Lora Sinner: Young Woman Tortured & Murdered by Her Friends

On the morning of April 18, 1998, police responded to a 9-1-1 call directing them to the Trinity Alps preserve campsite in Northern California on a report of a dead body. The derelict area had empty liquor bottles strewn across the ground. Officers said it appeared as if a struggle had occurred. Underneath a pile of burned ash and debris, a K9 dog found the naked, bloody, and partially burned body of 20-year-old Lora Sinner.

In March 1998, Lora relocated from Yakima, Washington, to Redding, California with her boyfriend, Timothy Smith, after losing her mother to Leukemia. She met Timothy during her freshman year in college when she volunteered at a Christian mission in Aberdeen.

Lora never had the opportunity to enjoy life in California.

Detectives noted it appeared that Lora had been struck several times in the back of the head. Her entire body was bruised, her arms had cuts all over them, and a black garbage tied around her head.

Lora’s purse was found nearby. Detectives found her driver’s license inside. A large, dented can of chili beans had hair blood evidence on it. Detectives believe the can was the weapon.

An autopsy determined Lora died from blunt force trauma to the head, with possible asphyxiation. She had nine lacerations on her left wrist. Her toxicology report revealed a near-fatal blood alcohol content level of 0.88.

Detectives notified Lora’s parents of her murder. Her father said he last spoke to her on April 1 and told him she and Timothy had broken up. He offered to give her money for gas so she could travel to his home in Salem, but she said she wanted to stay in California.

Timothy told detectives he had not seen Lora since March 30 and claimed she had been living at his father’s home and had become good friends with Timothy’s younger siblings, Lori and Paul. He was shocked to learn she was dead.

Timothy told detectives he stopped communicating with Lora when she moved in with his father. The man had sodomized him and his brother as children and served time in prison for the attacks. Timothy, his brother, and their sister Lori grew up in foster care.

Paul, known as PJ, caused trouble in the foster care group home. He was accused of attacking other residents and staff and of sexual assault. He had been arrested for robbing a sex worker at gunpoint in February 1998.

Lori, PJ, and Timothy finally came together as a family in 1997. All three lived with their father, and soon, Lori and her dad formed a close bond. She started dating his friend, Eric Rubio, while Paul dated a 14-year-old teenager named Amy Stevens, who he convinced to run away from foster care.

Several months after detectives discovered Lorna’s body, Amy walked into the Shasta County Sheriff’s Office. She told officers she had information about Sinner but was in fear for her life.

She told detectives she went camping with Paul, Lori, Eric Rubio, and Lora.  She became angry when Lora began flirting with Paul and punched her in the face. Paul then jumped in, hitting Lora in the head with the can of chili beans, then using an automotive dent puller to beat her to death.

Detectives spoke to Lori, who claimed Paul pressured everyone to get drunk and then attacked Lora. She said he beat Lora with a dent puller and forced Rubio to help him bury her body. He threatened to kill them if they snitched. 

“He started beating up on Lora … put a rope around her neck, tied her legs and tied her arms, and threw her on the wrestling mat by the tent, and he said, ‘I’m gonna slice your wrists open. I’m gonna make it look like you tried to kill yourself,' and he made us watch that,” Lori says in her videotaped statement to police.

Paul and Eric were easy to find; both men had been arrested after they were found inside a stolen Jeep.

Eric told detectives that the group drank alcohol and used drugs. Lora irritated everyone in the group, leading Stevens to fistfight her. When Lora got the upper hand, Lori jumped in and hit her in the head with the can of beans.

Paul produced a razor blade and asked Lora, “Do you wanna cut your wrists, or do you want me to do it?” Lora attempted to slit her own wrists but caused only superficial wounds. Paul cut her wrist, poured liquor into her wounds, and forced her to drink more alcohol. He kicked her in the head, killing her. Eric claimed Paul threatened to kill him if he did not help bury Lora’s body.

Paul gave detectives the same story. He claimed he didn’t think Lora would survive the injuries she sustained and killed her to put her out of her misery.

Eric, Amy, and Paul were arrested and charged with Lora’s murder.

Eric and Lori pleaded guilty and agreed to testify against Pual. They received life sentences with parole possibility. Rubio was paroled in 2015; Smith was paroled in 2021.

Amy was charged in juvenile court and sentenced to the maximum time allowed. She was released at age 25 in 2009.

Paul was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death. While in prison, Paul attempted to kill a guard. He received an additional life sentence. The California Supreme Court overturned the death penalty in 2015 and committed his sentence to life without parole.

Sources:

https://www.oxygen.com/snapped-killer-couples/season-16/episode-2/lori-smith-eric-rubio-and-amy-stevens-paul-smith

https://www.nbc.com/snapped-killer-couples/video/lori-smith-eric-rubio-and-amy-stevens-paul-smith/9000214808