Richard Allen Keith, a 20-year-old White male and United States Marine, was tragically murdered in June 1978. Born on August 3, 1957, in Hamilton, Ohio, Keith enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1975 after graduating from Chrysler High School in New Castle, Indiana. He underwent basic training at Camp Pendleton, California, served two years in Hawaii, and subsequently returned to Camp Pendleton.
On June 18, 1978, Lance Corporal Keith was last seen hitchhiking from his girlfriend’s residence in Carson, California. The following day, his body was discovered on an embankment below Moulton Parkway near La Paz Road in Laguna Hills, Orange County. An autopsy revealed that Keith had been bound at the wrists and strangled with a ligature. Additionally, the presence of froth in his throat indicated he had ingested alcohol and the sedative flurazepam prior to his death.
Keith was one of the victims of Randy Steven Kraft, a serial killer responsible for the deaths of at least 16 young men between 1972 and 1983. Kraft, known as the "Scorecard Killer," maintained a coded list of his victims, with Keith believed to correspond to the entry "Marine Carson." Kraft's modus operandi involved drugging, binding, and strangling his victims, many of whom were Marines stationed in Southern California. He often left their bodies near freeways, and several victims exhibited signs of sexual mutilation.
In 1983, Kraft was apprehended by California Highway Patrol officers who discovered the body of another Marine, Terry Gambrel, in his vehicle. Subsequent investigations linked Kraft to multiple murders, including that of Richard Keith. He was convicted of 16 counts of murder and sentenced to death in 1989. Kraft remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison.
