Murder of Reet Jurvetson

Los Angeles Police officers at the crime scene.

On November 16, 1969, the fully clothed body of a white female was located in a dense bushland off Mulholland Drive in Los Angeles, California by a 15-year-old boy who had been birdwatching.[4] The victim had died of multiple stab wounds—predominantly inflicted to her neck—approximately two days before her body was discovered dumped in the ravine at the side of the drive. A tree branch had prevented her body from rolling fully down the ravine and into a 699-foot-deep (213 m) canyon,[5] and her body lay against this branch just 15 ft (5 m) down the ravine. An autopsy conducted the following morning determined that the victim's body had been discovered within 24 to 48 hours of her murder.[6][n 1]

In total, the victim had been stabbed 157 times[8] in the neck, chest and torso with a common pen knife; some of these wounds had severed her carotid artery.[9] Defensive wounds were also discovered upon her hands. It is also believed she had been transported to the location where her body was discarded in an upright position, and that her murderer was a right-handed individual.[1] She had not been the victim of a robbery or any form of sexual assault prior to her murder, and had no drugs or alcohol in her system when she died.[10] Furthermore, the victim had been killed approximately two hours after having eaten a meal.[11][2]

Evidence discovered at the crime scene suggested the victim's body had been placed in the back seat of a car, then driven to the disposal location, where her body was dragged out of the car and around the trunk of the vehicle, then rolled down the ravine. Furthermore, on November 21, a pair of Liberty brand glasses belonging to a nearsighted individual were found approximately 50 feet (18 m) from the location where the victim's body had been placed in the ravine, although it remains inconclusive whether these glasses are related to the case.[15]

Because several articles of the clothing the victim had worn at the time of her murder had been manufactured outside of America, she was theorized to have been a native of a country such as Spain or Canada,[16] as her boots and jacket were made in these countries, respectively. Other articles of clothing worn by the victim included cut-off shorts from Massachusetts, a leather belt, and a sweater. A buckle on the belt was made of brass and the victim wore two metal rings; one white, and one yellow. The yellow ring contained a red stone, and the white ring bore Native American designs and was manufactured in Mexico.[12][13]

One artistic rendering by Carl Koppelman of the victim, based on a mortuary photograph.

The victim's face was forensically reconstructed to provide an estimation of her appearance in life. Artists created several composite drawings shortly after the victim was found; later drawings were created by Project EDAN member Barbara Martin-Bailey.[12] Jurvetson's sister later criticized all of these works, citing them as being "clearly inaccurate, as anyone can see". She would expound that each reconstruction bore very little representation as to how her sister had appeared in life.[1]

The location of the victim's body and the possibility that she was seen alive in the company of the Manson Family prior to her murder prompted police to suspect their involvement in her murder. Charles Manson was interviewed both before and after the victim's identification but denied any involvement.[2] Nonetheless, a woman closely matching the description of the deceased had been seen days before the victim had been murdered with various inhabitants of Spahn Ranch. The individual who informed police of this fact stated she believed the woman used the name "Sherry."[12] The Manson Family was also suspected to be involved in the case due to the circumstantial fact the location her body was found was approximately six miles from the site where actress Sharon Tate and four other victims had been murdered just three months previous.[4]

In June 2015, Jurvetson's older sister, Anne, was contacted by friends who had been searching through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and who had noticed a similarity between a contemporary morgue photograph of the then-unidentified woman and Anne Jurvetson's estranged sister.[1] In response to the notification, Anne submitted a DNA sample for comparison to a sample retrieved from a bloodstained bra belonging to the deceased which had been retained and stored, and from which DNA had been obtained.[2]

One year later, in April 2016, a formal announcement was made that the body had been conclusively identified as being that of Reet Silvia Jurvetson, a 19-year-old native of Montreal who had been living in Los Angeles for just weeks prior to her murder.

Postcard sent by Jurvetson to her parents in Canada, prior to her death, serving as their final form of communication.

Reet Silvia Jurvetson had departed from her home country of Canada to visit a man named "John" or "Jean" in California in the late summer of 1969. Several weeks after she had arrived (and just two weeks prior to her murder), she wrote a postcard in the Estonian language to her family which described her general satisfaction with her life in Los Angeles, and encouraging her parents to maintain contact with her via correspondence. Another postcard was also sent to her closest friend.[17] These two postcards were the final contact her family and friends ever received from Reet.[1] Her family did not report her missing, as they had known just how adventurous Reet had become in her later teenage years, and presumed she was simply "making a new life for herself". The Jurvetsons had made tentative efforts to contact Reet throughout the years, although all had proven fruitless. Her sister, Anne, would recollect in 2016 that, in addition to the family's hope Reet would contact them as and when she felt the urge to do so: "We did not know how to find someone on the other side of the continent."[1][2]

Nonetheless, after several weeks had passed without contact from their daughter, her parents did send an individual to the return address upon the postcard, only for this individual to be informed Reet had vacated the apartment several weeks previously. Shortly thereafter, the family hired a private investigator, although this individual was unable to garner any fruitful leads.[18] Despite these setbacks, Reet's sister emphasized the fact that, prior to her being shown the online photographs of her deceased sister, she and her family had never given serious thought to Reet being the victim of a homicide.[19]

• Bugliosi, Vincent; Gentry, Curt (1974). Helter Skelter: The True Story of the Manson Murders. London: Arrow Books. pp. 621–622. ISBN 978-1-784-75176-0.
• Cooper, Ian (2018). The Manson Family on Film and Television. North Carolina: McFarland & Company. pp. 6–7. ISBN 978-1-476-67043-0.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Murder of Reet Jurvetson.

• 2016 CBC news article detailing ongoing efforts made to identify the two prime suspects in Reet Jurvetson's murder
• Contemporary sketches of the two prime suspects in Reet Jurvetson's murder
• People news article pertaining to the LAPD's search for their prime suspect in Reet Jurvetson's murder