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RICHARD GRINELL, COVENTRY, ENGLAND
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THE MURDER OF ELIZABETH ERNSTEIN

1/4/2019

 
The Zodiac Killer stated in the March 13th 1971 'Los Angeles' letter "I do have to give them credit for stumbling across my riverside activity, but they are only finding the easy ones, there are a hell of a lot more down there". The November 29th 1966 'Confession' letter stated "She is not the first and she will not be the last. I lay awake nights thinking about my next victon. May'be she will be the beautiful blond that babysits near the little store and walks down the dark alley each evening about seven. Maybe she will be the shapely blue eyed brunett that said xxx no when I asked her for a date in high school" and "Beware....I am stalking your girls now". So, in the interest of impartiality, we shall look at a murder in the transition period between Riverside and the emergence of the Zodiac Killer.  
PictureElizabeth Lurene Ernstein
On March 19th 1968 Elizabeth Lurene Ernstein (14) was heading back to her home in Redlands, near San Bernardino from Moore Junior High School in Mentone. The young, brown-haired girl, wearing a blue dress with white flowers, dark olive corduroy reversible coat and tennis shoes was last seen leaving the school at approximately 3:40 pm. The Desert Sun newspaper described her route home: "Elizabeth's school day passed without incident. She attended her last class, then left school at 3:40 pm, to walk home, a two-mile route through blossoming orange groves. She never arrived home. Somewhere along the lonely street, Elizabeth Ernstein vanished. A Redlands businessman thought he saw a girl resembling Elizabeth walking toward the corner of the street on which she lived". 

Her body was discovered in 1969 in a shallow grave near Wrightwood, 33 miles northwest of Redlands (as the crow flies). "Located in a pine covered valley in the 
San Gabriel Mountains, the area was first developed as cattle ranches in the 19th century by Nathan and Truman Swarthout, then later the main ranch, owned by Sumner Wright was broken up into residential and commercial lots and by the 1920s a community took roots. Early ski enthusiasts discovered the north facing slopes of the San Gabriels above the Swarthout Valley. Until 1937 the ski area, originally known as Big Pines were part of a Los Angeles County Park". Wikipedia. The murderer had clearly chosen a remote location to conceal her body, likely traveling Interstate 215 and 15 from Redlands. 

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Elizabeth Ernstein's remains were unidentified until an exhumation in 2011, when DNA was matched to her younger brother, Jeff, finally completing the last but one missing piece of the jigsaw - who was the murderer of Elizabeth Ernstein? There is little, if anything, to connect this to the murder of Cheri Jo Bates in Riverside on October 30th 1966, or the Zodiac Killer, however, it is an unsolved murder in which the family of Elizabeth would undoubtedly like to see resolved. The assumed location of her "vanishing" is situated 13 miles east (as the crow flies) from the alleyway where Cheri Jo Bates was discovered on the Halloween morning of 1966, and occurred 11 months after the Bates letters claiming "there will be more".
Judith
1/4/2019 03:15:52 pm

Any potential DNA evidence from the crime scene? I wonder how many cases where the evidence was not collected nor cared for properly.

Richard
1/5/2019 12:21:47 am

She had been buried for about a year in a shallow grave, so unlikely any perpetrator DNA was found.

Shawn
1/4/2019 06:30:46 pm

By what means was she murdered?

Richard
1/5/2019 12:20:11 am

Investigators did not reveal how Ernstein died, but they said that it is a murder case.

James Gale
5/20/2020 10:50:50 pm

I was a very close friend of Elizabeth Ernstein in 1967 and early 1968. About December of 1967 or January of 1968, she called my house where my sister answered the phone. I was gone at the time. Elizabeth asked my sister to tell me she wanted me to come meet her about 1 a.m.at the Redlands Community Hospital. She said to meet her "outside in front." So when l found out, l had a friend drive me near the hospital, letting me off on Barton Rd. I walked to the hospital and waited for a long time near the front of the hospital, but l never did see Elizabeth. I waited up in a tree near the front of the hospital.

Elizabeth would have had to walk about 2 miles or so from her place to the hospital.

I couldn't call Elizabeth because her big sister didn't like me talking to her and would hang up the phone. So l usually had to wait for Eluzabeth to call me. But she didn't call, and early that March (about the 7th) l left on a hitch-hiking trip to New York. I was gone until September. When l returned, l found out l had been drafted into the army and l also discovered that Elizabeth had disappeared. Sadly, that is the last l knew about her.

When l was in the army, in 1969, l was contacted by detectives who asked me if l knew where Elizabeth was. I was shocked to hear the detectives tell me that Elizabeth's parents thought she might have run off with me and been staying with me.

It wasn't until many years later l learned that her body had been found in Wrightwood but had been misidentified until almost 40 years later. I do hope and pray the killer is found and punished.

Christina Gale
5/20/2020 11:16:32 pm

Why hast the fbi linked this murder more with the 1968 prospect park murder of also I believe a 14 year old that vanished and later was found. My father was a friend of Elizabeth’s so I have been always so interested in this little girls story. I’m a true crime fanatic and just by reading different facts the cases should at the least be compared. Prospect park was around where the Ernsteins lived at the time from what I understand from my dad. and also orange groves were part of the areas. I just hope one day it resolved for the family


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    The Zodiac Killer may have given us the answer almost word-for-word when he wrote PS. The Mt. Diablo Code concerns Radians & # inches along the radians. The code solution identified was Estimate: Four Radians and Five Inches To read more, click the image.
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