In November 1998 a long-haul truck driver walked into the main station of the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office in Eureka and told deputies he had killed women. Wayne Adam Ford was 36 and lived in nearby Arcata. Over the next days he confessed to killing four women he had picked up on the road. Their bodies had been found in Humboldt County, Kern County, the Lodi area and San Bernardino County between October 1997 and October 1998.
The case took more than seven years to come to a verdict. In June 2006 a San Bernardino County jury convicted Ford of four counts of first-degree murder, and on March 16, 2007, he was sentenced to death. One of the four women was known only as a Jane Doe through his trial and for many years after it. In June 2023 the sheriff's office announced that genetic genealogy had given her back her name: Kerry Ann Cummings, born in 1972.
Ford was born in Petaluma, California, the Deseret News reported in 1998. He served in the Marines and then, in the paper's phrase, bounced around the West before settling in Las Vegas with his wife and their son.
The marriage broke up. By November 1998 the couple had been separated and divorced for about two years, and the divorce decree gave him limited visits with the boy, who was about to turn three. Ford moved north to Arcata, a town of about 16,000 among the redwoods. He first worked there driving a cement truck. A co-worker who ate lunch with him every day told the Deseret News that he had seemed ordinary. Later he drove long-haul routes for a trucking firm, and investigators believed he traveled the interstates between Northern California and San Bernardino County.
At his trial his lawyers described a troubled past. They pointed to the failed marriage, the limited time he had with his son, a difficult childhood and a head injury he suffered in a traffic collision in 1984, the Associated Press reported. They said he had mental problems and was remorseful and conflicted.
Kerry Ann Cummings was born in 1972. Her sister remembered her as beautiful, funny and smart, and as an artist. In the mid-1990s her life changed. She developed a mental illness that went untreated, and her family lost track of her. "It is devastating what mental illness can do in a span of only two short years," her sister said in 2023.
Her last contact with her family was in 1997. She told them she was staying with friends, moving from couch to couch, in the Eugene, Oregon, area. She turned down repeated offers to come home. Her family reported her missing in Arizona and in Oregon and hired a private investigator, but according to the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office no missing person report was ever taken. Because of that, her name never entered the missing persons databases that might have matched her to the woman found in Humboldt County.
In October 1997 a woman's remains were found near Eureka, and more were found there in January 1998; later testing showed that both finds came from the same woman. No one could identify her. For the next 25 years she was a Jane Doe.
Tina Gibbs was 26. Her body was found in Kern County, near Buttonwillow, in June 1998. CBS News described her in November 1998 as being from Washington state. Little else about her life was reported.
Lanett White was 25 and lived in Fontana, in San Bernardino County. Her body was found near Lodi, in San Joaquin County, in September 1998. A 2001 news report on the case described her as believed to be one of his victims.
Patricia Tamez was 29. Her body was found near Hesperia, in San Bernardino County, in October 1998. She was the last of the four. When Ford came forward in November 1998, CBS News reported, he helped investigators identify her.
On November 3, 1998, Ford turned himself in at the sheriff's office main station. He had decided, the North Coast Journal reported the following week, to give himself up because he was tormented by urges to kill his former wife.
The Humboldt County coroner, Frank Jager Jr., spoke with Ford before his first court appearance and described the conversations to reporters. Ford told him that he had come in so that he would not kill his ex-wife, with whom he was angry for limiting his time with their son. If something happened to her, Jager said, the boy would be an orphan. Jager said Ford could not really give a reason for the killings and that he was "ashamed of what he was doing." He also said Ford had trouble remembering the dates and the order of the killings.
Ford was interviewed many times. According to the sheriff's office, investigators obtained a description of the woman found near Eureka from him, and more evidence was recovered. Over several days in early November he led detectives to evidence in Humboldt County, the Deseret News reported, and he described where they could find more.
The first charge was a single count of first-degree murder, for the death of the unidentified woman from Humboldt County. Bail was set at $1 million. Ford was arraigned on November 6, 1998, and a deputy public defender, Worth Dikeman, entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf despite the confession. Superior Court Judge Bruce Watson issued a gag order after heavy press coverage, and Dikeman said a change of venue was likely.
The arrest drew reporters to Eureka from across the country. CBS News reported that police thought Ford might be involved in as many as six killings in California, and that investigators from Washington state, including a task force looking at a series of killings in Tacoma and Spokane, were interested in him. The North Coast Journal reported that he had also been linked to the beating of a woman in Santa Rosa, who was said to have identified him as her attacker.
His former father-in-law rejected the idea that the end of the marriage explained anything. "This is incredible that an accused murderer would blame anybody but himself for what he's done," he told CBS News.
The killings had taken place in four counties, hundreds of miles apart. The case was eventually brought in San Bernardino County, where Patricia Tamez had been found. A grand jury there indicted Ford on four counts of murder. Most of the witnesses who testified before it were detectives, criminalists and coroners from Northern California agencies.
In December 2001 Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith unsealed three pages of the indictment after repeated requests from The San Bernardino County Sun and The Press-Enterprise, which were also seeking the grand jury transcripts, a coroner's report and Ford's statements to investigators. Under a new state law, Smith ruled, Ford could be tried for all four killings in a single trial if prosecutors proved the killings were connected. He faced the death penalty if convicted. Ford had told investigators that he often picked up women at truck stops, according to that report.
The trial was held in San Bernardino in 2006. Deputy District Attorney Dave Mazurek prosecuted. The prosecution portrayed Ford as a predator who sought out women working as prostitutes, took them to his truck and strangled them. Blood and other forensic evidence linked him to the killings, the Associated Press reported, and remains of the unidentified woman had been found at a campsite where he had lived for a time.
Ford had confessed, so the defense concentrated on his state of mind. His lawyers argued that he was mentally ill, that he felt remorse, and that he had chosen to turn himself in. One woman testified that he had attacked her and that afterward he showed her a photograph of his ex-wife and their son, cried, and said that what he did was revenge against his former wife.
In June 2006 the jury convicted him of four counts of first-degree murder. He was 44. "It's what we were seeking in this particular phase of the trial but we have a lot of work left," Mazurek said. The prosecution was seeking a death sentence.
A death sentence followed. The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation records his sentence date as March 16, 2007, and the date he was received into its custody as March 23, 2007. The trial county is listed as San Bernardino.
Ford was held in East Block at San Quentin State Prison, where most of California's condemned men lived. A reporter for Petaluma360 found him there at 54, pacing his cell and playing an acoustic guitar, at a time when California voters were weighing Proposition 62, a ballot measure to abolish the death penalty and replace it with life without parole. Ford told the reporter he would just as soon die as serve life at San Quentin. "I'd rather be executed than stay here," he said.
Executions in California had been halted since 2006, the same report noted. As of October 2, 2026, Ford, then 64, was on the CDCR's list of condemned inmates.
The woman found north of Eureka remained unnamed through his confession, his trial and his sentencing. Her DNA profile was entered into the California Missing Persons DNA database and the National Unidentified Persons DNA index, but no match was ever made.
In 2021 Sheriff William Honsal created a Cold Case Unit with two investigators assigned to review the office's unsolved cases. In December 2022 the sheriff's office and the California Department of Justice partnered with Othram Inc., a forensic genealogy laboratory, to see whether advanced DNA testing could identify her. The lab's work pointed to a close relative, who told investigators that a family member named Kerry had been missing since the mid-1990s. Investigators then found her sister, who gave a DNA sample. The comparison confirmed the match.
On June 7, 2023, the sheriff's office announced the identification of Kerry Ann Cummings. Cold Case Investigator Mike Fridley said his unit had been eager to submit the case. Sheriff Honsal thanked the state laboratory and Othram and said he hoped the identification would help bring closure to her family and the community. The county coroner's office worked with her family to release her remains so that she could be buried. "She was dearly loved," her sister said.
Other killings. In November 1998 police said Ford might be involved in as many as six killings in California, and investigators in Washington state looked at him in connection with killings in Tacoma and Spokane. No charge beyond the four California murders has been reported.
Santa Rosa. The North Coast Journal reported in 1998 that he had been linked to the beating of a woman in Santa Rosa. No charge or court outcome in that case has been reported.
Descriptions of the women. The North Coast Journal in 1998 described the four women as hitchhikers. CBS News and the prosecution at trial described some of them as women working in prostitution at truck stops.
Tina Gibbs's home. CBS News in 1998 described her as from Washington state; no other report gives her home.
Dates of discovery. The Deseret News put the discovery of the first woman's remains on October 26, 1997; the sheriff's office and KRCR give only October 1997.
The head injury. The defense put his head injury in a 1984 traffic collision, according to the Associated Press. No other date was confirmed.
Ford is born in Petaluma, California.
He serves in the Marines, later living in Las Vegas with his wife and son.
1984: head injury in a traffic collision, according to his defense at trial.
Separation and divorce, about two years before his surrender according to the Deseret News; he moves to Arcata.
1997: Kerry Ann Cummings, about 25, is last in contact with her family.
October 1997: remains of a woman are found north of Eureka.
January 1998: more of her remains are found north of Eureka.
June 1998: Tina Gibbs, 26, is found in Kern County.
September 1998: Lanett White, 25, of Fontana, is found near Lodi.
October 1998: Patricia Tamez, 29, is found near Hesperia.
November 3, 1998: Ford turns himself in at the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office main station and confesses.
November 6, 1998: arraigned on one count of first-degree murder; bail $1 million; not-guilty plea entered by his public defender.
December 2001: Judge Michael A. Smith unseals part of the San Bernardino County grand jury indictment on four counts of murder and rules that the four killings may be tried together if shown to be connected.
June 2006: a San Bernardino County jury convicts him of four counts of first-degree murder.
March 16, 2007: sentenced to death.
March 23, 2007: received by the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
2021: the Humboldt County Sheriff's Office forms a Cold Case Unit.
December 2022: the sheriff's office, the state Department of Justice and Othram begin genetic genealogy work on the Jane Doe case.
June 7, 2023: the woman found north of Eureka is identified as Kerry Ann Cummings.
October 2, 2026: Ford, 64, is on the CDCR condemned inmate list.