In the late summer of 1971, a young woman named Leeora Rose Looney, aged 20, was working her shift as a waitress at a donut shop in Lakewood, Colorado. On the evening of August 20th, the shop was discovered to be empty, with Ms. Looney's purse left open and her car still parked nearby. The cash register was open, and about $100 was missing. Three days later, her nude body was discovered in a remote field.
An investigation revealed she had been brutally murdered; she was strangled, raped, and shot in the head.
The investigation into the disappearance and murder of Leeora Looney soon focused on two men who had been seen in the donut shop shortly before she went missing. These men were later identified as Sherman R. McCrary and his son-in-law, Carl Taylor. Their apprehension brought to light a horrifying cross-country crime spree conducted by the McCrary family, who were suspected in at least 24 other murders. The family, including McCrary's wife and son, lived a transient life in motels, supporting themselves through writing bad checks.
Sherman McCrary and Carl Taylor were eventually implicated and charged with the abduction and slaying of Leeora Looney. While incarcerated in California for unrelated crimes in 1972, Colorado authorities connected them to Looney's murder. McCrary later confessed to the murders of three women in Texas, though these confessions were not admissible in that state. The murder of Leeora Looney was part of a disturbing pattern of crimes targeting young women working in donut shops. Another victim, a 17-year-old waitress named Sheri Lee Martin, was abducted from a Salt Lake City donut shop and later found murdered in the Nevada desert. Fingerprints belonging to Taylor were found on a coffee cup at the scene of Martin's abduction. McCrary was ultimately convicted of the kidnapping and first-degree murder of Leeora Rose Looney and received a life sentence.
