
The gruesome double murder was discovered at about 11.24 pm when Mrs Stella Borges driving from her ranch home to pick up her youngsters at a Benicia theater, saw the two prostrate forms in the headlights of her automobile. She sped on toward town but before reaching her destination flagged down a Benicia police patrol car occupied by Captain Dan Pitta and another Benicia officer. They hurried to the scene, called an ambulance and notified the sheriff's office of the tragedy. Sheriff's investigator Leslie B Lunblad, who was heading up the investigation, was still in the Lake Herman Road area early today and could not be reached for details. But Horan said the killer apparently first fired at the two while they were in Faraday's car. One bullet hole was found in the back window of the vehicle and four empty shell casings were found on the ground nearby.
Deputy Sheriff Russell T Butterbach and his partner, Deputy Wayne Waterman came into Vallejo around midnight in the vain hope of getting a statement from David. Butterbach told the Times-Herald that the girl's body was found about 10 feet behind the car while the boy was lying outside the right side of the vehicle. "I just couldn't say how or what happened" Butterbach said "We haven't got that far in the investigation." Asked if there was any evidence of another car being in the vicinity, Horan replied in the negative. He said the ground in the area was practically frozen and that there was no possibility of tire tracks.
At Sheriff's headquarters in Vallejo Sgt Terry Cunningham said he was unable to provide any additional details. He indicated that there were no immediate suspects in the shootings and that this probably would remain true until further progress was made by investigators at the scene. Captain Pitta, who was continuing other police duties in Benicia could not be reached by telephone early today.
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Sherriff's Sgt Leslie L Lunblad said Saturday night that nearly 24 hours of constant investigation had produced no real tangible leads as to the identity of the killer."We gathered all the physical evidence that was available at the scene, cartridge cases and other items." Lunblad said "and these will be tested in the laboratory."
Lunblad and Deputy Russell Butterbach spent much of the day in Vallejo interviewing the family and friends of the slain pair, to determine if these parents could shed any light on the grisly killings. "We pretty well know what time they may have reached the spot where they were killed," Lunblad said "but this has not yet been completely been pinned down." It was the first and last date Betty Lou had with David. They were to have gone to the Hogan High School Christmas music program which lasted until around 10 pm. Investigators were not overlooking the possibility the slayer could have been a rejected suitor of the Jensen girl.
"We're looking into that" Lunblad said "but at this stage we're not overlooking any possibilities whatever, slim though them might seem on the surface." He said the killings could have been done without a motive, perhaps by a demented person.

The Faraday youth, who resided at 1939 Sereno Drive, was a native of San Rafael and had been a Vallejo resident 3 1/2 years. He was a student at Vallejo High School, where he was a member of the Interact Club, and the high school wrestling team. He also was a member of First Presbyterian Church, and an Eagle Scout member of Explorer Post 209. He won the God and Country award through his scouting activities, and was lodge chief of the Order of the Arrow in Solano, Napa and Lake counties. He was a member of Knights of Dunamis, and was a member of the staff of the Silverado Area Council camp.

The Jensen girl, whose family resides at 123 Ridgewood Ct, was a native of Colorado. She was a junior and an honor student at Hogan High School. She was also grand royal guide of Prima Vera Council 32. Pythian Sunshine Girls. Surviving are her parents, Mr and Mrs Verne Jensen and a sister Melodie, Vallejo: her maternal grandparents Mr and Mrs Louis E Blenderman, Oakland, and her paternal grandmother Mrs Anna Jensen, Colorado. Christian Science services will be conducted at 11 am Monday at Colonial Chapels by Reader Hugh Martin Niemoller. Friends may call at Colonial Chapels after 9 am today.
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Detective Sergeant Leslie Lunblad, the graying, husky officer in charge of the investigation, said there was a distinct possibility the young couple had been trailed to the murder scene from a pre-Christmas concert in Vallejo to the Lake Herman Rd, 10 miles east of here. Solano County Coroner Dan Horan said the youngsters "apparently had just stopped" on the lovers lane when the killer opened fire. But both officials were silent about what they had learned in the quizzing of the many friends of the slain couple.
Tangible clues were four bullet casings found near young Faraday's parked car. Sgt Lunblad, however, declined to discuss them other to confirm they were from a small caliber weapon. The youth had been shot in the head by a small caliber rifle. He died enroute to a hospital. The girl had been shot five times in the back from a range of no more than 10 feet.
Four small caliber bullet casings were found near the car young Faraday had borrowed from his parents for the Friday evening date, the evening couple's first. Sheriff's investigators said the couple apparently parked in the lovers lane area just off the winding dirt road. Footprints indicated the youth had gotten out of the auto and walked to the passenger side when he was felled by the bullet penetrating his head just behind the left ear. The girl apparently ran and was gunned down as she fled.
The couple had attended a Christmas concert at Hogan High School in Vallejo where Bettylou was a third-year student.
The slain girl and boy were found at 11.30 pm Friday by a passing motorist, Mrs Manuel Borges.
Among the few clues was a deep heel print in the earth. The print was in the brush grown area in rear of a fence ringing the pump house supplying water to Benicia. The brushy growth would have been the only concealment offered a sniper in the rolling farmlands. The young girl had not been molested and robbery was not a motive investigators said. Both young Faraday and Miss Jensen were described as quiet, studious and with little time for dating. Faraday's chief interest had been in scouting and he recently was awarded the "God and Country Award," one of scouting's highest honors. He was the son of Thomas Faraday, an employee of Pacific Gas & Electric Co in Vallejo. Miss Jensen was the daughter of Vincent M Johnson of Vallejo, a programmer for the U.S. General Service Administration.
Funeral services for the slain girl will be at 11 am tomorrow at Colonial Funeral Home in Vallejo. Funeral services for Faraday will be at 2 pm in Vallejo's First Presbyterian Church. Both burials will be private.
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The two youths identified as David Faraday, 17, of 1930 Sereno Dr, and Bettilou Jensen, 16, of 123 Ridgewood Court, were both found shot at 11.24 pm Friday by Mrs Stella Borges, who was returning home when he floodlights reflected on the bodies. Mrs Borges then flagged down a Benicia police unit who called an ambulance and notified the Sheriff's Office. Miss Jensen had been shot in the back five times and Faraday had been shot once in the head by the small caliber weapon. Miss Jensen was pronounced dead on arrival at Vallejo General Hospital at 12.05 am. Faraday succumbed shortly afterwards without regaining consciousness. Faraday's car was parked a few feet from the bodies. It had a bullet hole in the back window, indicating they may have been first fired upon while still in the car and the young man was sprawled outside the right door of the vehicle.
"We're presently checking out all the people usually in the area at the time the murder occurred" Officer Lunblad stated. "This includes the graveyard driver shift of the Humble Oil Company and several drivers who have reported that they passed along the road about the time of the slayings. Several people have reported seeing a car parked along the road with kids in it and one witness reported seeing two cars parked next to each other.
"We haven't uncovered a motive yet, but robbery and sex have been eliminated" Lunblad added. "We have been unable to turn up any evidence of another car in the area. The ground was very frozen and no tracks have turned up" the investigating officer stated. The two youths on their first date had apparently "parked" alongside the road following a Christmas concert they were attending. Faraday was an Eagle Scout and a member of Vallejo High School's wrestling team. Miss Jensen attended Hogan High School.

Sergeant Lunblad said the young couple had attended a pre-Christmas concert and then parked on a dirt road off Lake Herman Road, ten miles east of here near Benicia. This is what Lunblad believed happened.
Shortly after Faraday parked his family's Rambler station wagon, the slayer appeared on the driver's side and forced the couple out. Faraday refused. The gunman then fired a shot into the rear of the station wagon "to scare them into getting out" as Lunblad put it. Hardly had Faraday left the car when the killer shot him at close range, a small-caliber bullet passing through his left ear into his brain. He died en route to a hospital. Meanwhile, Miss Jensen had also left the car by the driver's side and was running for the paved road. She got exactly 28 feet from the station wagon when she fell dead with five bullets in her back.
The puzzling thing about the case is that the killer did not rob the victims, nor did he sexually molest Miss Jensen, although that was probably his first intention Lunblad said.
http://www.sfchronicle.com/

Impetus was lent to the "maniac" theory Sunday when a youth telephoned Sheriff's Sgt Leslie Lunblad to inform the officer of a bizarre experience he had about 9.30 pm Friday in the same area where the killings occurred perhaps 90 minutes later. "When I say its back-up lights came on" he continued "I gunned our car out of there. The other driver followed me-I couldn't say he was actually chasing us because he never gained on us. I turned off toward Benicia, and he turned in the opposite direction. As far as I was concerned" he went on "that was the end of it until I read Saturday what had happened in the same spot where we were, and then I started thinking all the more about it."
He gave Lunblad his name, address and telephone number. The investigator did not indicate whether the youth said he would be able to identify the other car.
Authorities are experiencing some difficulty in tracing the slain pair's whereabouts after 9 pm Friday. At approximately that hour they left the home of a close friend of the Jensen girl, but their immediate destination has not been learned. Lunblad is convinced they did not go to the Lake Herman Road trysting spot much before 11 pm. He said he learned this through questioning night shift workers at the Humble Oil Refinery construction project in Benicia, many of whom drive to and from their jobs via Lake Herman Road. From these witnesses the investigators learned the approximate time the Faraday car was seen parked off the roadway five miles northeast of here and, just as important, the earlier time it was not there.
At least one witness told of seeing two cars, the Faraday station wagon, and another vehicle at the murder site, at a time which jibes with the investigator's estimate as to when the killings took place. Lunblad said Sunday night he was satisfied concerning a number of earlier questions in the case. For example;
1-The station wagon Faraday was driving was parked off the roadway for sometime before the slayings occurred.
2-Both victims were alive shortly before 11 pm, according to witnesses statements. The bodies were found outside the car at 11.24 pm by a rancher's wife.
3-The Faraday youth was killed first, and the Jensen girl was gunned down when she attempted to dash to safety.
Lunblad explained the killer needed no artificial lighting in shooting the girl, since she was running on a plateau and her body was silhouetted against the sky. The boy's body was found just outside the right front door of the station wagon, while the lifeless form of the girl was discovered 28 feet to the rear of the vehicle. He had been shot once, executioner style, behind the left ear, while she was shot five times in the back, one of the slugs piercing the heart.

Lunblad earlier Sunday questioned a youthful acquaintance of Miss Jensen's said by witnesses to be jealous of young Faraday because of his recently developed friendship with the girl. "He produced what appears to be an ironclad alibi" the investigator said "At least I'm satisfied with his story for the present." He gave this theory of the shooting "I think they were ordered out of the car by gunpoint and when they didn't come out quickly, the killer fired a warning shot through the rear side window of the vehicle. They were in the front seat. I think this was just a threat to force them out of the car, and that both come out of the passenger side because the other three doors were locked. The assailant then shot the boy and when he fell, the girl started running and was killed as she ran." Lunblad added.
Today, the saddened families and friends of the young victims were to attend funeral services for them. Christian Science services will be held at Colonial Chapels at 11 am for Betty Lou, followed by entombment at Abbey Memorial Gardens. Funeral services for David will be at 2 pm in First Presbyterian Church, followed by inurnment at Tulocay Cemetery, Napa. Betty Lou, a junior at Hogan High School was the daughter of Mr and Mrs Verne Jensen, 123 Ridgewood Ct.
David, a senior at Vallejo High was the eldest son of Jean L Faraday, 1930 Sereno Dr and Thomas Faraday, Salinas.

The new evidence of a possible accomplice at the murder scene consists of a .38 caliber bullet hole in the roof panel of the Faraday station wagon. The hole is on the passenger side of the vehicle and is slightly forward of a .22 caliber bullet hole in the rear window on that side. Lunblad declined to speculate on the importance of the .38 hole. He did say Faraday's parents had said the hole had not been there before, and the hole appeared new to him.
Lunblad had previously said he thought the bullet had been fired through the window to speed the couple's exit from the vehicle. The .38 caliber bullet could have been fired for the same purpose.
It was also revealed for the first time that ten .22 caliber long rifle bullet casings were found at the murder scene. One slug was fired though the window, one was pumped into the head of Faraday and five were fired into the back of Miss Jensen. The killer apparently missed with three shots.
A Christian Science service for Betty Lou was held today at Colonial Chapels. High Martin Niemoller was the reader. Entombment was in Abbey Memorial Mausoleum. Pallbearers were Tom Barstow, Mike Belisle, Raymond Poliear, Wayne Kelly, Joe Muth, and Jay Shaw, all classmates of the deceased at Hogan High School. In the Times-Herald story of the murder investigation this morning, two paragraphs were inadvertently left out. They concerned a youth who fled the murder scene about 9.30 pm Friday, when another car started to back toward him. The omitted paragraphs said:
"The youth said he had been for a ride with his girlfriend in her newly acquired sports car, and they parked in the wide area off Lake Herman Road near the pump station so he could acquaint himself with the car's controls and gadgets. While they were parked, he said, a car drove past them on the road and stopped."

The Sheriff's sergeant's theory is that bullets were fired into the car, the doors of which were locked, in order to frighten the two young occupants to leave it. The Faraday boy, he thinks, was killed as he emerged through the right door, and the girl was slain as she attempted to flee their assailant. "We had the car stripped," Lunblad said "and the slug that was fired through the roof was found embedded in the upholstery. With it, we can account for eight of the ten bullets fired."
He said an automatic weapon, probably a rifle, was used in the gruesome murders. But he is no nearer than he was Saturday to knowing who fired the fatal shots. "We can pin down the time of the killings to within a space of two minutes, assuming all witnesses watches were accurate" he said. "And we know they occurred after 11 pm."
The bodies of the two teenagers were found at 11.24 pm by Mrs Manuel Borges, who relayed her discovery to the Benicia Police Department.
While Lunblad conceded he did not yet have a "solid suspect" in the case, he declared the investigation to date "has helped us learn who didn't do it," meaning he had been able to eliminate many persons previously considered possible suspects.
A funeral service for the Faraday youth, a senior at Vallejo High School, was held at 2 pm Monday in First Presbyterian Church, with an honor guard of 60 of his fellow Scouts and Explorers on hand. Rites were conducted by the Rev James O Hulin, associate pastor, and inurnment followed in Tulocay Cemetery, Napa. Active pallbearers were Douglas R Dick, Douglas Benne, Thomas V O' Donnell, David Budd, Harold Pierce and Bernie Johnson.

Funeral services were held yesterday for the victims of the double murder. They were David Faraday, 17, son of an electric company employee and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, daughter of a Government worker. The couple were shot at a lovers lane parking spot on the Lake Herman Road, ten miles east of Vallejo. The teenagers had driven there on their first date. "There was no indication of a robbery motive or a sexual assault" Captain Smith said. "It was all so needless."
Lunblad previously said the two were shot to death by a killer who forced them to leave their parked car by firing two bullets into it. The boy, he theorized, was killed almost immediately after he left the car by the right passenger door, and the girl was shot five times in the back as she tried to escape the slayer. Lunblad was mum on the subject of possible suspects he has in mind. "We have a great deal of information" he said, "and we are getting more all the time. We expect to have an answer before very much longer."
The investigation led by Detective Sergeant Leslie B Lunblad, seemingly had settled down to a painstaking and time consuming probe of all evidence and clues. However, drawing the most attention, apparently, was the effort to determine who if anyone among the acquaintances of the young high schoolers had the motive and the opportunity to murder them.

Both youngsters were shot when they emerged from the Faraday station wagon. The boy was killed with a small bullet fired behind his left ear at close range, and the girl was shot five times as she attempted to flee the murderer.
Two small caliber slugs were fired into the car, apparently to force the couple to leave it. Lunblad said there was no robbery and the girl was not molested.

Sheriff's Det Sgt Leslie B Lunblad today asked all such persons to contact him immediately. He's interested in any other vehicle you saw on that road, any person, any shots you may have heard, in fact any activity that may have occurred. Lunblad, who spent his Christmas and is working up to 20 or more hours daily trying to solve the murders of David L Faraday, 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, 16, continued his investigation today. He declined to say whether he had a prime suspect in the double slaying. And he continued to rule out sex and robbery motives as far as evidence so far revealed is concerned. He did say witnesses placed the young high school couple, who had been dating for only two weeks, at the murder scene for about an hour before the slayings. But he wants more information about what occurred just off Lake Herman Road five miles northeast of Vallejo last Friday night.
Other fund-raising activities such as car washes and candy sales, are planned. The students also will meet with the Vallejo City Council for assistance in the drive. They have cleared the legal aspects of the drive with the Collections and Permits Division of the Vallejo Police Department. If the reward money is not claimed after one year, it will be used in a memorial scholarship. Jim Gaul, a Hogan student originated the drive. Other planning committee members are Jackie Rasmusson, Pat Scarpa, Janet Owen and Donna Sexton, all of Hogan, and Amanda Green and Renee Jones, both of Vallejo High. Further details will be announced later.
Vallejoans who wish to donate to the cause may send checks to the finance office of either school. Checks should be made payable to the Jensen-Faraday Reward Fund. Faraday, 17, of 1930 Sereno Drive, was a Vallejo High student. Miss Jensen, 16, of 131 Ridgewood Ct, attended Hogan. They were slain on Lake Herman Road Dec 20.

Now nearly 100 days later, sheriff's investigators concede they are only a bit nearer to the solution of the crime than they were when they arrived on the scene of the grisly slayings that cold Friday night in December. Sheriff's Sgt Leslie Lunblad worked nearly around the clock in the first days following the murders, attempting by some means to produce the clue that would lead him to the killer. He hasn't found it. "There isn't a day that goes by that I don't work on it" the veteran investigator declared. "I've got a case file about four inches thick-all the information I have been able to turn up-and I have a fairly sizeable evidence locker."
The horrifying crime may very well be the most celebrated murder mystery currently under investigation in California, and Lunblad has received aid and offers of it from a score of law enforcement agencies in the state. Those which have given him particularly large measures of support include the Vallejo Police Department, his own sheriff's department, the Benicia Police Department, the Napa and Sanoma County sheriff's departments, and the Fairfield Police Department. " An investigator in San Diego forwarded me information on a case in which he was working which had marked similarity to these two killings, but there was no connection" Lunblad revealed. In the course of his investigation, Lunblad has filed reports of interviews he and Deputy Russ Butterbach have had with at least 50 persons, many of them friends of the slain pair, "I guess we've talked to at least 100 people on various matters, some of them several times" he added. But for all the searching and probing, he has yet to come up with one feasible suspect, and this might well be because the murders have all the aspects of being motiveless, and possibly were committed by a hopelessly deranged person.
The youngsters parents are in complete agreement with this theory. They can think of no one who conceivably hated their children to an extent that would result in cold-blooded murder. Cold-blooded it was: David was killed with a single slug fired behind his left ear. Betty Lou was shot five times in the back as she tried to flee from the assailant. "It's one of those things that just leaves me speechless" said David's mother Mrs Jean Faraday, who talked in her home at 1930 Sereno Dr. "I have been able to think of nothing that would point to David. He was easygoing and friendly, never seemed to have any trouble in school."

"Last summer, he discovered girls" Mrs Faraday reminisced "but he hadn't done much dating- for one thing he could use the car only when I didn't need it to go to work." She is employed in the passenger reservations department at Travis Air Force Base. She said that when he did take the car for a date "he was good about observing curfews" (12.30 on Friday nights). "So I didn't think a thing about it that night. I was asleep when the phone rang at 3 am."
Mrs Faraday conversed with total composure, although the wounds haven't healed and won't. The same was true of the Jensens. Nothing in his 21 years as an army officer had prepared Lt Col. Verne Jensen for the shock of his younger daughter's death, however. He retired in 1963, decided to remain in Vallejo and now is employed as supply officer for the General Services Administration in San Francisco. The Jensens, with their elder daughter, Melodie, live at 123 Ridgewood Ct. " I don't feel vindictive" he mused "but I am apprehensive. I feel some nut is on the loose."
His words could have been uttered by Mrs Faraday, who said her principal concern that the killer be found was not based on vengeance but on her fears there may be further victims. "And, he'll find it easier the next time."
She said the other three Faraday children Debra, Robert and Steven "have handled the situation very well, I think. Presumably they have long and happy lives ahead of them, and they've got to live them."
The Jensens' lives remain clouded by the tragedy. "We'd like to have her back" Mrs Jensen said wistfully. "It took a lot to bring her this far."
At Hogan High Betty was an excellent student, a junior, she was hopeful of winning an art scholarship and she worked extremely well in several forms, some of which were displayed as I talked to the family. All three shook their heads negatively when asked if they had any ideas to the perpetrator. "We know he's a nut, but what kind of nut" Mrs Jensen replied. She added she was dubious about anything worthwhile could be gained in once again turning the spotlight on the murder case. "But we'll do anything we can to help" she declared.
As for the investigation's progress, Lunblad said there has been considerably more than might be gleaned from news accounts of it. "If I talk to a suspect, I'll know positively whether he was there that night" he said cryptically. Beyond that, he would not comment.