This is one of the most problematic crime scenes to put back together, not just in sequence of events on that tragic day but also to physically reconstruct today. No crime scene photos have been released. There is only a very general sketch of the topography, showing the stream, the clearing, the pathways and the itinerant bum’s shack. But as I write this, it is one month short of 50 years since this terrible double murder. The sketch doesn’t help much anymore. All the flora has grown like a jungle island; the stream has cut deep with the torrential runoff of floods since then. My experience at the scene today reminds me of those old documentaries where you are shown some old Marine base or aircraft wreck on a Pacific island during WWII and then are shown researchers visiting the site today. The difference is night and day. The open spaces and the reference points are all obscured by 50 years of growth. But I had 2 very stalwart companions leading the way. Bobby Domingos’ cousin, Brian Donelson, and the man who led police to the spot 50 years ago— Lee Gnesa. Without them it would have been impossible to have proceeded.

     Let’s flashback in order to put everything in context. It is June 4, 1963. Clean cut is the image. Frankie and Annette would debut in their first beach movie in a couple of months. Kennedy was president. Kodachrome was becoming popular for photography. Black and White was still commonplace. The Beach Boys were a phenomenon, and America was fascinated with the new surfer craze.

     It was senior ditch day at Lompoc High. This was a tradition there. Graduation was only days away. Seniors would skip class and go on a trip together or in their own little groups.  Bobby Domingos and Linda Edwards didn’t want to go with the group to Goleta Beach. They wanted to go “hang out” (I think that was actually just a new term) together with a couple of friends. Shirley Gnesa and Linda were buddies. Shirley was soon to be married and Linda was to be a bridesmaid. Shirley, in turn, was going to be a bridesmaid at Linda’s wedding to Bobby in November.  Shirley’s beau, however, couldn’t go for the day, so Shirley backed out too.

     Bobby and Linda left Lompoc to go to the area that was fairly remote, but not inaccessible.  It is an area with no real name. But it is plain to see on any map that it is the largest promontory that juts out into the blue Pacific along the coast. It must have been 30 minutes from Lompoc, halfway to Santa Barbara.

   Back then cars could park on the two lane Highway 101 south. In the median between north and south lanes there was a clearing set back from the trees.  Here Bobby parked his distinctive 56 Pontiac (black and copper), they crossed the road, the Southern Pacific Railroad tracks, and followed the path to the beach. The walk to the beach might be 8 minutes or so depending on how quick they went down the game trail.  Surfers and fishermen used the area. Not much else. An itinerant bum, George Gill, piecemeal built a little shack under the trees, from odds and ends he collected over time.

     The shack remained a safe haven for him because the promontory was now its own little “Lost World.” Land fill cut it off from the rest of the canyon to build the railroad across it and then Highway 101. A “cattle underpass” was created underneath the landfill to let the mountain stream continue down the canyon to the coast. The rest of the coastline was steep sandstone cliffs. Only here could the beach be accessed. The surf echoes off the cliffs and sends sizzling sounds up the stream.  Dolphins lounge in the waters. A fisherman might be seen casting his line and, back then, a couple of surfers riding the curls.

     At the mouth of the stream, where it emptied into the rocks and sand, a narrow path led up into the understory of one side of the canyon. Here was George Gill’s shack. It was in a clearing, a crude rock campfire by it. A couple of other paths led from this dirt clearing to the stream. The rest of the area was hillside. It was covered with poppies, yellow flowers, brambles, grass. In one direction is a bluey sea and bright fleshy beach. The other direction is a verdant, forested garden. The best of both worlds. 

     But nobody was out surfing that day. Nor was anybody fishing. Yet someone must have been there who did not wish to be disturbed. Bobby and Linda never returned. Missing person reports were filed by her mother, Eva Edwards, and by Bobby’s father, “Hutch,” the next day, June 5. Nobody knew where they went. All of them only knew they went to the “beach.”

     By that night, Hutch Domingos had enough. He went with Leo Gnesa and his son, Lee, to scout Highway 101. They cruised past and continued south to Refugio Beach but could not see Bobby’s car. It was about the second time around that they noticed his car parked behind the trees in the median of 101. The Gnesa’s knew the area of the beach well. They would come here and fish. However, at night (it was around 9 p.m. now), it would be impossible to head down the hillside path. They turned around and went up toward “Gaviota,” which visibly really amounted to a restaurant, gas station and the Vista Del Mar School. There they found a CHP officer, Paul Schultz, writing a ticket. He accompanied them back. With Schultz’s single flashlight, young Lee (only 19 years old) led them down. The beach revealed nothing. Lee mentioned the shack. They went up the pathway and Schultz looked into the door of the shack. He closed it immediately.

     “You don’t want to look in there.”

     Lee nor the others saw anything.    

This conservation photo shows the area in question. We followed the inner path. It is little changed from 50 years ago. The picture at right traces the path in blue.  It is significant because we basically followed the same path Lee and Paul Schultz followed that night. The difference being we did not stomp through the heavy brush up to the underwood where the shack used to be. That pathway is long overgrown. We entered through the stream bed.

   But from what little we do know today, the bodies of Bobby and Linda were in there. Accounts differ, but it seems certain that Bobby’s body had been dragged in face down. Linda’s body was on top of his, facing up. Either her swimsuit was ripped or cut at the breast (in the middle) or the crotch was cut out. Bobby had been shot 11 times (apparently all in the back) and Linda had been shot 8 times (possibly all in the back). The sheriffs searched the area and found 20 .22 caliber shell casings. Supposedly, they were found in the stream bed. What the sheriff meant by “stream” is a little nebulous. According to Lee, the stream couldn’t be walked back then. It was narrow and very overgrown. (But, then, when someone is chasing you with a gun, you do what you have to in order to get away.) However, coupled with another fact we should deduce the killer stood in the stream but perhaps Bobby and Linda were elsewhere.

     This important clue comes from Lee. He did not see any blood. None of them did. They walked across the sandy mouth of the stream in order to go up the path to the shack. It seems impossible that Schultz’s flashlight beam would not coast over blood, even inadvertently, as he shined it about. The path up to the shack was a narrow trail. Still, none of them saw blood. Lee reminded me they weren’t looking for it because they didn’t know what had happened. But still, in the dark the flashlight beam will be leading the way up the path. I find it hard to believe that blood would not be seen.

     In order to explain this, we have to accept there was no blood. Coupled with the report that the shell casings were found in the stream bed, we should deduce that  the killer must have been standing in the stream bed and perhaps from here he shot them both as they rushed back to the area of shack. He then drug their bodies up the remainder of one of these shorter paths (See sheriff’s sketch).

     Sheriff Webster said they had evidence that the killer reloaded. This statement seems inspired by the number of shell casings. 20 shots had been fired. 19 hit. 1 went wild. No magazine for a .22 caliber carried over 15 bullets. Most carried 10. The killer either shot 2 complete magazines worth into them or 1 and a half. It is hard to believe that someone who would pump 11 bullets into one man and 8 into a young woman is going to fire 1 and a half clips. It seems likely he had 10 round clips and emptied both into them and stopped only when the second clip emptied.

     This is significant. He didn’t shoot Bobby 10 times and then quickly reload and shot one more round in him and then chase Linda down and shoot at her 9 times and hit 8 times. He must have brought both down with the first clip and then got in close over them and shot them again with the second clip of ammunition. Incidentally, this would mean a shot from his first clip went wide.

     Speaking with Lee and Brian during our expedition down there, I have to agree with them. This much we know. Whoever killed them enjoyed doing it. This was overkill. There was no need to shoot them as many times as they were shot just to kill them.

     This presented the sheriffs with their big problem. Bobby was loved by all the world. That may sound like cliché from some cheap mystery detective movie, but art imitates life. Bobby was only 18. He had no enemies. He was indeed one of the most liked people you could imagine. Linda, too, was popular. She had also said, rather enigmatically, that “When I leave this world, I’m going to go out on the front page.” She did indeed, but no connection was found to indicate anybody who wanted to kill her.

     The topography of this remote area indicates that the killer did not follow them but that he was already there. This is supported by another discovery. Boxes of .22 caliber ammunition were discovered in the shack. Nobody walks down the grade that leads to the beach with boxes of ammo on them just to shoot people. The killer clearly had enough ammo in his clips. He was already there— either to shoot small game or birds or whatever. Interestingly, the ammo boxes bore no price tag. Coupled with the batch number they were either bought at a store in Santa Barbara or they were sold at Vandenburg AFB by someone who could get them before the PX could put a price tag on them. He was thus familiar enough with the county of Santa Barbara.

     Brian Donelson made it clear to me that Bobby would have fought to death to save himself and her. He may indeed have done so. Reports aren’t clear. He might have had a bruised face or swollen lip. Lee recalls being told that his right wrist was bruised, as if he punched into something really hard and the kickback bruised the wrist.

     The newspapers at the time said the sheriffs weren’t certain whether the weapon was an automatic pistol or a rifle. I personally suspect it was a pistol. A rifle is more cumbersome. Also, there is the more tangible mechanics of dragging bodies by the feet. Both hands must be used. You can’t drag a body by one leg. The other will act like a rudder and make it impossible. The killer would have to use both hands, one grabbing each ankle. He cannot have the gun in his hand. This argues that he slipped the pistol in his pocket or belt. If he had a rifle, it would mean he had a sling on it. If the killer had a rifle, I doubt he set it aside.

     The double murder, you see, is quite pondersome. One, it carries the signature of a vengeful maniac. On the other hand, this is essentially out in the boonies. No thrill killer thirsting for blood would go there on the odd chance a couple would come along. Then there’s the problem of hiding the bodies in the shack, an act which indicates the killer had to hide the product of his dirty deed. Why not just run? Could he not get away for a while? Was he trying to blame Gill? That would mean he was aware of his presence there off and on. The papers said that there was an attempt to light the shack on fire. Lee Gnesa doesn’t recall seeing any real evidence of this or even smelling any charring. This would have also set the whole of the “canyon” on fire and this would only have drawn attention to the killer as he fled. (A Santa Barbara News Press photo of the shack also shows that the reports of leaves being piled up around the shack to help ignite it is untrue.)

     The circumstances and the character of the victims all make this the genuinely motiveless crime. It doesn’t seem like thrill killing. Revenge is hard to imagine. Nobody even knew they were going to that section of beach.

     Because of this, 9 years later, The Zodiac Killer would be introduced into the equation.  He attacked young couples. He shot his first “official” victims in December 1968 at Lake Herman Road with a .22 automatic pistol. He attacked a couple at an isolated spot at Lake Berryessa in September 1969. Together, this makes a similar MO to what we see at Gaviota Beach. Could Bobby and Linda be his first victims? Sheriff John Carpenter wasn’t sure. He had inside information that Leigh Allen was a suspect. He discovered from Lompoc locals that Leigh Allen once kept a trailer down around Lompoc and was a lifeguard at the local public pool. He held a press conference and admitted there was no proof, but that on the surface there seemed a similar MO.

     Is there? Well, they were a couple shot more than necessary with a .22 caliber. But Zodiac also didn’t hide what he did. He simply left, on more than one occasion before the victims were even dead. He went for a single head shot on the man to get him out of the way first. Then he riddled the woman full of holes. It’s the opposite here. Bobby was shot the most. Perhaps it’s Zodiac, perhaps not. I needed more clues.

     On April 25, 2013, a little close to 1 month short of the 50th anniversary of the double murder, Lee Gnesa led me and Brian Donelson back to the site. We were probably the first ones there in 35 years. This pictures and videos that follow take up the narrative.    

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Carolyn Coscio