Murder of Deborah Lee Shelton

On Jan 3, 1969, 12-year-old Deborah Lee Shelton asked her mom to go bike riding with other kids. Her mom told her yes and then told her to be back before noon because she had a dentist appointment. At 9:30 a.m. Deborah would leave her home in Aptos, California and was supposed to meet friends near the Aptos railroad bridge. She would be last seen on Rio De Mar Blvd. around 11 a.m. 

No one would see Deborah alive again. But unbeknownst to her mother, she didn't know this was the case. When her mom and sister came home from an appointment Deborah wasn't there. Someone would call the house "The phone rang and there was a young man's voice that said, ‘We have your daughter. We want $500. Drive out to Trout Gulch Road." She would hang up thinking it was a joke.

On March 8, 1969, a young boy was out shooting his bb gun in a wooded area in Aptos. He would stumble upon Deborah's body in the wooded area around 100 yards from the bridge.

The scene was suggestive of a sexual assault, but because her body was badly decomposed it was undetermined. Clothing and other evidence at the scene suggested she was strangled with her underwear. She was also bound with her hands taped together with masking tape behind her back. There were remnants of tape found on her neck suggesting her mouth was also taped.

A friend of hers stated that around Christmas Deborah mentioned to her a boy who was a little older. The boy's name was Sherman and they were planning to ride a mini bike together. It's believed this was who she was meeting with. The supposed "Sherman" was never identified. Deborah never described him to her friend other than he was really cute.

SOURCES:
County of Santa Cruz
Find a Grave
Santa Cruz Sentential 
Huffington Post