SOUTH OF MARYSVILLE

5/2/2020

Marysville Police Department. Click image to enter Google maps.

I have found a little bit more information on the April 22nd 1986 murders of Laotian couple Koy Ien Saechao (48) and Choy Fow Saelee (40), who were gunned down by 15 rounds of small caliber fire on Highway 99, near downtown Sacramento. They were traveling back from a Merced County hospital, likely in the dark, early hours of Tuesday, when they were either ushered to the side of the freeway by a trailing motorist, or happened upon as they were parked up in their 4-door, light-blue 1983 Mercury. They had been mercilessly struck by a fusillade of shots through the driver side window of their vehicle and discovered upright in their seats by a person described as a "hitchhiker" in the Sacramento Bee and Santa Cruz Sentinel newspapers. He described finding the couple shortly after sunrise, at 6:30 am. Therefore, it is extremely likely the couple were murdered sometime during the early hours of April 22nd 1986. This crime bears the hallmarks of both the questioned Kathleen Johns abduction and the attack at Blue Rock Springs on July 4th 1969.

In two newspaper reports, the "hitchhiker" is described as notifying an East Nicolaus Highway Patrol officer of, what he described as an accident. There are further newspaper reports stating that the "hitchhiker" informed authorities in Marysville, Yuba County. However, we are led to believe this "hitchhiker" was never traced. These two accounts of a "hitchhiker" reporting the couple dead in their vehicle to an East Nicolaus officer and to authorities in Marysville, California, appears to suggest that this person was just a concerned citizen traveling from, or through Sacramento to Marysville on a direct route from south to north. The notion of a nefarious criminal (or Zodiac Killer) twice playing games with officialdom, appears the less likely narrative regarding the murders of Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee.

Assuming the "hitchhiker" reported his discovery of the couple at the 316 6th St, Marysville Police Department, then he would have reported their demise just 1.5 miles from their residence in Dorman Avenue, Yuba City. Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee would have been only 40 minutes from home.

The distance between the crime scene and East Nicolaus is approximately 22 miles. Had the "hitchhiker" continued north to Marysville Police Department, this would have been a further 15 miles. It appears that this person was just a helpful citizen, notifying authorities of his tragic discovery, rather than a Zodiac Killer playing "cat and mouse" games with the police. However, the newspaper reports may have been the inspiration behind the author of the May 6th 1986 "Zodiac" letter, claiming "The Blue Meannies almost caught me". This may exempt the "hitchhiker" being responsible for the crime, but doesn't necessarily preclude the Zodiac Killer being the orchestrator behind the double murder of the Laotian couple.

One can only speculate with such scant material on this case, that Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee had likely traveled back from the Merced County Hospital in the early hours of Tuesday, April 22nd 1986 after visiting their son, because he may have been receiving specialist care. Hence the 155 mile (2 1/2 hour) journey from Dorman Avenue to the Merced hospital. It would have been fairly dark on their return journey along Highway 99, when the killer struck. The exact time of their departure from the Merced hospital and time of their murder has not yet been nailed down, but it appears to be have been sometime before sunrise on Tuesday morning.

We have to weigh up the probability of the couple opting to take a rest by the side of Highway 99 just 40 minutes from home, with the likelihood they were flagged down by a trailing motorist, akin to the ruse supposedly orchestrated on Kathleen Johns near Modesto in 1970. This, allied to the style of the attack at Blue Rock Springs Park on July 4th 1969, is enough to pause for thought. Exactly two weeks after their murders, a letter arrived at the San Francisco Chronicle offices on May 6th 1986 claiming responsibilty for the crime, stating "I want you to know about my latest slaves I collected about two weeks ago up by Sacramento. They were killed by a freeway".

This letter has been unequivocally linked to the author of the October 28th 1987 letter, which has been equally linked to the July 31st 1969 Vallejo Times-Herald letter, detailing the murders at Blue Rock Springs Park and Lake Herman Road in Vallejo and Benicia respectively. This indicates that the origin of the 1986 "Freeway" letter lies squarely at the hands of the Zodiac Killer. Whether he was the actual murderer of Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee is an entirely different matter. But the crime itself, bearing in mind the limited publicity it received, appeared rather a fortuitous discovery by the Zodiac Killer had he not been present on Highway 99 in the early morning hours of April 22nd 1986.

28 Comments

5/2/2020 12:58:51 pm

A few random thoughts about this topic:

-The crime was committed on a Tuesday, unlike the confirmed zodiac crimes which were committed on weekends or holidays. Of course, he could have been retired by 1986.

-The couple was Asian, unlike the confirmed victims who were white. However, it should be noted that there was an influx of Asian immigrants into California in the 1980’s. Further, a possible zodiac letter many years later expressed a disdain for Asian bus drivers in San Francisco.

-It seems odd that a hitchhiker would be walking on a freeway. Also, how did this same hitchhiker end up at the Marysville police station? Did he hitchhike his way there? Maybe he wasn’t a hitchhiker and had access to a vehicle. Also, I wonder if either the California Highway Patrol or the Marysville PD kept his name?

-Why did the hitchhiker mention an “accident”? How did he see an accident, but not a double shooting?

-Kepping with the proximity to bodies of water pattern, there is a “Lake” Mindon RV resort not too far from East Nicolaus.

-Lastly, it’s entirely plausible that the “hitchhiker” was truly a hitchhiker, who was picked up by the nice couple and decided to shoot them for whatever reason and almost got caught by the CHP “blue Meannies” afterwards.

Richard

5/2/2020 01:31:33 pm

The hitchhiker angle is a difficult one to wrap your head round. I can imagine a hitchhiker flagging doen vehicles close to a service station or on-ramp, but in the middle of a freeway not very likely. Although the exact location of their vehicle would help. If he was flagging down vehicles near an on-ramp, by an intersection of Highway 99 and the I-5, then had he noticed the couple in their vehicle and approached for a lift. Realizing they were dead, flagged down another motorist (who he told what he had seen). Then asked the motorist to drop him off at Marysville PD so he could report it. On the way, they flagged down an East Nicolaus patrolman and notified him. It's such a confusing story Mo, because we are relying on newspaper articles to attempt to thread the story together. The motorist who picked him up near the crime scene may have resided in East Nicolaus and dropped him off there, upon which he flagged down and notified a highway patrol officer and described it as an accident. Then he flagged down a second motorist who took him to Marysville, where he officially informed police. I cannot explain why he may have mistook a double shooting as an accident. Maybe he just saw shattered glass and blood, and for whatever reason didn't notice the spent casings. Maybe he knew it was likely murder - felt obliged to report it - but downplayed it because he didn't want to get involved, hence it seems they never took his details. The newspaper article saying they were still trying to trace the hitchhiker was released in the Santa Cruz Sentinel on 24th April 1986. Maybe they eventually tracked him down from the Marysville report, but this update was never released in following newspaper articles. Either way, if this character is an innocent hitchhiker who just stumbled across the bodies, we are still looking for the real killer. If the Zodiac Killer was responsible and wanted to report these murders, he would unlikely have done it twice in person. He would have telephoned an ominous message. If the Zodiac Killer wasn't responsible for these murders, then he got extremely lucky noticing a double murder that received few column inches, mainly in the Sacramento Bee (and seemingly wasn't reported in the Chronicle), that resembled possibly three of his previous crimes. If nothing else, this crime deserves a closer look, especially because it has a "Zodiac" letter connected to it.

Richard

5/2/2020 01:40:20 pm

If the hitchhiker had been picked up by the couple, then he would have had to exit the vehicle and shoot them through the driver side window. But to then continue his south to north journey informing a highway patrol officer and authorities in Marysville of the "accident" would be bordering on lunacy or bravado. My guess is the killer buggered off pretty sharpish and vanished into the night.

Scott Norton

5/2/2020 03:56:52 pm

Couple of thoughts. I think substituting 'transient' for 'hitchhiker' might yield a more specific image of what we're dealing with. Second, I seriously doubt the hitchhiker was never traced. He was a witness in a murder investigation and I have to believe that homicide detective would at least try to track him down. Which dept. was the lead on this, Marysville PD? Has anyone ever seen a police report? Finally who the hell looks at a "fuselage" of bullets and concludes it's an "accident"?

Richard

5/2/2020 04:36:43 pm

I don't know it was Marysville PD Scott, I am filling in the blanks of an inadequate story. I am suspecting that "he reported what he had seen to authorities in Marysville", could be "he reported what he had seen to the police in Marysville." Obviously, you wouldn't report two dead bodies in a car to the butcher's or a supermarket. I'm having a wild stab in the dark that "authorities = police. The crime happened by Sacramento, so I guess Sacramento took the lead as it was their jurisdiction. I cannot therefore believe a transient/hitchhiker/man walked into Marysville PD reporting either an accident or shooting, with two dead people in a car, and the officer in charge said "thanks and goodbye" without taking his details. Maybe he supplied a false name and address, or was a transient hitchhiker as you alluded, who subsequently couldn't be traced because he had no fixed abode. Nobody has seen a police report and I have contacted Sacramento PD on three occasions with absolutely no response. I don't believe they have ever connected the "Zodiac" letter to this crime. I found the connection in 2013 and have tried in vain to find extra information from the police, however, they apparently don't seem interested or haven't got the time. I just don't understand the disparity between the attention paid to the Ray Davis case and this one. Both are extremely relevant, yet one is introduced with trumpets and tickertape blasted from every rooftop, while this case is accompanied by the sound of crickets, despite equally (if not better) paralleled with known Zodiac crimes and accompanied by a letter. If anybody else wants to attempt to contact Sacramento PD, be my guest. Unfortunately, I am not going to waste my time anymore. Don't mean to sound bitter Scott, but sometimes you just get tired of it all.

Richard

5/2/2020 11:59:08 pm

"An unidentified hitchhiker was sought for questioning in connection with the killings. The hitchhiker had flagged down a California Highway Patrol officer in East Nicolaus shortly after the killings to report an auto accident where the couple were found.". This was featured in the Appeal-Democrat in 2001.

mramirez

5/3/2020 12:59:24 am

"I seriously doubt the hitchhiker was never traced" ..LOL this has to be one of the daftest assertions I have seen on the internet to date.

Scott Noton

5/3/2020 03:23:47 pm

But he wasn't a hitchhiker, that's the point.

Ansar

5/2/2020 04:55:54 pm

Do we know if the hitchhiker literally showed up at Marysville police station in person to report his findings? Could he not have done it on the phone? It seems a bit bizarre that his name at least was not noted down
If he went there and spoke to police. Usually that’s the first thing they ask for

Richard

5/2/2020 11:48:07 pm

The newspaper cutting says " The two victims, Choy Fow Saelee and Koy Ien Saechao were found dead in their car by a hitchhiker about 6:30 am. Sometime later the hitchhiker reported what he had seen to authorities in Marysville". There is nothing exclusionary in this newspaper article that suggests he couldn't have rang in by phone, but the impression I get from reading it, is of a person who reported it in person. Would it have been necessary to report over the phone he was a hitchhiker, or could he have just stated he was driving along Highway 99 and just noticed an accident - then hung up? Because there was a report of him notifying an East Nicolaus highway patrol officer in person shortly before, who obviously described him as a hitchhiker, the notion of him continuing to Marysville and reporting it in person is an easy conclusion to make, albeit, it doesn't exclude the possibility that it was reported to authorities by phone. There may have been a phone call after the LHR shootings, described as a "crank call" by Pierre Bidou. We don't know (if a phone call was made here) it wasn't treated in similar regard. That possible call at LHR was described as an "accident" by Pierre Bidou. It's a difficult one Ansar.

Ansar

5/3/2020 01:52:33 am

I wonder if the East Nicolaus Highway Patrol officer made any note of the hitchhiker in his report or even took a mental note of what he looked like, his height,race, etc. Although i imagine trying to find that out would be near impossible now given how hard it is to even get any extra basic information about this case. Whether the "hitchhiker" was involved in the actual crime or not, i still lean heavily on the 86 letter being from the Zodiac. I don't know why more people in the Zodiac community who's suspects were still alive at that time have not looked into it and seem to have just disregarded it as fake by default.

Richard

5/3/2020 02:28:15 am

I think that is about it Ansar, people think 1986, 1987, 1990 etc = fake. The initial sceptical meter is set higher for later letters. To believe a copycat of say the 1987 letter, hauled himself down to the library and scrawled through every San Francisco Chronicle newspaper article from 1969 to 1970 in hopes of finding the one envelope ever published and then converted this Dripping Pen envelope into a Vallejo Times Herald envelope using the full address and identical wording from the 1969 Vallejo Times Herald envelope, in almost identical handwriting, rather than believing that the authors are likely one and the same, requires so many more hoops to jump through. Therefore, by connecting the 1987 and 1986 letters together, we validate Zodiac as the author of the 1986 letter. When the author of the 1987 letter couldn't just sit on the internet and say "I will find the envelope from 1969 and just copy it", he only had the November 16th 1970 Chronicle article with "Chronicle" envelope and Graysmith's book with this and the L.A. Times envelope. But converting these into the 1987 envelope so convincingly is another matter entirely. A lazy copycat would have noticed in Graysmith's book that Zodiac only addressed the Vallejo Times Herald as Vallejo Times, when he mailed the letters to the Chronicle and Examiner, yet he still addressed the 1987 envelope with the full name of the newspaper, and got everything else correct, even using the same "Flag Over Capitol" stamp used in the unpublished 1986 letter, along with the "crack proof" introduction. The most realistic conclusion is the author of the 69, 86 and 87 letters were one person.

If the instinct is to go no deeper than handwriting, then it's virtually impossible to conclude anything. Handwriting experts can't agree among themselves.

Richard

5/3/2020 02:38:55 am

Bearing in mind this was a double murder, one would have expected Sacramento Police Department to have broadcast an appeal for any motorists that picked up any hitchhiker along Highway 99 or the I-5 on Tuesday morning. If he found his way from just north of Sacramento to Marysville, then he must have been picked up by somebody. Of course, this relies on the right person hearing the appeal.

Richard

5/3/2020 02:50:22 am

There was extensive coverage regarding the missing Donna Lass and the murder of Judith Hakari, not to mention David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen before Zodiac announced himself, yet this was a double murder with equal, if not more brutality, yet this crime received very limited coverage. I can't help thinking that if the murders on Highway 99 had involved white college kids, they would have received far more attention. Call me cynical, but I detect a racial component to the coverage of these murders.

5/3/2020 05:56:04 am

I think you’ve made quite a compelling case on how these letters were all sent by the same person Richard.

Also, there is apparently a newspaper in Marysville, CA that has been in business for a very long time. Maybe one of their staff journalists can be solicited into looking at a possible Marysville connection to a potential Zodiac killing?

https://www.appeal-democrat.com

mailto:[email protected]

Richard

5/3/2020 06:31:30 am

I have just contacted them Mo, asking if they have additional information on the case.

Richard

5/4/2020 10:56:01 am

They were courteous enough to reply, but sadly no additional information.

Michael

5/3/2020 06:22:26 am

Richard, do you know if the Roger Kibbe, the so called I5 strangler, ever was suspicious for the Zodic killing ? He allegedly started his killing career when he was in his mid fourties in nothern California what I consider quite odd as serial killer don't start their career at that age. Her was born 1939....

Richard

5/3/2020 06:49:58 am

I have heard him mentioned before Michael, but not often. He was known as the I-5 Strangler who targeted lone women. He was a kidnapper who then bound and raped his victims. I see the crossover in respect to Freeway crimes, although little else with respect to this crime or Zodiac. It's not impossible that he could deviate from his usual MO, but I find it unlikely. He would have been 38 years of age during his first known murder of Lou Ellen Burleigh. He would have been 46 years of age when he murdered Lora Heedick on April 21st 1986, just one day before the Koy Ien Saechao and Choy Fow Saelee murders. He could in theory have began killing long before his first known victim, but if this was his first murder, I don't find it particularly unusual because I believe Zodiac was likely 39 or 40 when he began killing. All the eyewitnesses at PH gave an age of about 40. Two sets of eyewitnesses gave "about" or "around" 40, and Donald Fouke stated 35-45.

Scott Noton

5/3/2020 04:24:11 pm

More information.

"An officer with the Yuba-Sutter CHP said the witness [hitchhiker] obviously didn't reveal everything he saw. Police were still trying to find the witness late Wednesday so they could question him further." Sacramento Bee 24 April 1986.

"The hitchhiker, who has disappeared and is being sought for questioning, said there was a blue car with people inside bleeding and that they appeared to be dead." Sacramento Bee 27 April 1986 (contrasting the Saelee case with a truck driver that had been shot dead on an I-80 business loop).

"Law enforcement official would like to talk to the hitchhiker about the slayings but his whereabouts are unknown." Sacramento Bee 18 May 1986. (updating case and seeking public's input into it).

"A California parolee in a Texas jail cell is the focus of a 14 year old murder case in which a couple were gunned down on Highway 99 in Sacramento, police said. Devon Stuart Olson, 42, has provided enough details about the 1986 shootings of [Saechao and Saelee] to make him a possible suspect in the case Sacramento Homicide Lt. Sam Somers said." ... "One aspect of the case that troubled police at the time was a mysterious hitchhiker who alerted a CHP officer to the couple's car, claiming he witnessed a car wreck. The witness disappeared afterwards and was never found." Sacramento Bee 4 Jan. 2001 (also noting that Olson's statements would be compared to what was "put out in the newspapers at the time" about both the Saelee and the truck driver killings).

"Transient Arrested for Assault Claims Role in in 1986 Slayings". Odessa American (Odessa TX)--confirming Olson's statement to Texas police that he was involved in the the Saelee shooting.

Devon Stuart Olson was never charged for the Highway 99 murders as far as I can tell. Olson was born 5 Nov. 1958, the son of Clifford Olsen and Dorthy Hayball Olson. In 1993 he was living in Ft. Bragg, California. My information shows he died in Texas on 10 Sept. 2015 perhaps in prison.

Note that none of the articles suggest that Olson was himself the hitchhiker but of course he could have been.

Richard

5/3/2020 04:53:14 pm

Cheers Scott, I guess you've got newspapers.com then. Devon Stuart Olson claimed a total of 10 murders, none of which he could provide any unique details to. I believe the police disregarded his claims regarding the murders on April 22nd 1986.

Scott Norton

5/3/2020 05:33:21 pm

I use that site and a Library of Congress site Richard. Apart from Olson, who looks like a Central Casting whack job I think the important point is that the "hitchhiker" was never named or found despite efforts to do so. Given Zodiac's MO of self reporting crimes in their aftermath and your linkage of letters, it's an interesting alley to go down albeit a dark one. Do note that the killing of the truck driver, Jimmy Lee Rowe, a few days later was also never solved.

Richard

5/3/2020 11:06:58 pm

The Jimmy Lee Rowe murder was solved in 2016. Diana Creech was convicted in his murder. Two years after that meeting in a North Myrtle Beach police interview room, Sacramento Superior Court jurors on Thursday found Creech guilty of first-degree murder in Rowe’s death, putting to end a case that went unsolved for decades.

Creech, now 54, faces a potential sentence of 25 years to life in state prison at her Nov. 10 sentencing before Sacramento Superior Court Judge Cheryl Chun Meegan.

Ann

5/29/2024 10:21:18 pm

Do you have proof passed away in Texas on September 10,2015

Ann Warren

5/29/2024 10:24:41 pm

Devon mentioned to me He used to play hitchhiker when I was with him
I used to be with Devon from 1986-1991

Scott Noton

5/4/2020 03:22:50 pm

Wow Richard I had followed the Rowe murder for a while and did not know that. Good info. Safe to say LE determined Creech had nothing to do with the Laotian case?

Judith

5/4/2020 09:46:13 pm

To me, Zodiac is always killing Mom and Dad. But it is Mom who really needs to die.

Ann Warren

5/29/2024 10:19:36 pm

I used to go with Devon Stuart Olson, I know his parents, his sister they are all deceased.
Devon is capable of murder
How do I know
He tried to attempted murder on my person
Lucky I got away from
Like I did..

SOUTH OF MARYSVILLE

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