Cindy Hudspeth, a 20-year-old Caucasian woman, was tragically murdered on February 16, 1978. Her body was discovered in the trunk of her Datsun, which had been pushed off a cliff on Angeles Crest Highway. The investigation revealed that she had been strangled, and the ligature marks on her body indicated that she was a victim of the notorious Hillside Stranglers.
The Hillside Stranglers, later identified as cousins Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, terrorized the women of Los Angeles
between October 1977 and February 1978. During this period, they kidnapped, raped, tortured, and murdered ten females together, ranging in age from 12 to 28. Cindy Hudspeth was their final victim. The duo's modus operandi involved strangling their victims and disposing of their bodies in the hills surrounding Los Angeles, which led to their infamous nickname.
The investigation into the Hillside Strangler murders was extensive and complex. Initially, it was believed that only one person was responsible for the killings. However, the positions of some of the victims' bodies suggested that two criminals were working together. This theory was confirmed when an elderly neighbor witnessed and reported the kidnapping of one of the victims. The police eventually apprehended Kenneth Bianchi in January 1979 for the murder of two young women in Washington state. His arrest led to the linking of his past to the Strangler case, and Angelo Buono was subsequently arrested in October 1979.
Both Bianchi and Buono were convicted of multiple counts of murder and received life imprisonment without the possibility of parole. The Hillside Strangler case remains one of the most infamous serial murder cases in history, and the fear it instilled in the Los Angeles community during that time is still remembered today.
