Map Drawn by Condemned Killer Wesley Shermantine Leads Searchers to the Remains of Cyndi Vanderheiden
Within days searchers found a second set of remains and then more than 300 bones in an abandoned well near Linden, California.
Published
Cyndi Vanderheiden vanished in 1998, and her body was never found. On February 9, 2012, a map drawn by condemned inmate Wesley Shermantine led searchers to her remains in Calaveras County.
Dental records identified the remains found that Thursday as Vanderheiden's, said San Joaquin County sheriff's spokesman Deputy Les Garcia. She was 25. The next day searchers found a second set of remains nearby, in a spot where Shermantine said 16-year-old Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, who disappeared in 1985, was buried; her parents said they believed the remains were hers. Both sites were near San Andreas, close to land once owned by Shermantine's family. Shermantine had agreed to disclose burial sites in exchange for $33,000 offered by Sacramento bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who said the maps had been confiscated by the prison in early February and sent to the sheriff.
On February 11, crews digging at an abandoned well on a former cattle ranch near Linden found more bones, and by the next day they had recovered more than 300 human bones, along with coats, shoes, a purse and jewelry, from about 45 feet down. Shermantine had said there might be 10 or more victims in the area. The remains went to the California Department of Justice crime lab for DNA testing, and on March 30 the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department identified two people whose remains were in the well as Kimberly Billy, 19 when she disappeared in December 1984, and JoAnn Hobson, 16 when she disappeared in September 1985. Shermantine had been sentenced to death in 2001 for four murders. His former partner, Loren Herzog, whose own murder convictions had been overturned, died by suicide in January, before any remains were found.
NBC News reported that Cyndi Vanderheiden disappeared in 1988, while the Associated Press said she vanished in 1998.
Sources
- Condemned Incarcerated Person Wesley Shermantine Dies, California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation
- More remains found in Calif. with killer's help, Salon (Associated Press)
- Map by one of 'Speed Freak Killers' steers cops to 300 human bones, NBC News
- Two victims from Linden well identified in Speed Freak Killers case, CBS Sacramento
Related News
- January 17, 2012: Loren Herzog, Paroled After His Speed Freak Killers Murder Convictions Were Overturned, Dies by Suicide
- September 18, 2026: "Speed Freak Killer" Wesley Shermantine Dies on California's Death Row at 60