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Case Description
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On June 24, 1979, 16-year-old Lucinda Lynn Schaefer vanished while walking home from a church youth meeting in Torrance, California. Schaefer, known as Cindy, was last seen walking the half-mile from St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church to her grandmother's house, where she was staying for the summer. When she failed to arrive, a search was initiated, but the only trace of the teenager ever found was one of her shoes on the side of the road.

Schaefer had recently arrived in California from ...Read More
Last Seen: Jun 24, 1979
Links to Additional Sources (7)
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Victim Details

Jan 24, 2026

Jan 24, 2026

Lucinda

Lynn Schaefer

16

16

5'4 inches

115 lbs

White

Female

Lucinda was abducted from Torrance, California, on June 24, 1979. She was last seen walking back to her grandmother's house from a Christian youth meeting at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Torrance. When she was missed and people searched for her, they only found one of her shoes alongside the road. She left $220 behind in her savings account and has never been heard from again. Later in 1979, Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker and Roy Lewis Norris were arrested and eventually convicted of murdering Lucinda and several other young women, including Andrea Hall. Photographs of the two men are posted with this case summary. Norris and Bittaker had driven around California in their silver 1977 GMC cargo van, which they nicknamed "Murder Mac," and abducted, raped and killed a large number of women. They admitted to kidnapping and raping Lucinda and to dumping her body in a remote gorge, but each man blamed the other one for strangling her. She was their first known victim. Norris testified against Bittaker in exchange for a life sentence; Bittaker was sentenced to death. He was never executed, however; in December 2019, after forty years on death row, he died in San Quentin State Prison at the age of 79. In February 2020, Norris died in prison at the age of 72. Lucinda and Andrea's remains have never been found.

Jun 24, 1979

Torrance

California

Torrance

5

California Department of Justice

01/25/2026