Anne Catherine Swanke, a 22-year-old female student at the University of San Diego, disappeared after her car ran out of gas at a La Mesa intersection in November 1984. Her body was discovered four days later on November 24, 1984, in a remote area of Spring Valley. She was found with her throat slashed, marking her as one of the victims in what would become known as the Throat-Slash Murders.
David Allen Lucas, born in 1956 in the Philippines, was arrested in December 1984 for Swanke's
murder. The case against Lucas became one of the most prolonged trials in San Diego's history. In 1989, after extensive court proceedings, Lucas was convicted of murdering Swanke along with two other victims - Suzanne Jacobs and her three-year-old son Colin. The trial was notable for its length, requiring five months just to seat a jury, followed by 56 days of testimony and seven days of jury deliberation.
The conviction represented a significant moment for the victim's father, Dr. John Swanke, a philosophy professor at the University of San Diego. When the verdict was announced, he demonstrated his emotional response by throwing a symbolic left hook in the courthouse air, though he had arrived too late to witness the actual verdict reading. The case had taken a severe toll on the Swanke family, with Dr. Swanke describing it as a 'torturous, hellish time.'
Lucas was ultimately sentenced to death on September 19, 1989, for three murders, including Anne Catherine Swanke's. The conviction was later upheld by the California Supreme Court, which rejected challenges to the prosecution's use of serological evidence and other aspects of the trial. Lucas remains on death row at San Quentin State Prison. His case was part of a larger series of violent crimes in San Diego County between 1979 and 1984, during which he was suspected of committing between three and six murders, though he was only convicted of three.
