Wallflower

after all these years, a kind of resolution

DNA links convict to 1978 slaying

By Kelli Phillips

CONTRA COSTA TIMES

MARTINEZ - The father of an 11-year-old Moraga girl who was murdered in 1978 said Thursday he is grateful her killer has been identified, but shocked to learn it wasn't the man he suspected.

New DNA evidence links Charles "Junior" Jackson, a convicted serial killer who died in prison, to the April 22, 1978, sexual assault and murder of Cynthia Waxman, the Contra Costa Sheriff's Office announced Thursday.

"When they said they got a positive hit on someone we didn't suspect, it blew my mind," said Lorin Waxman. "We were shocked, really shocked."

Investigators and some members of the girl's family long suspected Phillip Hughes, a convicted serial killer serving three life sentences for slaying three young women in Contra Costa and Alameda counties in the '70s.

"(Lorin) was upset that he had hated the wrong man for so many years," said Lorin's current wife, Linda Waxman.

Cindy's younger sister, Pamela Waxman, said she didn't think her sister's murder would be solved. "I never thought that if it was proven not to be Hughes, that it could be proven to be someone else," she in a telephone interview from Ann Arbor, Mich.

"I always thought it would just be a question mark."

Jackson, 64, died of a heart attack in February 2002 while serving a life sentence at Folsom State Prison for the 1982 rape and stabbing of Joan Stewart, a San Francisco City College biology professor killed in Montclair.

Cindy Waxman is the seventh homicide victim investigators have posthumously linked to Jackson. A former handyman, Jackson grew up in Louisiana and moved to Oakland after his first prison stint for burglary in the early '50s.

Jackson was in and out of prison for most of his adult life on charges of rape, burglary, assault and child molestation.

Rockne Harmon, an Alameda County deputy district attorney, prosecuted Jackson in 1982 and helped link him to six other homicides that were announced in March 2002, six weeks after he died.

DNA evidence pointed to Jackson in the deaths of Sonya Higginbotham in June 1975; Ann Johnson, 27, in August 1975; Henry Vila and his wife, Edith, in November 1981; Gail Leslie Slocum, 34, and Betty Jo Grunzweig, 37, in December 1981. All were killed in or just outside their homes in Oakland and Albany.

"I feel confident that I know of others," Harmon said. "There's a remote possibility I'm wrong, but I feel there were others and that's why we've kept going back to (those cases)."

At the same time, Harmon said sometimes the result of a database search is surprising. The Moraga fifth-grader was Jackson's only child victim.

Her body was found in a wooded area off Moraga Road behind Campolindo High School. Cindy and her cousin had found a kitten while playing in a nearby field and she stayed behind while her cousin went to get money to buy food for the cat.

When the cousin returned, Cindy and the kitten were gone.

Lorin Waxman said he and his then-wife, Bonnie Waxman, the girl's mother, were at an ice skating recital for Pamela. His business partner and former brother-in-law was watching the children.

When they found out Cindy was missing, Lorin Waxman went home to see if she was there while his wife searched around the high school. The girl's mother found her in some brush near the field. A rope was still tied around her neck.

"It was as traumatic as it could be," Lorin Waxman said. "They wouldn't let me see the body. I remember the day, I remember sitting on the driveway."

In the years that followed, Lorin Waxman said he often drove by the crime scene, squeezing a "stress" ball and playing classical music and screaming, "Why?"

Last November, investigators called Cindy's parents to say they were taking another look at their daughter's murder using advanced DNA technology that had recently become available.

"I felt gratified that the people in Martinez still cared," said the girl's mother, Bonnie Waxman. "I know that getting to the conclusion of this case was not an easy road and I appreciate the perseverance."

With federal funding, evidence from her clothing and from underneath a fingernail were sent to another lab in the Bay Area where biological material, not previously noticed, was discovered, said Paul Holes, supervising criminalist for the Sheriff's Office crime lab.

The DNA results were uploaded to a database, which came back with a "hit" on Jackson two days later.

"There were a lot of different predators around in the '70s and '80s," Lorin Waxman said. "It's nice to know it's finally getting handled -- God love DNA."

Funny Girl

My friend Sara, tipsy on cheap champagne, threw her arm over my shoulder and said,"You know what I like best about your name? That when I say 'Trissy McGhee', I'm not making that up."

Wow.

He hates us. He reaaalllly hates us.

from the Associated Press:

Arnold Schwarzenegger's campaign pulled a form from its Web site Wednesday that asked Californians to report stories of horrible teachers to support the ballot initiative to lengthen teachers' probationary period.

Posted on the campaign Web site, , the form asked: "Have a story about a teacher who just might not be cut out for the job, yet nothing can be done because of tenure? Please tell us. We'd like to share the stories of Californians like you!"

Am I paranoid to think that there is sexism behind this? That it's easier to go after teachers because it is a field dominated by women? Why not ask for bad cop stories? Bad firefighter stories? (I guess the issue is one of tenure so it doesn't really apply to police officers and firefighters so my logic is a little fuzzy but I'm annoyed, OK?)

How about bad actor stories? I've got a bad bodybuilder cum politician story for you, Mr. Governator.

I thought the sky was cracking open.

It never ever ever thunders here. i never see lightning. Last night we were treated to a huge thunderstorm (by San Diego standards, anyway) and I was a little bit scared.

Dinner at Big Sky

San Luis rrrocked.

What the..

Can your feet shrink?
Mine used to be a solid size 8 and now I knock around in size 7 1/2 shoes. Sometimes even 7!
What gives?

Yay for learning!

Good luck to everyone in my life who is starting school this week. Special shout out to Olivia (kindergarten!) and Alec (big 2nd grader!), to Andria who starts her first day of teaching!!, to the Dhanens kids, the Meyer kids, the Fontessoti kids, all the McGhee cousins, to Maureen who started a while ago and anyone else I forgot. Good luck. You'll do great!