THE CABIN IN THE WOODS MURDERS

Article BY LORI BELL

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The gruesome discovery of three battered and mutilated bodies and a missing child began a decades – long investigation into a case that still provokes conspiracy and controversy. It wasn’t just the shock of murder in a tranquil American town, but the ferocious brutality and the mutilated state of their bodies. This was more than killing.

Plumas County and the town of Qunicy, CA, never felt the same after the triple homicide and kidnapping in Cabin 28 at the Keddie Resort, on April 11, 1981. In the decades since, residents have described feeling haunted by what happened to Glenna Sharp age 36, John Sharp age 15, Tina Sharp age 12, and Dana Wingate age 17.

As a resort, Keddie rented out 33 cabins or offered single rooms in the lodge. By the late 1970s and into the early 1980s, however, the resort had fallen onto hard times. Owner Gary Mollah began renting out the cabins to low – income families and while by no means a disastrous policy, it is said small – time criminality followed.

In November 1980 a recently single mother, Glenna Sharp arrived in town with her brood and moved into Cabin 28. Her children ranged in age. John, Sheila, and Tina were teenagers. Ricky and Greg were aged 10 and 5.

After the murders took place residents gossiped about Glenna. The woman was deemed a bit of a loner. It is said she let her kids run wild and residents postulated that a lack of parental skills led the family on the road to ruin.

As the sole parent in a new neighborhood, Glenna had attracted the attention of several men in the area. One of these men was John Boubede, a decidedly shady fellow, who would later become a prime suspect in the slayings.

If the Sharps were far from a model of family unity, it did not make them bad people. For a mother to lose her grip on the situation is not uncommon. The FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit, however, declared the victims as “high risk” individuals. This belief stemmed from associations with crooks.

As deadly events conspired against the unknowing Sharps, the night began so ordinarily as to render what happened not only a tragedy beyond words, but horrendously perverse. Some of the cabins were mere feet apart. Sheila had arranged a sleepover at the Seabolts next door, Glenna was at home with Greg, Rick, Tina, and their friend Justin came over to spend the night.

They played and watched television, until they went off to sleep between 8pm and 10pm. When they awoke the next morning to see Sheila ordering them to follow her out of the bedroom window, their lives would change forever.

Sheila Sharp returned from the sleepover at the Seabolts, right next door to Cabin 28. It was 7:45 am. She walked the short journey, literally a few yards, and opened the front door. She found her mother, her brother, and his friend, Dana, lying close together, dead in the living room.

Sheila ran back to the Seabolts and with their help, managed to pull Greg, Ricky, and Justin through a bedroom window, so they did not have to see the state of the living room. Unable to use the phone. They ran over to the caretaker’s cabin, number 25, and made a call to the sheriff’s office.

The cops arrived approximately ten minutes later, around 8:00. Police entered the crime scene and were overwhelmed by the grotesque nature of what they saw. The victims were not only killed, but mutilated and beaten beyond recognition. In later years, the Plumas County sheriff’s department would come in for much criticism for their handling of the case, which included neglecting potential DNA evidence and failing to secure a crime scene properly.

Sheila provided the police with information about her mother, her brother, and sister, as well as Tina being physically absent. Sheila reported that she had not seen her the night before, and assumed she’d been out playing with friends. Also missing from Cabin 28 was a shoebox Tina had made for a class project. She had a particular attachment to this shoebox. A red nylon jacket and shoes were gone too.

The police devoted 4,000 man – hours and eight investigators to solving the murders, but the mysteries only seemed to deepen. Nothing could be tied together to fit any particular scenario. The lack of forced entry and Tina’s disappearance continued to stump authorities.

The groundbreaking Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI pitched in with their rather surprising version of events. John Douglas profiled the potential suspect, too, but even he remained cautious as to the likelihood of the scenario’s veracity.

Douglas also noted that Dana Wingate had a troubled home life, was in foster care, had been known to commit crimes such as burglary, and displayed antisocial behavior. Wingate also had a penchant for cruelty to animals. Douglas concluded Dana was therefore likely to know the criminal element in the Plumas County area and be involved in illegal activities.

Of the crime scene, Douglas stated the killings were an ‘afterthought ‘ and not premeditated. He deduced this by the materials and weapons used in the murders which were a steak knife, a claw hammer and bindings derived from the home.

The big twist in the five – page report is that Douglas postulated the key involvement of Tina in the crimes. He also stated Glenna and John Sharp knew their murderer. Glenna was covered in a blanket from her bed. Douglas believed that was crucial to interpreting the scene. He felt the crime was committed by a man involved somehow with the younger Sharp and murdered Glenna, Johnny and Dana, who were never a target, but in the wrong place at the wrong time, out of warped love and sense of duty toward the child.

The killer(s) entered Cabin 28, tied up Glenna, Johnny, and Dana with duct tape and electrical cord, stabbed and beat to death with a knife and a claw hammer. Glenna had been gagged with a blue bandana and her panties. They were embedded deep within her mouth and throat.

The killer(s) tied her up with two types of electric cord, one colored brown and the other black. White adhesive had also been used to bound her hands and ankles. She suffered multiple bruises and lacerations to the face, stab wounds to the throat (severing her larynx), the chest area and her teeth were fractured. Her lounging dress was saturated with blood. Her body was next to Dana’s, directly in front of the sofa.

Johnny was found closest to the front door, his hands and feet tied with the same kinds of duct tape and electrical cord. A bent steak knife was found very close to his body. The head and face were severely beaten. The brain had swelled from the trauma of the blows. He was stabbed in the throat - the right carotid artery, vein, and larynx were cut – and his chest also received puncture wounds from a knife. The right orbital bone was fractured.

Dana’s murder differed on several fronts. He was not stabbed, but died from asphyxia brought on by strangulation. As with the others, his teeth were fractured and there was a swelling of the brain from repeated blows to the head. When his body was discovered, his head was placed on a sofa cushion and his arms and legs were not tied up like the others. Dana had an electrical and white adhesive tape on the left arm and the left ankle of his hiking boots, but they were not connected with the right arm or leg.

The FBI summed up – much to the shock of the surviving family – that Tina may have taken part or aided the killer(s) in the activity that night. But when it comes to the Keddie Murders, the lack of a clear motive and the array of theories muddied the waters.

Tina disappeared from the face of the earth for three years, until partial remains were recovered ( the skull and detached lower mandible ) in 1984. This resolution of sorts offered too few solutions. In the absence of the truth, the murders became swamped in wild tales involving drug trafficking, the Mafia, hired assassins, sex rings and all sorts of sordid nastiness.

Martin Smartt and John Boubede were the prime suspects in the killings. A cook by trade, Smartt served two tours in ‘Nam and believed his experiences of war left deep psychological scars. Like many soldiers over there, he took advantage of the easy access to drugs and returned to the US like a five-star lunatic. One time, he threatened to kill his brother and blow up his parents’ house. His behavior upon rotating back to the world was erratic, violent and unpredictable. He also routinely threatened the lives of his wife and children.

Smartt’s propensity to anger quickly and act violently towards others, even his nearest and dearest, as well as a lack of a solid alibi during the night of April 11 and into the early hours of April 12, created suspicion among folk. His wife’s doubts about him stemmed from an abusive nature, and lightening quick temper and the fact she thought he was more than capable of committing murder.

A month before the killings took place, Smartt befriended John Boubede, while attending a hospital for veterans, in Reno, Nevada. Smartt invited him to move into the Smartt’s cabin, numbered 26, without any prior notification, and he became a fixture in the household. They became bosom buddies.

Boubede was a convicted criminal with a rap sheet including breaking and entering, home invasion, bank robbery and allegedly he had links to the Chicago Mafia. He was a bad egg and certainly not the kind of man you bring into a sleepy rural community.

Marilyn Smartt set off for a night out at the Backdoor Bar, their local watering hole. Her husband insisted on inviting Glenna, so that his buddy Boubede had some female company. Boubede had take a shine to Glenna, but she didn’t want to go and told Marilyn so. Later on, though Marilyn is a somewhat unreliable witness, she told the police the rejection left her husband and Boubede stewing and in a grumpy mood. But would such a slight kick off a mass killing?

Smartt and Boubede were interviewed by the police on April 13 and gave statements. These interviews were taped and transcribed. In them, both men related their comings and goings during the night. The accounts are evasive and possibly total fiction after a certain point. Incredibly, when such holes in their statements appeared, detectives conducting the interviews, failed to recognize them.

Smartt concocted a tale about two guys he’d never seen before, drinking in the Backdoor bar who looked odd. No other witnesses interviewed recalled these two men. Boubede played the ‘I'm new in town and don’t know nothing’ card. Acting dumb worked for him. Later, Boubede was driven to a local bus station and he left town for Klamath Falls, Oregon. Smartt remained and undertook a polygraph test on April 17, passed it and left Keddie for good.

For Sheila Sharp and others directly affected, the killings continued to plague their lives. Like a wound, it can fester and spread. The Keddie Murders rank as one of California’s greatest unsolved crimes and one of the most baffling. The truth may never be known.