Gypsy Hill murders involved six serial killings of young women from January to April of 1976. Fortunately for the case, just recently, investigators found DNA evidence that linked an Oregon prisoner to, at least, two of the said murders.
The Gypsy Hill murders terrified Nevada City, as well as the San Francisco Bay Area, forty years ago. Five of the bodies were found hidden in the suburbs by the south side of San Francisco, including one that was placed near Gypsy Hill Road. The sixth body was found in Reno.
The prisoner, Rodney Halbower, 66 years old, is also suspected of having killed other people as well. Moreover, the district attorney's office of San Mateo charged him on Thursday with two counts of murder during the course of rape for the deaths of Veronica Anne Cascio, 18 years old, and Paula Baxter, 17 years old.
The DNA evidence that linked Halbower to the two crimes were found on the victims, said Chief Deputy District Attorney Karen Guidotti of San Mateo.
"Based on the forensic links between a number of the cases, the time frame of the murders, and the methods used by the offender to commit these crimes, investigators are confident all the crimes were committed by the same offender," as stated in the statement submitted by the FBI, after they launched a Gypsy Hill Task Force unit to solely revisit the cold case.
Halbower was pretty adamant in denying that he had anything to do with the infamous Gypsy Hill murders. He told KGO-TV, a local TV news station, "I'm confused, and I want some answers. I don't know anything. No knowledge about this."
The suspect had previously submitted a DNA sample when he was transferred to the Oregon State Prison from the Nevada Prison back in November of 2013.
During the time that the transfer was done, Halbower was being paroled after having served a sentence for raping a blackjack dealer in 1975, which was only two months before the body of Michelle Mitchell, a 19-year-old student from the University of Nevada-Reno was found.
This article is copyrighted by Travelers Today, the travel news leader
