The Zodiac Killer's Lake Herman Road Crime Scene

12-20-68 : LAKE HERMAN ROAD - Benicia, California

On the night of December 20, 1968, seventeen-year-old David Faraday arrived at the home of his new girlfriend, Betty Lou Jensen, in the small Northern California city of Benicia. The teenagers had met two weeks earlier while attending a church function and had become so attached to one another that David was soon cutting classes to visit with Betty Lou. As the young couple departed for what was to be their first official date, David promised Mr. and Mrs. Jensen that he would return with their daughter by 11:00 pm. The proud parents watched as Betty Lou and her new suitor climbed into David's Rambler station wagon and drove away.

David and Betty Lou did not keep their promise, and, shortly after 11:00 pm, a driver traveling along a darkened stretch of Lake Herman Road found the young couple lying on the ground in a spot known as a "lover's lane." The two teenagers had been shot to death while Mr. and Mrs. Jensen were waiting at home, resisting the urge to glance at the clock.

Left with no clues or viable suspects, Benicia police believed that the two teenagers were the victims of a random act of senseless violence. Hopes of catching the killer faded by summer, and it seemed that the case would remain unsolved.

Scene II: Blue Rock Springs