David Allen Rundle

Last updated

David Allen Rundle
DavidARendle.png
Mugshot
Born (1965-01-04) January 4, 1965 (age 59)
Nevada County, California, U.S.
Conviction(s) First degree murder with special circumstances (3 counts)
Criminal penalty Death
Details
Victims3
Span of crimes
May –October 1986
CountryUnited States
State(s)California
Date apprehended
November 20, 1986
Imprisoned at San Quentin State Prison

David Allen Rundle (born January 4, 1965) is an American serial killer who raped and murdered two women and a teenage girl in Northern California between May and October 1986. After being identified as a suspect in the killings, Rundle fled to Nevada, where he would be arrested. He was convicted and sentenced to death for two of the murders and received an additional life sentence for the other. [1]

Contents

Early life

David Allen Rundle was born in Nevada County on January 4, 1965, the son of chief warrant officer for the United States Navy David William Rundle. [2] His family moved to live in Idaho shortly after he was born, and until he fell into a drug addiction at age 14, Rundle was described as a normal child who enjoyed hunting and fishing. [2] His mother also sexually abused him during his latter teen years. [3] His parents later moved to Georgia, where he attended high school, but dropped out not long after. The family then moved to Colfax, California, where Rundle would leave his family. [4] In 1984, Rundle got married, but once his wife fell pregnant he abandoned her. [4] Shortly after, he obtained work as a floor installer. [5]

Murders

In May 1986 Rundle, high on marijuana, was prowling around the Sacramento River near an area that had a high population of vagrants. There, he convinced 21-year-old Elizabeth Latorre Lactawen to have sex, and when the two entered a secluded area behind nearby bushes, Rundle strangled Lactawen to death and disposed her body beneath the Pioneer Bridge in Sacramento, where it was found on May 10 by an unidentified person who called into the Secret Witness Program. [6] [7]

In the investigation following her death, a witness to the murder gave a description of the killer and described him as a male, around 17 years old, was about 5ft 10inch. [7] A reward of $2,500 was announced to anyone who could identify the killer. [7] On September 7, having voyaged to Colfax, Rundle abducted 18-year-old Carolyn Marie Garcia from a bus stop as she waited for a bus to drive her to the city of Roseville. [6] He drove her to a remote area near Rollins Lake Road where he partially stripped her of her clothes, raped, beat and strangled her to death. [8]

Rundle killed his youngest and final victim on October 7, when he abducted 15-year-old LanciAnne Sorensen. He forced her to take her pants off, which he then used to bind her hands behind her back, and then raped and strangled her to death. [9] He left her body along an Interstate 80 off ramp in Loomis. [10]

Arrest

Garcia's bloody clothing was discovered just off of Interstate 80 in Weimer in early September, but her body remained missing. [11] On September 11, as police were scouring Rollins Lake Road searching for clues in Garcia's disappearance, Rundle accidentally rammed his vehicle into the back of a police car, damaging his car but successfully driving away. [12] Police were subsequently able to identify him as the driver and Rundle fled to Carson City, Nevada. There, on November 20, he was arrested and returned to California. [13] A few days after his arrest, Rundle confessed Garcia's murder and informed detectives that her body was located near Rollings Lake, where police were able to recover it. [5] In addition, he confessed to killing Lactowen and Sorensen. [14] In an interview with detectives, Rundle claimed he was a sick individual and blamed his actions on mental illness and abuse he received as a child, which only got worse with drug and alcohol addiction. [15]

Trial and imprisonment

On April 16, 1987, Rundle was attacked in his sleep by his cellmate Melton Eugene Voight, who was awaiting trial for armed robbery. Rundle was hospitalized for ten days for a skull fracture, while Voight was moved to Folsom State Prison for his violent outburst. [16] [17]

Rundle was sentenced to death in 1989 for the murders of Garcia and Sorensen. As the sentence was being handed down multiple jurors were reported crying. [1] He was also given a life sentence for the murder of Lactawen. [6] He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dorothea Puente</span> American serial killer (1929–2011)

Dorothea Helen Puente was an American convicted serial killer. In the 1980s, she ran a boarding house in Sacramento, California, and murdered various elderly and mentally disabled boarders before cashing their Social Security checks. Puente's total count reached nine murders; she was convicted of three and the jury hung on the other six. Newspapers dubbed Puente the "Death House Landlady".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Zebra murders</span> Series of racially motivated murders in San Francisco, California

The "Zebra" murders were a string of racially motivated murders and related attacks committed by a group of four black serial killers in San Francisco, California, United States, from October 1973 to April 1974; they killed at least 15 white people and wounded eight others. Police gave the case the name "Zebra" after the special police radio band they assigned to the investigation.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carol Bundy</span> American serial killer (1942–2003)

Carol Mary Bundy was an American double murderer and suspected serial killer. Bundy and Doug Clark became collectively known as the Sunset Strip Killers after being convicted of a series of lust murders in Los Angeles during the late spring and early summer of 1980.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joseph James DeAngelo</span> American serial killer and serial rapist

Joseph James DeAngelo Jr. is an American serial killer, serial rapist, burglar, peeping tom, former police officer and mechanic who committed at least 13 murders, 51 rapes, and 120 burglaries across California between 1974 and 1986. He is responsible for three known separate crime sprees throughout the state, each of which spawned a different nickname in the press, before it became evident that they were committed by the same person.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">David Carpenter</span> American serial killer on death row

David Joseph Carpenter, also known as The Trailside Killer, is an American serial killer and serial rapist known for stalking and murdering a variety of individuals on hiking trails in state parks near San Francisco, California. He attacked at least ten individuals and was convicted in seven murders and was confirmed to be the killer in an eighth murder; Carpenter is also suspected in two additional killings. Two victims, Steven Haertle and Lois Rinna, mother of television personality Lisa Rinna, survived. Carpenter used a .38 caliber handgun in all but one of the killings. A .44 caliber handgun was used in the killing of Edda Kane on Mount Tamalpais.

Jennifer Lee Daugherty was an American woman who was torture-murdered in Greensburg, Pennsylvania as an act of revenge in February 2010. Daugherty, who was mentally disabled, was tortured and murdered before being wrapped in Christmas decorations, put inside a garbage can, and dumped in the parking lot of Greensburg-Salem Middle School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rodney Alcala</span> American serial killer (1943–2021)

Rodney James Alcala was an American serial killer and sex offender who was sentenced to death in California for five murders committed between 1977 and 1979. He also pleaded guilty and received a sentence of 25 years to life for two further murders committed in New York and was also indicted with a murder in Wyoming, although charges were dropped due to a technicality. While he has been conclusively linked to eight murders, Alcala's true number of victims remains unknown and could be much higher – the actual number could be as high as 130.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Roger Kibbe</span> American serial killer (1939–2021)

Roger Reece Kibbe was an American serial killer and rapist known as the "I-5 Strangler". Kibbe found all but one of his victims on freeways around Sacramento, California. In 1991, he was sentenced to 25 years to life imprisonment for the death of Darcie Frackenpohl.

William Paul "Bud" Thompson was an American criminal, spree killer, and self-described serial/contract killer. Convicted for three murders committed between March and April 1984 in California and Nevada, he later confessed to three additional murders in three other states. Sentenced to death for a Nevada killing, he withdrew his appeals and was subsequently executed in 1989.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ivan Hill</span> American serial killer

Ivan Jerome Hill, also known by his nickname The 60 Freeway Killer, is an American serial killer who raped and murdered at least eight women in Los Angeles between 1986 and 1994. Hill dumped his victims' corpses along the East-West Highway, known as "California State Route 60", contributing to his nickname. Hill was captured based on DNA profiling nearly a decade after his last murder and was sentenced to death in 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Philip Joseph Hughes Jr.</span> American serial killer

Philip Joseph Hughes Jr. known as The East Bay Strangler, is an American convicted serial killer. He killed at least three young women in Contra Costa County throughout the 1970s with the help of his ex-wife, Suzanne Perrin.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alvin Johnson (serial killer)</span> Convicted American serial killer

Alvin Johnson is an American serial killer linked to three murders across three states from 1972 to 1983. Officially convicted in two homicides in Oregon and Utah, he was later linked to a third one committed with fellow serial killer Wilbur Lee Jennings in California, but was not charged due to his current life sentence in Utah.

John Charles Bolsinger was an American serial killer who was posthumously linked to the murders of three women in Eugene, Oregon from 1986 to 1988, committed after his release from prison for a 1980 murder in Utah. He was never convicted of the latter homicides, as he committed suicide shortly after the final murder, and was linked to them via DNA analysis from Oregon State Police and Parabon NanoLabs in 2022.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Robert Maury</span> American serial killer on death row

Robert Edward Maury is an American serial killer who strangled three women to death in Shasta County, California, from 1985 to 1987. After each murder, Maury anonymously called into a tip line to tell detectives where the bodies were located, leading to him being dubbed The Tipster Killer. Suspected in two additional murders, Maury was sentenced to death for his known crimes and is currently awaiting execution.

Vernon Brown was an American murderer, child molester, and suspected serial killer who was convicted for the murders of a young woman and a young girl in St. Louis, Missouri in 1985 and 1986, but is suspected of committing at least two other murders, including being a prime suspect for the murder of the St. Louis Jane Doe. Brown was sentenced to death and executed in 2005 for the two murders he was convicted of, having never confessed responsibility for any other murders.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bouncing Ball Killer</span> Unidentified American serial killer

The Bouncing Ball Killer, also known as the Bouncing Ball Slayer, the Bouncing Ball Strangler, and the Rubber Ball Strangler, was a serial killer who is believed to have raped and murdered at least six women between May 1959 and June 1960 in Los Angeles, California. A majority of the victims were elderly and all but one was strangled to death. During the investigation, a multitude of suspects were detained, and although one reportedly confessed to the crimes, no one was ever convicted of the murders, and the identity of the killer remains a mystery.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Joann Lee Tiesler</span> 2001 murder in Georgia

On October 7, 2001, American nurse Joann Lee Tiesler, 30, was raped and stabbed to death in her home in Cherry Log, Georgia, by William LeCroy Jr., her neighbor and a former U.S. soldier. LeCroy, who was also a sex offender, had broken into Tiesler's house while she was out shopping, waited for her to come home, then bound, sexually assaulted, and stabbed her to death. He was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) on October 11, 2001, while attempting to flee to Canada in Tiesler's car. He was sentenced to death in federal court in 2004 and executed by the federal government on September 22, 2020.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Cox (serial killer)</span> American serial killer

Michael Anthony Cox is an American serial killer who was convicted in California for murdering three teenage girls in Placerville and hiding their bodies in the Eldorado National Forest in 1984. Dubbed the Forest Killer by the media, he was sentenced to death the following year and is currently awaiting execution.

References

  1. 1 2 Marjie Lambert (September 22, 1989). "Jurors weep as killer given death sentence". The Sacramento Bee . p. 20. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  2. 1 2 Bill Wilson (November 28, 1986). "Parents lost their son long before he was jailed in slayings". The Press-Tribune . p. 1. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  3. ↑ Marjie Lambert (September 22, 1989). "Jurors weep as killer given death sentence". The Sacramento Bee . p. 3. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  4. 1 2 Bill Wilson (November 28, 1986). "Parents lost their son long before he was jailed in slayings". The Press-Tribune . p. 5. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  5. 1 2 Payton, Ken (November 22, 1986). Suspect's tip leads to dead teen. The Sacramento Bee.
  6. 1 2 3 "Life term given for third killing". The Sacramento Bee . December 21, 1989. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  7. 1 2 3 "Young woman's killer, robber who takes cash registers added to list". The Sacramento Bee . May 15, 1986. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  8. ↑ Tom Dresslar (November 23, 1986). "Another body found, suspect confesses". Auburn Journal . p. 1. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  9. ↑ "Suspect in Placer County rape-slayings held for trial". The Sacramento Bee . March 25, 1987. Retrieved October 26, 2022.
  10. ↑ John Trumbo (November 24, 1986). "Rundle accused of slaying Sorensen". Auburn Journal . p. 1. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  11. ↑ "Sheriff Nunes: Missing teen probably slain". Auburn Journal . September 12, 1986. Retrieved October 7, 2022.
  12. ↑ John Trumbo (November 25, 1986). "Rundle faces arraignment, victim named". Auburn Journal . p. 1. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  13. ↑ John Trumbo (November 21, 1986). "Suspect arrested in Garcia slaying". Auburn Journal . p. 1. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  14. ↑ John Trumbo (November 25, 1986). "Rundle faces arraignment, victim named". Auburn Journal . p. 10. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  15. ↑ Marjie Lambert (September 22, 1989). "Jurors weep as killer given death sentence". The Sacramento Bee . p. 22. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
  16. ↑ Rundle hit while asleep at jail. Colfax Record. April 21, 1987.
  17. ↑ John Trumbo (April 30, 1987). "No charges filed in jail assault". Auburn Journal . p. 1. Retrieved October 8, 2022.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.