The community of Marin County remained shaken up for the rest of 1979 by the murder of Edda Kane. The peaceful woods were no longer a place of refuge. But just as people began to once again hike without paranoia along the gorgeous trails in the area, the killer stuck again.

In early March of 1980, the body of 23 year-old Barbara Schwartz was found in the same park that Edda Kane had been killed in less than a year before. The young woman had left to go hiking on March 8th, taking her dog with her. Even though the location and the fact that she was a woman alone were the same as Edda’s murder, the method was different.

Barbara had been stabbed repeatedly in her chest. She had not been shot like Edda had been. A witness had seen the whole …show more content…
He had a hawk nose and dark-colored hair. He was wearing hiking boots and was athletic. Barbara’s dog was barking wildly. Suddenly, the man began to stab her with a knife. She fought him off, the two of them struggling for nearly a minute. The attacker ran, and Barbara fell to the ground.

Because the witness acted quickly, the police were on the scene immediately. They found a pair of blood-stained bifocals at the scene. Did they belong to the killer? The investigators hoped.

Having an eyewitness that had watched the whole murder unfold might seem like a slam-dunk. However, the unreliability of eyewitness descriptions of the killer would turn out to be one of the greatest hindrances in actually catching him. This particular eyewitness would later admit that her description of the attacker was probably misled.

Other people on the trail the day that Barbara was murdered reported seeing someone quite different from the athletic young man described by the witness. They remembered seeing a lone hiker – a man in his forties who was wearing glasses. He was wearing a raincoat, although there was no need for it on that day. This description would turn out to resemble much more closely the man who would eventually be identified as the true Trailside …show more content…
And there was another attack. This time, it was a young former Peace Corp. volunteer.

On October 15, 1980, it was the end of a long Columbus Day weekend. Anne Alderson, 26 years old, sat alone in an amphitheater watching the sunset. She had gone out for a relaxing jog through the park and was taking a breather as the light faded.

The park’s caretaker remembers seeing Anne in this serene scene. He would also be the last person besides her killer to see Anne alive. The caretaker later said he considered warning Anne how it might be unsafe out there by herself as dark fell. But he didn’t want to disturb her solitary moment.

When her body was found later, it appeared that Anne had been shot with a single bullet through the right side of her head. The bullet was from a .38-caliber pistol. However there was a distinction in this murder from the previous ones linked to the Trailside Killer. Anne had been raped. But she apparently had been allowed to put her clothes back on. Her killer had propped her up, facing her out and against a rock. Her right earring was missing. Still, the way Anne’s body was strangely twisted was resonant of Edda Kane’s body. Anne also might have been forced to kneel in her final