Chris Barber and Linda Bosteder

I found this at ZK.com:

The Riverside Press -Enterprise for 2/22/77 an article says"Violent deaths end 2 teenagers' unhappiness."
To summarize,Chris Barber,a 17 year old male and a former cheerleader,Linda Bosteder, were found -each shot in the head with a small- caliber weapon in a dry flood control channel about a mile from the Kaiser steel plant in Fontana,CA.
What really is striking is the fact,"Chris' body,fully clothed,was found atop 15-year old Linda,whose body was naked."This doesn't happen that often in a couple homicide.
Dave Peterson sent this article to me several years ago.I thought of det.Bills SB '63 slaying where the same body stacking had transpired.Both had been slain with a small caliber weapon, etc.

Does anybody have more information on this case?

Check this out. Comments under a newspaper article:

2 Comments
By janice on October 3, 2009 1:12 AM
Linda was my best friend when she died please email me so we can talk, do you remember chris barber?
e-mail me @ miztizzy2@aol.com

By debbie Partida on August 25, 2009 12:27 PM
I was Linda Bosteder best friend. The death of Chris and Linda has haunted me for many years. The night she was murdered she had called
my house and said that Chris and her needed a ride home that they were stuck in San Bernardino. I was asleep at the time when my Mom woke me up and told me Linda needed her to pick her up and that she was going with my step dad to get her. My mother told me that Linda wants to speak to you and I told my Mom to tell her that I would talk to her when She gets here. That is something I will always regret, maybe she would have told me she was in trouble. I never had a chance to speak to her again. My mom and step dad went to get her however she was not at that connivence store when they got there, they drove around and were unable to find her.
She and Chris were brutally tortured,Linda raped and both murdered that night From what my mom said there was a trial however there was no conviction. At the time I could not remember or know what really Happened. I was very traumatized about loosing my best friend and the fact that I could have easily been with her at the time because we did everything together. We both had family problems and were there to Console each other. I am 48 now, have career, home and a son. I have never been able to forget. I tried looking up on the internet however through the years I have only seen one blog. For the longest time I have had this strong sense that I need to look into this for closure, "Not just for myself" I believe for Linda as well. If I did not feel so strongly about this I would not reach out to you, I know this is a Long shot and would appreciate any help or advice you have to offer. Is there any way you could guide me as to what or where to look for
Information on this? Is there anyone I could contact to get Information on the trial? I need to know what happen and why no conviction??
Thank You!
Debbie Partida

http://blogs.pe.com/sbhomicidewatch/2009/01/cold-case-detail-deals-a-new-h.html

tahoe27 wrote:

Check this out. Comments under a newspaper article:

2 Comments
By janice on October 3, 2009 1:12 AM
Linda was my best friend when she died please email me so we can talk, do you remember chris barber?
e-mail me @ miztizzy2@aol.com

By debbie Partida on August 25, 2009 12:27 PM
I was Linda Bosteder best friend. The death of Chris and Linda has haunted me for many years. The night she was murdered she had called
my house and said that Chris and her needed a ride home that they were stuck in San Bernardino. I was asleep at the time when my Mom woke me up and told me Linda needed her to pick her up and that she was going with my step dad to get her. My mother told me that Linda wants to speak to you and I told my Mom to tell her that I would talk to her when She gets here. That is something I will always regret, maybe she would have told me she was in trouble. I never had a chance to speak to her again. My mom and step dad went to get her however she was not at that connivence store when they got there, they drove around and were unable to find her.
She and Chris were brutally tortured,Linda raped and both murdered that night From what my mom said there was a trial however there was no conviction. At the time I could not remember or know what really Happened. I was very traumatized about loosing my best friend and the fact that I could have easily been with her at the time because we did everything together. We both had family problems and were there to Console each other. I am 48 now, have career, home and a son. I have never been able to forget. I tried looking up on the internet however through the years I have only seen one blog. For the longest time I have had this strong sense that I need to look into this for closure, "Not just for myself" I believe for Linda as well. If I did not feel so strongly about this I would not reach out to you, I know this is a Long shot and would appreciate any help or advice you have to offer. Is there any way you could guide me as to what or where to look for
Information on this? Is there anyone I could contact to get Information on the trial? I need to know what happen and why no conviction??
Thank You!
Debbie Partida

http://blogs.pe.com/sbhomicidewatch/2009/01/cold-case-detail-deals-a-new-h.html

San Bernardino, maybe not such a nice area. Maybe I should ask ZODE if he remembers this case.

Morf (or anyone) -

How far is the Barber/Bosteder death site from where possible Zodiac victim Nikki Benedict was killed?

I have never been able to find anything on this Barber/Bosteder case.

Which is frustrating, because couples murders are fairly rare, and I put this in the possible series of "California Couples Murders" with Domingos/Edwards 63, Swindles 64, Zodiac 68/69, Hood/Garcia 70 and Maggiores 78.

But we just don't have enough info to know if they are linked to any of these cases or not.

"Posing" occurs in only about 1% of murders (per John Douglas) so considering that with the fact that the posing of bodies on top of each other matches Domingos/Edwards 63 is interesting.

If Debbie (the woman who made the comment in the paper) is correct, Linda was raped...and there was a trial. Seems we should be able to find info about that. Would be interesting to know who the suspect was.


Ak--about 80 miles apart.

morf wrote:

San Bernardino, maybe not such a nice area. Maybe I should ask ZODE if he remembers this case.

Given his detailed recollection of the Zodiac case, I'm putting my money on "probably not."

Yes, the posing is uncommon.

Here some further info found at Zodiackillertruth.com

The placing of the body's on top of each other is not your usual killers MO. In the Santa Barbara case it was the girl on top of the boy if I remember correctly. This is still too close to being very much like Santa Barbara's case. This has me interested in looking at this closer.
The transcript of the trial can be found, it falls under the freedom of Information act.
The idea that she was raped is different than the Z cases we know of. But I don't think we know everything about every case he has done. I believe there are other girls and couples, that have been killed by him that we don't know about yet.
They must have kept the DNA sample from the rape. I would like to know why the suspect was let go ? Maybe his blood type was not a match to the rapist ?

Roland wrote:

Here some further info found at Zodiackillertruth.com

Thank you for that link Roland.
The other post about Linda's friend not taking her call sent a chill up my spine. How sad she must be feeling about not taking that call.
When I read that, I had the feeling that Linda and Chris had been picked up by their killer, I felt that the killer let her make a call. ( by then Linda was feeling this was not a good ride) But when she returned to the car to say that someone was coming to pick them up, he showed a gun and told her to get back into the car. If not, I think they would have still been there waiting for their friends parents to arrive.

Yes, Sandy, the placing of the bodies reminds of the Domingos/Edwards double homicide in 1963. We also heard Riverside before in connection with the Z case. It would be intersting to read the transcript of the trial and to see police and coroner reports. I tried to find newpaper articles on the Internet, so far to no avail.

Roland, I do wish everything could be found on the Internet. But sense that is not always the case, I will be going down south again, that case will be at the top of my list of things to do. I will get back to you with what ever I find.

I just re- read your information about the young couple .
Each time I find more questions I would like answered. Linda's clothes were found near by, I am wondering if they were neatly stacked ? Odd question but I have my reasons. The small car, I wonder if it could have been like a sports car, such as a Austin Healey ?

This case has gotten my investigative juices flowing again !
I do have a suspect who I know drove a sports car in 1974, this guy liked to travel. He is still alive as far as I know.
He is a possible suspect in a young girls murder, who was shot in the head by a small cal. gun.

My thoughts and questions are similar to yours, Sandy. This is definitely a case that should be explored further, and be it only for the purpose of dismissing it as a probable z crime in case further information would point into different direction.

In my opinion, the back-to-back stacking of the victims, same as in the Domingos/Edwards case, could suggest possible jealousy of the killer/s; an anti-relationship or an anti-intercourse positioning of some sort.

Roland, I didn't realize that they were back to back ? Santa Barbara was a bit different than that I think ?
The girl was facing up, laying on top of her boyfriend. I am not sure if Domingo''s body was face down or not. If so ,then both cases are even more alike ! The killer wanted the connection to be made, yet it wasn't. This is why the police need to work together ,even if it isn't in there jurisdiction.

One of my first visits to SFPD, when I brought up the fact that the Lake B costume was put in my car. They were not interested ,because that had nothing to do with Paul Stine's murder . They did keep the note that was given to me from where I lived, and a few of the other things that were put in my car the day the costume was put there in Napa.
But I didn't have anything for the Paul Stine case. So they couldn't help me.
I have asked to have all of the things they took of mine, that they put into their evidence room.
I was told by one of their best Z Det. who has died of a hart attack, that I will never get those things back. These are things that should have the Zodiacs DNA on them, It should have been brought to Napa sheriffs dept. I am learning the hard way.

Sandy, from what I know about the case, Robert Domingos' body had been dragged face down to the shack by the killer. The killer had cut open the upper body clothing of Linda Edwards exposing her breasts. The bodies of both were positioned on top of each other inside the shack before the killer attempted to set it ablaze. There is no confirmation that I have seen that both were positioned face-up and -down, but based on case information available it sounds like a probable scenario to me.

Sandy, just found that at ZK.com MB:

"The killer first dragged the male to a nearby lean-to shack (used by railroad hoboes)that was concealed from view by the dense trees and shrubbery that bordered the stream bed. He was placed in the shack face down. He then dragged the female to the shack and placed her on top of the male, face up."

Roland wrote:

Sandy, just found that at ZK.com MB:

"The killer first dragged the male to a nearby lean-to shack (used by railroad hoboes)that was concealed from view by the dense trees and shrubbery that bordered the stream bed. He was placed in the shack face down. He then dragged the female to the shack and placed her on top of the male, face up."

Thanks Roland, I knew that she was face up, and that the killer cut her swimsuit. I think Ricardo and I sent you some of the news papers on that case ?
It reminds me of a girl that my suspect followed outside my job on Easter Sunday 1988. Her body was found the next day in Oakland Ca, on 11th street, not far from the water.
The killer exposed her breast as well !

Both of these cases are very much the same, I wonder if LE knows this ?