The Heart-Wrenching Story of The Keddie Quadruple Murders — Why It Has Remained Unsolved

34-year-old Glenna Sussan(Sue) Sharp parted ways with her husband, James Sharp in July 1979. She took her five children with her and headed to Northern California from Connecticut, where the family was living.

When Sue and her children arrived in California, they rented a place in Claremont Trailer Village in Quincy. The family managed the small space until the following fall when they moved into cabin 28 in the rural Sierra Nevada railroad town of Keddie.

This is the beginning of one of the most perplexing unsolved cases in California.

A Relaxing Weekend Turned Deadly

Sue lived with her 15-year-old son John, 14-year-old daughter Sheila, 12-year-old daughter Tina, and two younger sons, 10-year-old Rick and 5-year-old Greg.

They befriended some of the other residents at the resort, including Johnny's friend Dana Wingate, 17, who often stayed over at their cabin.

It was supposed to be a relaxing getaway for Sue Sharp and her five children at the Keddie Resort, a rustic retreat in the Sierra Nevada mountains. But on the night of April 11, 1981, their cabin became a scene of unimaginable horror, as four of them were savagely murdered by unknown assailants.

On that fateful Saturday, Sue and her kids spent the day doing various activities around the resort. Sheila went to a sleepover at a nearby cabin, while Johnny and Dana hitchhiked to Quincy, a town about five miles away, to attend a party.

Sue stayed at home with Tina, Rick, and Greg, watching TV and playing games. Around 9:30 p.m., Johnny and Dana returned to cabin 28 and joined Sue and Tina in the living room. Rick and Greg were already asleep in their bedroom, along with Justin Smartt, a friend who was spending the night.

A Brutal Attack in the Living Room

What happened next is still a mystery, but sometime between 10 p.m. and 4 a.m., someone entered the cabin and attacked the four people in the living room with knives and a hammer. The killer or killers inflicted brutal injuries on their victims, stabbing them multiple times, bludgeoning them with a claw hammer, and slashing their throats.

Sue was also sexually assaulted, and her body was partially covered with a yellow blanket. She was found gagged with a blue bandana and her underwear, which had been secured with tape. The attackers also bound Sue, Johnny, and Dana with electrical cords and medical tape, but not Tina. The murder weapons, a steak knife, a butcher knife, and a hammer, were left behind at the scene.

The carnage was discovered the next morning by Sheila, who returned from her sleepover and found the bodies of her mother, brother, and friend. She ran out of the cabin, screaming for help. The police arrived shortly after and cordoned off the area.

They also found Tina missing from the cabin and launched a search for her. Rick, Greg, and Justin were unharmed in their bedroom and claimed to have slept through the night, unaware of the killings.

A Baffling Investigation with No Leads

The investigation into the Keddie Cabin Murders, as they came to be known, was hampered by several factors, including the lack of motive, the absence of forensic evidence, the mishandling of the crime scene, and the conflicting statements of the witnesses. The police interviewed several suspects, including some of Sue's ex-boyfriends, local drug dealers, and a convicted murderer who had escaped from a nearby prison. But none of them were conclusively linked to the crime, and no arrests were made.

Justin claimed under hypnosis that he woke up that night to see Sussan with two men in the living room. A composite sketch of the men was made from Justin's description. However, they didn't prove helpful.

Three years later, in 1984, a shocking discovery was made in Feather Falls, a remote area about 50 miles from Keddie. A bottle collector found a human skull and a jawbone near a stream and alerted the authorities. The remains were identified as Tina's, but the cause and time of her death were undetermined.

Some of the reasons why this case has remained unsolved include:

- Lack of forensic evidence: DNA testing was not available at the time, and the later attempts to use it were inconclusive or unsuccessful.

-Conflicting statements of the witnesses: The three boys who survived the attack in their bedroom gave different and inconsistent accounts of what they saw or heard that night.

-Lack of motive: The police never established a clear motive for the murders.

The End!

A true crime book.

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We have published the second volume of this book, "Horrific True Crime Stories." The book is available on Amazon and we believe it is a good read. We selected 17 stories that we believe are engaging and wrote on them.

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Horrific True Crime Stories Volume 2: 17 Terrifying and Unimaginable True Crime Cases