Lori Lee Kursa
a Lawrence Cook Middle School student, reported missing by her mother after disappearing while they shopped at a U-Save, was last seen mid Nov in Santa Rosa with friends, intentionally having run away.
Someone reported possibly seeing Kursa hitchhiking on Nov 30. Her home life was troubled and she was a frequent hitchhiker and habitual runaway. Her frozen remains were located on December 14, 1972, in approx 50 feet off Calistoga Road, northeast of Rincon Valley in Santa Rosa.
The killer had thrown the body at least 30 feet over an embankment. The girl had a single wire loop in each earlobe, but the rest of the earrings were missing and were not found at the scene.
The cause of her death was a broken neck with compression and hemorrhage of the spinal cord. The victim had not been raped and likely died one to two weeks prior to discovery. Two people later called in tips to the police about possible sightings of Kursa. One tipster reported seeing two men with a girl on Calistoga Road. A second caller reported seeing a girl with a Caucasian man who had “bushy” hair in a pickup truck that had been parked near the site where Kursa was later found deceased. Neither caller was able to provide further details.
A possible witness to her abduction later came forward stating that on an evening somewhere between December 3 and 9, 1972, while on Parkhurst Drive, he saw two men walking with a young girl. The girl, who fit Kursa’s description, appeared to be physically impaired, as the two men were supporting her between them. The witness saw the men run across the road with the girl and push her into the back of a van that parked on the side of the roadway. The driver was a Caucasian man with an Afro hairstyle. The vehicle then sped north on Calistoga Road.
Authorities speculated that Kursa was kidnapped, forced into the van, stripped of her clothing, and that she opened the passenger door of the speeding vehicle in an attempt to escape her captor or captors, fell or jumped or was pushed out and broke her neck in the fall. Her abductors left her by the side of the road. The broken neck would have prevented Kursa from moving, but it would have taken some time for her to die from the injury.
