Killer ever mention the state of Nevada in any of his communications. Fifteen years would elapse from the mailing of the Pines postcard on March 22nd 1971 to the arrival of the "Freeway" letter on May 6th 1986, before the Zodiac Killer finally mentioned the state of Nevada for the first time.

​Unbeknownst to anybody reading the Roseville Press-Tribune on January 23rd 1986, other than the person who murdered Donna Lass, the discovery of her body in the Yuba Gap area of Placer County was being detailed. Therefore, it must be regarded as a curiosity, that the next Zodiac Killer communication on May 6th 1986 mentioned the state of Nevada, from where Donna Lass disappeared on September 6th 1970..

The Roseville Press-Tribune newspaper article read "The skull was found by a sheriff's search party headed by Deputy Lowell Carleton, who used scent dogs in looking for remains of the body believed to have been murdered elsewhere and dumped in the Yuba Gap area". Three and a half months later, on May 6th 1986, the Zodiac Killer wrote "The body count is growing now 100+ all over the state of Ca and Na". The "victim count" of the Zodiac Killer had now become a "body count" for the very first time. Only the murderer of Donna Lass, reading this newspaper article, would have known that these remains were hers. So was the Zodiac Killer attributing the finding of her body to his ever growing "body count" - and feeling it necessary to mention the state of Nevada from where she went missing, and the location she was possibly murdered? 

* Although the state of Nevada is abbreviated to "Nv" and not "Na", which the Zodiac Killer appeared to write in the 1986 letter, it is reasonable to conclude that he meant Nevada, which shares a border with California.  

Mrs. Dorothy Cullison stated that she observed Donna Lass (who she recognised from a later photograph) in the company of a clean shaven, blonde haired man traveling southbound on Pioneer Trail Road away from the Tahoe Bottle Shop at 3950 Lake Tahoe Blvd, South Lake Tahoe on September 7th 1970 at about 3pm to 4pm. Of course, she could have been mistaken, but the location would have been relevant to Donna Lass as she lived nearby, having just moved into the Monte Verdi apartments at 3893 Pioneer Trail Road. The location described by Mrs. Dorothy Cullison would have placed Donna Lass just 650 feet from her home residence  

According to the private investigator's report, friend of Donna Lass, Jo Anne Goettsche, was planning to meet her on the night of September 7th 1970 at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino, making contact with security guard George Victor Jonasson and asking of Donna's whereabouts through until 4:00am on September 8th 1970. If both of these recollections were correct, then something prevented Donna Lass from meeting Jo Anne Goettsche between approximately 4pm and the night of September 7th 1970. This ties in with the suspicious phone call from a "Mr. Davis" the following day (September 8th), which was previously argued to be from the killer of Donna Lass, who knew her well enough to know the name of her landlord. Did the man accompanying Donna Lass also live at the Monte Verdi apartments, or was it possible he was just walking her home? Their route along Pioneer Trail Road had them heading towards the Monte Verdi apartment complex, but this wasn't the only pertinent address along this road.

​According to the private investigator's report, Donna Lass dated a waiter at the Sahara Tahoe Hotel & Casino called Tony Chapman, who testified that he never REALLY dated Donna Lass, although he did have drinks with her after work until 5am, and had "taken her out" at least three times but never kissed her. Tony Chapman's address was also located close to Pioneer Trail Road, 4,260 feet beyond the Monte Verdi apartments at 3608 Terry Lane. He stated he hadn't seen Donna Lass since September 2nd 1970, when he, Donna and Vern Lauflin had a drink after work. Was this the individual seen walking with Donna Lass by Mrs. Dorothy Cullison on September 7th 1970, heading in the direction of the Monte Verdi apartments or 3608 Terry Lane? It would certainly be interesting to discover if Tony Chapman was a clean shaven, blonde haired individual. Despite this, Mrs. Dorothy Cullison couldn't state conclusively that her sighting was Labor Day weekend, so we cannot put all our eggs in this basket. 

If Donna Lass was murdered in the region of Pioneer Trail Road, her killer certainly felt the need to create great distance from the murder site to the location her body was ultimately found in 1986. Despite innumerable, secluded wooded areas being available to dispose of a body en route to Camp Spaulding and Yuba Gap, our killer selected a location popular with campers, fishermen and hikers. This doesn't seem like the quickest and most obvious choice to dispose of a body, unless it's a location that the killer felt comfortable with because he had previous knowledge of this area. Killers will often select dumping sites based on previous experience. If the killer of Donna Lass is ever identified, I expect it to be a young man closely associated with Donna Lass through her work or the Monte Verdi apartment complex, who had previously spent some of his time in the region of Camp Spaulding, Lake Spaulding and Lake Valley Reservoir. On the other hand, I could be completely wrong.