December 20, 2023 • 31 mins
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Have you ever wondered what drives a person to commit gruesome crimes? This week, we’re pulling back the curtain on the chilling case of the Hitchhiker Slayers, a series of unsolved murders that rocked California in the late 70s. We’re tracing the paths of three innocent victims - Jackie Rook, Mary Ann Saris, and Patty Leany - university students who vanished under the veil of hitchhiking. As we stitch together the pieces of their tragic disappearances and the shocking discoveries that followed, you'll hear about the pivotal fingerprint that finally cracked their cases wide open.
We then switch lanes and shed light on a figure known to many as Thor Wald Nis Christiansen, the man who masterminded these heinous acts. Walk with us through the tumultuous journey of his life - from a troubled childhood to his descent into substance abuse. While unraveling the layered and dark duality of his personality, you’ll learn about the abnormal behavior that led to his capture, the irrefutable evidence linking him to the crimes, and the community's unwavering quest for justice. Hear from those who were close to Thor and gain an understanding of his psyche through the lens of Dr. John Stolberg, shedding light on this grim chapter of history. We promise you a riveting tale, filled with darkness, justice, and unexpected turns.
Source Material: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1oKXzagKlgpJtc5Q0KjsPohA7aNoy8-Yf3XbJMKo9coo/edit?usp=sharing
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Hey, all my fellow crime connoisseurs and welcome
back.
I'm your host, grace D, andtoday's case will have you
saying WTF throughout the wholeshow.
It's the late 70s andhitchhiking is still actively
being done by folks, especiallythose in college, since most
didn't have their own cars.
(00:20):
It isn't until girls from thelocal campus start going missing
in similar ways that peoplestart to think that maybe we
need to stop hitchhiking.
Multiple women get abducted andmurdered and the police
struggle to find answers.
That is until they get a leadfrom someone they at least
(00:41):
expect.
This is the case of thehitchhiker slangs.
(01:20):
Jacqueline Ann Rook, who goes byJackie, was born on January
12th 1955.
Jackie grew up in Del Mar,california.
She was a student at theUniversity of California, santa
Barbara.
She was the resident advisor ofthe Francisco Torres dorms and
she was majoring incommunication studies.
(01:42):
On November 20th 1976, jackietold a friend that she was going
to go shopping.
She was last seen hitchhikingat a busy intersection.
Jackie had disappeared from theIsla Vista area.
For the police in that area itwasn't uncommon for a student to
(02:04):
be reported missing and thenshow up less than 24 hours later
.
Perfectly fine.
So when Jackie was reportedmissing it wasn't too much of a
concern for them at the time.
They figured, eh, she's acollege kid, she'll show up soon
.
But sadly this wasn't the case.
It had been over 24 hours andstill no sign or word from
(02:27):
Jackie.
The searching began and missingpersons flyers started to
circulate.
Someone truly going missing inIsla Vista just doesn't happen.
Students got involved inpetitions for a busing
transportation free of chargefor students, especially at
night, but this was still a timewhen hitchhiking was a normal
(02:50):
way of getting around the area.
Two weeks later, anotherUniversity, california, santa
Barbara student went missing.
Mary Ann Saris was born inSonoma County, california, on
July 24, 1957.
Mary graduated from Santa RosaHigh School and attended the
(03:10):
University of California, santaBarbara.
Mary worked at the Jack in theBox in Galita and Happy Steak
restaurant in Santa Barbara.
While attending UCSB, mary hada doctor's appointment on
December 6, 1976 at 4.30pm whichshe attended at the local
(03:32):
hospital.
After her appointment, mary waslast seen hitchhiking, like
Jackie, at the corner ofPatterson and Hollister Avenues
in Galita.
Mary had been living in IslaVista for just three months
before her disappearance.
People were starting to worryabout the peaceful town of Isla
(03:53):
Vista.
Two young students were missingand both had been hitchhiking.
The police were no closer tofinding Mary because they didn't
take Jackie's disappearance asseriously as they should have
when it was first reported.
So they were starting behindthe eight ball.
Sergeant Mike Kirkman of theSanta Barbara Police Department
(04:13):
was the lead investigator on thecase.
Students took action to try andhelp find their peers and get
safe transportation for students.
Patricia Marie Laney, who wentby Patty, was one of those
students.
Patty was also a student atUCSB.
She was an aspiring actress,juggler and social rights
(04:36):
activist.
Patty started the petition forthe extra buses to be free to
students, especially at night.
She protested for this daily.
So it was no surprise whenPatty sprang into action to
spread the word and tried tohelp find Jackie and Mary.
(04:56):
Patty was born on September 17,1955 in Whittier in Los Angeles
County, california.
She's described as intelligentwith a bright personality,
someone who smiled a lot and wasvery active in her community.
Patty volunteered at the IslaVista Credit Union, the food
co-op and the Isla Vista MedicalClinics.
(05:16):
On January 18, 1977, pattyhelped pass out and hang up the
missing person flyers of bothJackie and Mary.
Patty's friend from her theatergroup was supposed to pick her
up but he was late.
Patty was last seen at a busstop at the corner of Patterson
(05:39):
and Hollister Avenues, and ifyou're thinking to yourself,
wait a minute, that's becausethis is the same exact location
that Mary was last seen at aswell, and this happened while
she was distributing Mary andJackie's flyers Wild, I know, I
know.
I told you guys this was a mindboggler of a case.
(06:01):
When the friend couldn't findPatty and no one had seen or
heard from her since she waspassing out the flyers.
She was also reported missing.
Police were desperate to findthese girls and the community
wanted answers, and they werefinally about to get some.
(06:21):
Lieutenant Peter Ornaldi wasabout to make a gruesome
discovery only 24 hours afterPatty's disappearance.
On Wednesday January 19, 1977,lieutenant Ornaldi had stopped
at one of the turnouts, lookedover to the side and saw a young
(06:43):
woman's body.
The body was stripped and thebackpack and the belongings were
found about 8 tenths of a milefrom her body.
It was confirmed that the bodywas that of 21-year-old Patty
Leany.
Patty was found in RefugioCanyon, about 20 miles north of
Santa Barbara and near formerGovernor Ronald Reagan's
(07:05):
mountaintop ranch.
It was clear to investigatorsthat Patty had been shot in the
side of her head and dumped.
The police taped off the crimescene and began investigating
immediately.
During their investigation ofthe crime scene, they found
bloodied paper towels.
What even more interesting isthat they had found a
(07:29):
fingerprint with thosebloodstained paper towels.
They collected this as evidenceand felt that they were
starting to get somewhere.
But who was responsible?
They had more answers now.
You see, the road that Pattywas found on is very remote, so
the killer had to have beensomeone familiar with it.
(07:51):
It couldn't have been someonecompletely unaware with the area
.
Because of how remote the roadwas, investigators decided to
expand their search on a hunchthat maybe, just maybe, they'd
find something to link the othergirls.
And lo and behold, it paid off.
(08:12):
The next day, on January 20,1977, the decomposing body of
Jackie Rook was found, exactlytwo months after she went
missing.
Jackie's body was found by theSheriff's search and rescue team
within one half of a mile fromwhere Patty was found.
They knew this was the work ofthe same man.
(08:36):
Like Patty, jackie was foundwith her clothes removed.
Jackie's autopsy reportindicated that she was shot
twice through her skull and thatshe had been sexually assaulted
.
Police started to bring peoplein for questioning in the
disappearance and murders of thegirls.
The road they found Jackie andPatti on was a back route
(09:00):
sometimes used by the residentsof Solvang.
Solvang is a Danish communitystarted by Danish immigrants who
purchased the land in 1911.
The FBI advised police to lookfor a white male, a loner in his
mid-20s, which truly wasn'tmuch to go on when you don't
have a match on the policefingerprint database.
(09:22):
The investigation went cold andit wouldn't be for another four
months before police would haveanything else on the case.
On Sunday, may 22nd 1977, twohunters found skeletal remains
near the remote Los AlamosCanyon.
(09:43):
Identification was made latethe next night and on May 23rd
it was confirmed that theremains belonged to Mary Saris.
The Santa Barbara Coroner'soffice confirmed with the help
of an unnamed dentist whoconfirmed the dental records
matched Mary's.
The autopsy report revealedthat Mary had also been shot in
(10:05):
the head and it was presumedthat she too, like Jackie and
Patti, were sexually assaulted.
The hunters found Mary on DrumCanyon Road near Highway 246.
Investigators cordoned offeight miles of the canyon so
investigators could comb throughthe area for additional clues.
(10:25):
It wouldn't be for over twoyears until there would be a
break in the case, and allthanks to a sex worker out in
Hollywood.
On April 18th 1979, lydiaPreston was a sex worker in the
Hollywood area who had a Johnpick her up for a date.
A date is sex for money.
(10:46):
She went back and forthnegotiating a price with the guy
and they settled on $45, andthen she got in the car with him
.
Lydia told the guy about ahotel on Franklin in Hollywood
and to go there and rent a roomfor an hour, but he bypassed her
.
She suggested another locationto him and he declined that one
(11:08):
as well.
He made small talk with her,giving a phony backstory of who
he was and where he was from.
He then starts driving up intothe Hollywood Hills, secluded
from everything and everyone.
The man pulls out a gun andshoots Lydia in the head.
Much to the man's surprise, hewas taken to the hospital Repeat
(11:31):
after me.
Lydia was still alive.
She grabbed the wheel makingthe car crash and she was able
to flee to the door of aneighbor who called 911.
Lydia was taken to the localhospital where the bullet was
removed and she survived.
She was left deaf in one ear,had some scars on her face and
(11:52):
her facial bone was shattered.
Miraculously she was alivewithout any brain damage.
Five weeks after Lydia wasattacked, a decomposing body was
found in a drainage ditch nearBig Tahunga Dam in Los Angeles
County.
The body of Laura Sue Benjamin,a sex worker, was found on May
(12:17):
26, 1979.
The medical examiner estimatedthat she died sometime in April
of 1979.
Laura had been shot in the headand it was believed that she
was sexually assaulted.
Not much other information isknown about Laura that I could
find.
Three months later, while Lydiawas at the bottom line bar in
(12:42):
Hollywood, she saw an all toofamiliar face walk in.
It was the man who had tried tokill her.
Terrified, he would recognizeher, lydia ran to the back of
the bar, to the pay phone andcalled for the police.
It took a while to convince theoperator that the man who shot
her had just happened to be atthe same bar, and a patrol car
(13:03):
was dispatched.
The police then arrested ThorNis Christiansen on July 11,
1979.
When detectives learned ofwhere Thor was originally from,
they quickly linked thesimilarities of the young women
in Isla Vista to Lydia.
They ended up determining thatLaura's case was also connected
(13:27):
to Thor.
But who was Thor Christiansenand how did he fly under the
police's radar for so long.
Thor Wald Nis Christiansen wasborn on December 28, 1957 in
Denmark.
When he was five, he immigratedto the United States with his
parents.
(13:47):
They initially settled inEnglewood, california, and then
they moved to Solvang.
His family owned a prominentrestaurant in Solvang.
In sixth and seventh grade,thor started harming little
animals like frogs and birds.
According to his childhoodfriend, ron Bender, in an
(14:08):
interview with Bored to Kill,thor would capture them, strap
firecrackers to their backs,release them and watch them
explode.
Thor was a very bright andpromising student, but when he
entered into high school hisgrades began to drop and he got
involved with drugs and alcohol.
He gained a ton of weight,coming in at around 275 pounds.
(14:35):
Thor attended Santaginez HighSchool.
He was described as spoiled.
His parents gave him an Audi at16.
In the Bored to Kill episode,childhood friend Guy Muller said
that Thor's mom would give him$20 every day and that they
would buy a fifth of Scotch andThor would buy himself a pack of
(14:56):
Kohl's.
Thor would start the day with acouple of shots and then go to
class.
He started out with friends,but as he got older he became
more and more secluded.
Less than a month after Jackieand Patty's bodies were found,
in February 1977, thor and Guy,who were 19 at the time, went
(15:17):
for a drive.
They went to a park after hours, known for teens hooking up,
drinking and doing drugs.
They cracked up from some beerswhile Guy rolled a joint.
At this time a sheriff wasdriving by.
He saw the car and approachedthe vehicle.
What Thor and Guy didn'trealize at the time was that
(15:38):
Thor was resting his foot on thebrake pedal, so the brake
lights were on and that's howthe sheriff saw them.
The sheriff spoke with the twoand told them to hand over the
beer in marijuana.
He said to them that he wouldbe writing them a ticket for
underage possession of alcohol.
The sheriff's partner thenasked Thor to open the trunk,
(15:58):
but he refused.
Guy said to him quote, justgive them the keys and let's get
out of here.
They got the beer, they got ourweed.
Let's go and quote.
Finally, the sheriff just tookthe keys from Thor and opened
the trunk himself.
In the trunk was a brown paperbag, thinking it was more weed.
(16:19):
The sheriff was surprised byhow heavy the bag was and, much
to his shock, when he opened thebag, he found a.22 caliber
pistol.
Despite the recent abductionsand murders, thor's possession
of the gun was not consideredunusual At the time.
These were common among peoplein the mid-70s in rural
(16:41):
California.
The gun was confiscated butThor was not considered a
suspect in the missing andmurdered cases of Jackie, mary
and Patty.
After his encounter with thepolice, thor left town and the
abductions in Isla Vista hadstopped.
He moved to Oregon and workedas a farmhand.
(17:03):
Very little is known about hislife and movement during his
time here from 1977 to early1979.
Thor had tremendously slimmeddown when he returned to
California after 22 months andhe didn't come back alone he
brought his new girlfriend.
He met Carrie Solis in 1978while she was hitchhiking and
(17:29):
the two hit it off and begandating.
This was Thor's first everserious relationship with a
woman.
They moved back to Galita andrented an apartment together.
Thor began making regular tripsto Los Angeles after returning
home.
Friends say he became almostcompulsive, like making sure his
(17:51):
car and trunk were clean, whichstruck them as odd.
When Thor was arrested, hisfriends didn't believe it at
first.
Yeah, he had his moments andoddities, but they didn't think
that he was capable of murder.
Then they started to thinkabout it and things began to add
up.
Sergeant Mike Kirkman had sinceleft the police department and
(18:15):
was hired by the defense.
When Kirkman spoke with Thor,he said the girls deserved it
because they made fun of hisweight.
Thor confessed to each of thethree Isla Vista murders to
Kirkman.
Kirkman said he watched asThor's eyes focused, the muscles
in his face changed and thenThor confessed.
(18:35):
Kirkman said he knew it was thetruth and that it wasn't the
same man that he had spoken tobefore.
Kirkman believed Thor had dualpersonalities and was two people
inside the same person.
Thor was arrested and chargedwith the three murders in Isla
Vista and then the murder andattempted murder of two sex
(18:59):
workers in Los Angeles.
When looking into Thor,investigators learned of the
ticket that he was issued inFebruary of 1977 and of the.22
pistol that was confiscated fromhim, matching the murder weapon
of Jackie, mary and Patty.
This information supportedtheir need to obtain a search
(19:20):
warrant for his apartment and onJuly 27, 1979, the search
warrant was executed.
Thor was booked on July 27,1979 for the murders of Jackie
Rook, mary Saras and PattyLainey.
He was held in the SantaBarbara County Jail on a
$500,000 bond.
(19:40):
On August 20, he was chargedwith Laura's murder and on the
next day, on the 21st, he wasalso charged and booked for the
attempted murder of Lydia.
Thor pled not guilty to thethree Isla Vista murders in
October of 1979, and thenfollowed up his plea to not
(20:03):
guilty because of insanity onDecember 26, 1979.
Thor was scheduled for twotrials, one in Los Angeles on
February 4, 1980, for the murderof Laura Benjamin and then the
other in Santa Barbara in March17, 1980, for the Isla Vista
(20:24):
murders.
The courts hired Dr JohnStolberg to assess Thor's state
of mind at the time of thecrimes.
Thor never confessed his crimesto Dr Stolberg, but from the
facts Dr Stolberg was able toform a picture of the
accusations against Thor.
Dr Stolberg said, quote he wasvery heavy, had a lot of
(20:51):
problems in school and I thinkthroughout the years he was
rejected by more and more womenand he developed more and more
anger.
And then that's coupled withthe relationship problems.
Impulse control problems can'tget along with people abuse,
substances end quote Thor'sgirlfriend, carrie, had
(21:12):
disclosed details of his sexualappetite.
Thor, who was 21 at the time,had sex three to five times a
day.
You heard that correctly, not aweek three to five times a day
After being examined by severaldoctors and a postponement of
(21:33):
the LA trial, thor changed hisplea to guilty.
However, a jury convicted him offirst degree murder and assault
on April 16, 1980.
After Dr Stolberg testified hehad exhibited some level of
provisional planning.
Throughout the trial hedisclosed Thor's struggles with
(21:54):
intermittent explosive disorder,a paranoid personality,
prolonged substance abuse andnecrophilia.
Because of Thor changing hisplea to guilty, he was required
to reveal to the courts of hiscrimes in detail.
He answered all of the judge'squestions, gave details of his
(22:15):
crimes, explained that each timehe had shot them in the head,
each time he had undressed andhad sex with the body's
post-mortem and how in each casehe dumped the bodies.
On May 17, 1980, thor wassentenced to 25 years to life
for Laura's murder and anadditional nine-year sentence
(22:39):
for Lydia's attempted murder.
Thor surprised the prosecutionduring the Santa Barbara trial
by pleading guilty to all threemurder charges on May 28, 1980.
Thor was sentenced to life in amaximum security prison on June
18, 1980.
Ultimately, thor was sentencedfor all four murders and the
(23:02):
attempt on Lydia.
There's reason to believe thatThor would have continued
killing had he not been caught.
He told his friend Guy that hewas considering becoming a
long-haul trucker.
In the Born to Kill interview,guy was noticeably upset by this
and said, quote Think of howmany people he could have killed
(23:24):
across the country.
End quote.
But is that all?
There's a two-year gap, fromJanuary 1977 to April 1979.
During that time he lived inOregon.
Dr John Stolberg reviewed casesin Oregon with similarities
that matched that time frame.
(23:44):
There were women in the areawho went missing during the time
that he was there but werenever found.
Four of the missing women fitThor's victim type, age and
looks.
There hasn't been enoughinformation to prove Thor's
involvement in these cases, soat this time it's just
speculation.
(24:08):
Thor was incarcerated at FolsomState Prison for six months.
On March 30, 1981, at 23 yearsold, thor Christensen was
stabbed once in the chest byanother prisoner in the rec yard
.
The prison administrativeassistant, gil Miller, stated
(24:28):
that Thor walked towards someprison officers from an exercise
area near the basketball courtsand collapsed at their feet.
Around 1 pm Thor was rushed tothe prison hospital and was
pronounced dead at 1.40 pm,while a bloody shank was found
at the scene.
To this day the killer'sidentity remains unknown.
(24:49):
Ron Bender, the former friendof Thor's, said, quote it is the
best thing that could havehappened to him.
He didn't need to live.
His parents didn't need him tolive.
They didn't need to have to goand visit him in prison.
Now they can move on.
Everybody can move on, and avery vicious human being is dead
(25:11):
.
End quote.
In an article in the Daily Nexusdated May 11, 1977, a friend of
Jackie Rook, mark Zakavik, andothers collected donations to
establish a memorial scholarshipin her name.
Mark said quote Some of us werejust talking about some kind of
(25:35):
memorial to her and we came upwith this End quote.
According to Mark, the JackieRook Memorial Scholarship will
be awarded each year to acollege-bound San Marcos senior
who has done outstanding work inthe speech department.
The Santa Barbara ScholarshipFoundation handles this
(25:56):
scholarship.
John Zoomer, a friend of PattyLaney, also wanted to honor his
late friend.
Given that Patty was an avidjuggler, they held a juggling
festival in her honor.
People came from all over.
It sparked something that'sbeen going on for decades now.
(26:17):
It's a benefit for the SantaBarbara Rape Crisis Center, a
cause that Patty wholeheartedlybelieved in.
I couldn't find any informationon memorials from Mary Saris
and I could not locate where thesoul survivor, lydia Preston,
is today.
(26:41):
Thor Christensen became a serialkiller at just 19 years old.
He took the lives of four youngwomen and tried to end the life
of another.
So many lives were foreverchanged because of him.
If there are more victims, likeexperts perceive there to be,
especially in Oregon, I hope oneday soon there will be answers
(27:05):
for the cases and the families.
May they finally receive someclosure.
And that's the case of theHitchhiker's Lines.
Tune in next week for a newarea that we'll be diving into.
You can find crime connoisseurswherever you get your podcasts,
so please download andsubscribe.
(27:26):
Be sure to follow on Instagramat CrimeConnoisseurs.
Source material for thisepisode can be found in the show
notes.
In the meantime, keep it classy, connoisseurs, and I'll catch
you on the next case.
Bye.
Hey, all my fellow crime connoisseurs and welcome
back.
I'm your host, grace D, andtoday's case will have you
saying WTF throughout the wholeshow.
It's the late 70s andhitchhiking is still actively
being done by folks, especiallythose in college, since most
didn't have their own cars.
(00:20):
It isn't until girls from thelocal campus start going missing
in similar ways that peoplestart to think that maybe we
need to stop hitchhiking.
Multiple women get abducted andmurdered and the police
struggle to find answers.
That is until they get a leadfrom someone they at least
(00:41):
expect.
This is the case of thehitchhiker slangs.
(01:20):
Jacqueline Ann Rook, who goes byJackie, was born on January
12th 1955.
Jackie grew up in Del Mar,california.
She was a student at theUniversity of California, santa
Barbara.
She was the resident advisor ofthe Francisco Torres dorms and
she was majoring incommunication studies.
(01:42):
On November 20th 1976, jackietold a friend that she was going
to go shopping.
She was last seen hitchhikingat a busy intersection.
Jackie had disappeared from theIsla Vista area.
For the police in that area itwasn't uncommon for a student to
(02:04):
be reported missing and thenshow up less than 24 hours later
.
Perfectly fine.
So when Jackie was reportedmissing it wasn't too much of a
concern for them at the time.
They figured, eh, she's acollege kid, she'll show up soon
.
But sadly this wasn't the case.
It had been over 24 hours andstill no sign or word from
(02:27):
Jackie.
The searching began and missingpersons flyers started to
circulate.
Someone truly going missing inIsla Vista just doesn't happen.
Students got involved inpetitions for a busing
transportation free of chargefor students, especially at
night, but this was still a timewhen hitchhiking was a normal
(02:50):
way of getting around the area.
Two weeks later, anotherUniversity, california, santa
Barbara student went missing.
Mary Ann Saris was born inSonoma County, california, on
July 24, 1957.
Mary graduated from Santa RosaHigh School and attended the
(03:10):
University of California, santaBarbara.
Mary worked at the Jack in theBox in Galita and Happy Steak
restaurant in Santa Barbara.
While attending UCSB, mary hada doctor's appointment on
December 6, 1976 at 4.30pm whichshe attended at the local
(03:32):
hospital.
After her appointment, mary waslast seen hitchhiking, like
Jackie, at the corner ofPatterson and Hollister Avenues
in Galita.
Mary had been living in IslaVista for just three months
before her disappearance.
People were starting to worryabout the peaceful town of Isla
(03:53):
Vista.
Two young students were missingand both had been hitchhiking.
The police were no closer tofinding Mary because they didn't
take Jackie's disappearance asseriously as they should have
when it was first reported.
So they were starting behindthe eight ball.
Sergeant Mike Kirkman of theSanta Barbara Police Department
(04:13):
was the lead investigator on thecase.
Students took action to try andhelp find their peers and get
safe transportation for students.
Patricia Marie Laney, who wentby Patty, was one of those
students.
Patty was also a student atUCSB.
She was an aspiring actress,juggler and social rights
(04:36):
activist.
Patty started the petition forthe extra buses to be free to
students, especially at night.
She protested for this daily.
So it was no surprise whenPatty sprang into action to
spread the word and tried tohelp find Jackie and Mary.
(04:56):
Patty was born on September 17,1955 in Whittier in Los Angeles
County, california.
She's described as intelligentwith a bright personality,
someone who smiled a lot and wasvery active in her community.
Patty volunteered at the IslaVista Credit Union, the food
co-op and the Isla Vista MedicalClinics.
(05:16):
On January 18, 1977, pattyhelped pass out and hang up the
missing person flyers of bothJackie and Mary.
Patty's friend from her theatergroup was supposed to pick her
up but he was late.
Patty was last seen at a busstop at the corner of Patterson
(05:39):
and Hollister Avenues, and ifyou're thinking to yourself,
wait a minute, that's becausethis is the same exact location
that Mary was last seen at aswell, and this happened while
she was distributing Mary andJackie's flyers Wild, I know, I
know.
I told you guys this was a mindboggler of a case.
(06:01):
When the friend couldn't findPatty and no one had seen or
heard from her since she waspassing out the flyers.
She was also reported missing.
Police were desperate to findthese girls and the community
wanted answers, and they werefinally about to get some.
(06:21):
Lieutenant Peter Ornaldi wasabout to make a gruesome
discovery only 24 hours afterPatty's disappearance.
On Wednesday January 19, 1977,lieutenant Ornaldi had stopped
at one of the turnouts, lookedover to the side and saw a young
(06:43):
woman's body.
The body was stripped and thebackpack and the belongings were
found about 8 tenths of a milefrom her body.
It was confirmed that the bodywas that of 21-year-old Patty
Leany.
Patty was found in RefugioCanyon, about 20 miles north of
Santa Barbara and near formerGovernor Ronald Reagan's
(07:05):
mountaintop ranch.
It was clear to investigatorsthat Patty had been shot in the
side of her head and dumped.
The police taped off the crimescene and began investigating
immediately.
During their investigation ofthe crime scene, they found
bloodied paper towels.
What even more interesting isthat they had found a
(07:29):
fingerprint with thosebloodstained paper towels.
They collected this as evidenceand felt that they were
starting to get somewhere.
But who was responsible?
They had more answers now.
You see, the road that Pattywas found on is very remote, so
the killer had to have beensomeone familiar with it.
(07:51):
It couldn't have been someonecompletely unaware with the area
.
Because of how remote the roadwas, investigators decided to
expand their search on a hunchthat maybe, just maybe, they'd
find something to link the othergirls.
And lo and behold, it paid off.
(08:12):
The next day, on January 20,1977, the decomposing body of
Jackie Rook was found, exactlytwo months after she went
missing.
Jackie's body was found by theSheriff's search and rescue team
within one half of a mile fromwhere Patty was found.
They knew this was the work ofthe same man.
(08:36):
Like Patty, jackie was foundwith her clothes removed.
Jackie's autopsy reportindicated that she was shot
twice through her skull and thatshe had been sexually assaulted
.
Police started to bring peoplein for questioning in the
disappearance and murders of thegirls.
The road they found Jackie andPatti on was a back route
(09:00):
sometimes used by the residentsof Solvang.
Solvang is a Danish communitystarted by Danish immigrants who
purchased the land in 1911.
The FBI advised police to lookfor a white male, a loner in his
mid-20s, which truly wasn'tmuch to go on when you don't
have a match on the policefingerprint database.
(09:22):
The investigation went cold andit wouldn't be for another four
months before police would haveanything else on the case.
On Sunday, may 22nd 1977, twohunters found skeletal remains
near the remote Los AlamosCanyon.
(09:43):
Identification was made latethe next night and on May 23rd
it was confirmed that theremains belonged to Mary Saris.
The Santa Barbara Coroner'soffice confirmed with the help
of an unnamed dentist whoconfirmed the dental records
matched Mary's.
The autopsy report revealedthat Mary had also been shot in
(10:05):
the head and it was presumedthat she too, like Jackie and
Patti, were sexually assaulted.
The hunters found Mary on DrumCanyon Road near Highway 246.
Investigators cordoned offeight miles of the canyon so
investigators could comb throughthe area for additional clues.
(10:25):
It wouldn't be for over twoyears until there would be a
break in the case, and allthanks to a sex worker out in
Hollywood.
On April 18th 1979, lydiaPreston was a sex worker in the
Hollywood area who had a Johnpick her up for a date.
A date is sex for money.
(10:46):
She went back and forthnegotiating a price with the guy
and they settled on $45, andthen she got in the car with him
.
Lydia told the guy about ahotel on Franklin in Hollywood
and to go there and rent a roomfor an hour, but he bypassed her
.
She suggested another locationto him and he declined that one
(11:08):
as well.
He made small talk with her,giving a phony backstory of who
he was and where he was from.
He then starts driving up intothe Hollywood Hills, secluded
from everything and everyone.
The man pulls out a gun andshoots Lydia in the head.
Much to the man's surprise, hewas taken to the hospital Repeat
(11:31):
after me.
Lydia was still alive.
She grabbed the wheel makingthe car crash and she was able
to flee to the door of aneighbor who called 911.
Lydia was taken to the localhospital where the bullet was
removed and she survived.
She was left deaf in one ear,had some scars on her face and
(11:52):
her facial bone was shattered.
Miraculously she was alivewithout any brain damage.
Five weeks after Lydia wasattacked, a decomposing body was
found in a drainage ditch nearBig Tahunga Dam in Los Angeles
County.
The body of Laura Sue Benjamin,a sex worker, was found on May
(12:17):
26, 1979.
The medical examiner estimatedthat she died sometime in April
of 1979.
Laura had been shot in the headand it was believed that she
was sexually assaulted.
Not much other information isknown about Laura that I could
find.
Three months later, while Lydiawas at the bottom line bar in
(12:42):
Hollywood, she saw an all toofamiliar face walk in.
It was the man who had tried tokill her.
Terrified, he would recognizeher, lydia ran to the back of
the bar, to the pay phone andcalled for the police.
It took a while to convince theoperator that the man who shot
her had just happened to be atthe same bar, and a patrol car
(13:03):
was dispatched.
The police then arrested ThorNis Christiansen on July 11,
1979.
When detectives learned ofwhere Thor was originally from,
they quickly linked thesimilarities of the young women
in Isla Vista to Lydia.
They ended up determining thatLaura's case was also connected
(13:27):
to Thor.
But who was Thor Christiansenand how did he fly under the
police's radar for so long.
Thor Wald Nis Christiansen wasborn on December 28, 1957 in
Denmark.
When he was five, he immigratedto the United States with his
parents.
(13:47):
They initially settled inEnglewood, california, and then
they moved to Solvang.
His family owned a prominentrestaurant in Solvang.
In sixth and seventh grade,thor started harming little
animals like frogs and birds.
According to his childhoodfriend, ron Bender, in an
(14:08):
interview with Bored to Kill,thor would capture them, strap
firecrackers to their backs,release them and watch them
explode.
Thor was a very bright andpromising student, but when he
entered into high school hisgrades began to drop and he got
involved with drugs and alcohol.
He gained a ton of weight,coming in at around 275 pounds.
(14:35):
Thor attended Santaginez HighSchool.
He was described as spoiled.
His parents gave him an Audi at16.
In the Bored to Kill episode,childhood friend Guy Muller said
that Thor's mom would give him$20 every day and that they
would buy a fifth of Scotch andThor would buy himself a pack of
(14:56):
Kohl's.
Thor would start the day with acouple of shots and then go to
class.
He started out with friends,but as he got older he became
more and more secluded.
Less than a month after Jackieand Patty's bodies were found,
in February 1977, thor and Guy,who were 19 at the time, went
(15:17):
for a drive.
They went to a park after hours, known for teens hooking up,
drinking and doing drugs.
They cracked up from some beerswhile Guy rolled a joint.
At this time a sheriff wasdriving by.
He saw the car and approachedthe vehicle.
What Thor and Guy didn'trealize at the time was that
(15:38):
Thor was resting his foot on thebrake pedal, so the brake
lights were on and that's howthe sheriff saw them.
The sheriff spoke with the twoand told them to hand over the
beer in marijuana.
He said to them that he wouldbe writing them a ticket for
underage possession of alcohol.
The sheriff's partner thenasked Thor to open the trunk,
(15:58):
but he refused.
Guy said to him quote, justgive them the keys and let's get
out of here.
They got the beer, they got ourweed.
Let's go and quote.
Finally, the sheriff just tookthe keys from Thor and opened
the trunk himself.
In the trunk was a brown paperbag, thinking it was more weed.
(16:19):
The sheriff was surprised byhow heavy the bag was and, much
to his shock, when he opened thebag, he found a.22 caliber
pistol.
Despite the recent abductionsand murders, thor's possession
of the gun was not consideredunusual At the time.
These were common among peoplein the mid-70s in rural
(16:41):
California.
The gun was confiscated butThor was not considered a
suspect in the missing andmurdered cases of Jackie, mary
and Patty.
After his encounter with thepolice, thor left town and the
abductions in Isla Vista hadstopped.
He moved to Oregon and workedas a farmhand.
(17:03):
Very little is known about hislife and movement during his
time here from 1977 to early1979.
Thor had tremendously slimmeddown when he returned to
California after 22 months andhe didn't come back alone he
brought his new girlfriend.
He met Carrie Solis in 1978while she was hitchhiking and
(17:29):
the two hit it off and begandating.
This was Thor's first everserious relationship with a
woman.
They moved back to Galita andrented an apartment together.
Thor began making regular tripsto Los Angeles after returning
home.
Friends say he became almostcompulsive, like making sure his
(17:51):
car and trunk were clean, whichstruck them as odd.
When Thor was arrested, hisfriends didn't believe it at
first.
Yeah, he had his moments andoddities, but they didn't think
that he was capable of murder.
Then they started to thinkabout it and things began to add
up.
Sergeant Mike Kirkman had sinceleft the police department and
(18:15):
was hired by the defense.
When Kirkman spoke with Thor,he said the girls deserved it
because they made fun of hisweight.
Thor confessed to each of thethree Isla Vista murders to
Kirkman.
Kirkman said he watched asThor's eyes focused, the muscles
in his face changed and thenThor confessed.
(18:35):
Kirkman said he knew it was thetruth and that it wasn't the
same man that he had spoken tobefore.
Kirkman believed Thor had dualpersonalities and was two people
inside the same person.
Thor was arrested and chargedwith the three murders in Isla
Vista and then the murder andattempted murder of two sex
(18:59):
workers in Los Angeles.
When looking into Thor,investigators learned of the
ticket that he was issued inFebruary of 1977 and of the.22
pistol that was confiscated fromhim, matching the murder weapon
of Jackie, mary and Patty.
This information supportedtheir need to obtain a search
(19:20):
warrant for his apartment and onJuly 27, 1979, the search
warrant was executed.
Thor was booked on July 27,1979 for the murders of Jackie
Rook, mary Saras and PattyLainey.
He was held in the SantaBarbara County Jail on a
$500,000 bond.
(19:40):
On August 20, he was chargedwith Laura's murder and on the
next day, on the 21st, he wasalso charged and booked for the
attempted murder of Lydia.
Thor pled not guilty to thethree Isla Vista murders in
October of 1979, and thenfollowed up his plea to not
(20:03):
guilty because of insanity onDecember 26, 1979.
Thor was scheduled for twotrials, one in Los Angeles on
February 4, 1980, for the murderof Laura Benjamin and then the
other in Santa Barbara in March17, 1980, for the Isla Vista
(20:24):
murders.
The courts hired Dr JohnStolberg to assess Thor's state
of mind at the time of thecrimes.
Thor never confessed his crimesto Dr Stolberg, but from the
facts Dr Stolberg was able toform a picture of the
accusations against Thor.
Dr Stolberg said, quote he wasvery heavy, had a lot of
(20:51):
problems in school and I thinkthroughout the years he was
rejected by more and more womenand he developed more and more
anger.
And then that's coupled withthe relationship problems.
Impulse control problems can'tget along with people abuse,
substances end quote Thor'sgirlfriend, carrie, had
(21:12):
disclosed details of his sexualappetite.
Thor, who was 21 at the time,had sex three to five times a
day.
You heard that correctly, not aweek three to five times a day
After being examined by severaldoctors and a postponement of
(21:33):
the LA trial, thor changed hisplea to guilty.
However, a jury convicted him offirst degree murder and assault
on April 16, 1980.
After Dr Stolberg testified hehad exhibited some level of
provisional planning.
Throughout the trial hedisclosed Thor's struggles with
(21:54):
intermittent explosive disorder,a paranoid personality,
prolonged substance abuse andnecrophilia.
Because of Thor changing hisplea to guilty, he was required
to reveal to the courts of hiscrimes in detail.
He answered all of the judge'squestions, gave details of his
(22:15):
crimes, explained that each timehe had shot them in the head,
each time he had undressed andhad sex with the body's
post-mortem and how in each casehe dumped the bodies.
On May 17, 1980, thor wassentenced to 25 years to life
for Laura's murder and anadditional nine-year sentence
(22:39):
for Lydia's attempted murder.
Thor surprised the prosecutionduring the Santa Barbara trial
by pleading guilty to all threemurder charges on May 28, 1980.
Thor was sentenced to life in amaximum security prison on June
18, 1980.
Ultimately, thor was sentencedfor all four murders and the
(23:02):
attempt on Lydia.
There's reason to believe thatThor would have continued
killing had he not been caught.
He told his friend Guy that hewas considering becoming a
long-haul trucker.
In the Born to Kill interview,guy was noticeably upset by this
and said, quote Think of howmany people he could have killed
(23:24):
across the country.
End quote.
But is that all?
There's a two-year gap, fromJanuary 1977 to April 1979.
During that time he lived inOregon.
Dr John Stolberg reviewed casesin Oregon with similarities
that matched that time frame.
(23:44):
There were women in the areawho went missing during the time
that he was there but werenever found.
Four of the missing women fitThor's victim type, age and
looks.
There hasn't been enoughinformation to prove Thor's
involvement in these cases, soat this time it's just
speculation.
(24:08):
Thor was incarcerated at FolsomState Prison for six months.
On March 30, 1981, at 23 yearsold, thor Christensen was
stabbed once in the chest byanother prisoner in the rec yard
.
The prison administrativeassistant, gil Miller, stated
(24:28):
that Thor walked towards someprison officers from an exercise
area near the basketball courtsand collapsed at their feet.
Around 1 pm Thor was rushed tothe prison hospital and was
pronounced dead at 1.40 pm,while a bloody shank was found
at the scene.
To this day the killer'sidentity remains unknown.
(24:49):
Ron Bender, the former friendof Thor's, said, quote it is the
best thing that could havehappened to him.
He didn't need to live.
His parents didn't need him tolive.
They didn't need to have to goand visit him in prison.
Now they can move on.
Everybody can move on, and avery vicious human being is dead
(25:11):
.
End quote.
In an article in the Daily Nexusdated May 11, 1977, a friend of
Jackie Rook, mark Zakavik, andothers collected donations to
establish a memorial scholarshipin her name.
Mark said quote Some of us werejust talking about some kind of
(25:35):
memorial to her and we came upwith this End quote.
According to Mark, the JackieRook Memorial Scholarship will
be awarded each year to acollege-bound San Marcos senior
who has done outstanding work inthe speech department.
The Santa Barbara ScholarshipFoundation handles this
(25:56):
scholarship.
John Zoomer, a friend of PattyLaney, also wanted to honor his
late friend.
Given that Patty was an avidjuggler, they held a juggling
festival in her honor.
People came from all over.
It sparked something that'sbeen going on for decades now.
(26:17):
It's a benefit for the SantaBarbara Rape Crisis Center, a
cause that Patty wholeheartedlybelieved in.
I couldn't find any informationon memorials from Mary Saris
and I could not locate where thesoul survivor, lydia Preston,
is today.
(26:41):
Thor Christensen became a serialkiller at just 19 years old.
He took the lives of four youngwomen and tried to end the life
of another.
So many lives were foreverchanged because of him.
If there are more victims, likeexperts perceive there to be,
especially in Oregon, I hope oneday soon there will be answers
(27:05):
for the cases and the families.
May they finally receive someclosure.
And that's the case of theHitchhiker's Lines.
Tune in next week for a newarea that we'll be diving into.
You can find crime connoisseurswherever you get your podcasts,
so please download andsubscribe.
(27:26):
Be sure to follow on Instagramat CrimeConnoisseurs.
Source material for thisepisode can be found in the show
notes.
In the meantime, keep it classy, connoisseurs, and I'll catch
you on the next case.
Bye.
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