In the late summer of 1986, Caroline Marie Garcia was an 18-year-old recent high school graduate with her life ahead of her. A resident of Roseville, California, she was navigating the complexities of young adulthood, which on September 7, 1986, included a bus trip to visit friends in Colfax, a small city in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. Caroline was last seen alive that day waiting for a bus to make her return trip home.
Her journey was tragically interrupted, and she would not be seen again for more than two months.
Caroline's disappearance launched a painful period of uncertainty for her family. The first significant break in the case came under bizarre circumstances. On September 11, just days after she vanished, Placer County sheriff's deputies were searching for clues along Rollins Lake Road when a vehicle accidentally rear-ended their patrol car. The driver sped off, but the incident would later prove to be a crucial, if unwitting, near-miss with the man responsible for Caroline's fate. Investigators later found some of Caroline's blood-stained clothing discarded off Interstate 80 in Weimar, but she remained missing.
The truth of what happened to Caroline Marie Garcia was revealed to be part of a horrifying series of violent crimes committed by one man. David Allen Rundle, a 21-year-old floor installer from Colfax, was a serial killer who preyed on women in the Sacramento Valley region throughout 1986. His spree began in May with the murder of 24-year-old Elizabeth Latorre Lactawen in Sacramento. On the day he crossed paths with Caroline, Rundle abducted the young woman from the bus stop. He drove her to a remote, wooded area near Rollins Lake, where he brutally beat, raped, and strangled her to death.
A month after killing Caroline, Rundle murdered his third and youngest victim, 15-year-old LanciAnne Sorensen, whom he abducted in Loomis. Rundle's downfall began after the collision with the police car during the search for Caroline. The damage to his vehicle helped police identify him as a person of interest. Rundle fled to Carson City, Nevada, but was arrested there on November 20, 1986, on a warrant for Caroline's murder.
In custody, David Rundle confessed to the murders of Caroline Garcia, LanciAnne Sorensen, and Elizabeth Lactawen. He claimed to be a "sick individual," blaming his actions on a troubled childhood marked by abuse and escalating drug and alcohol addiction. Most critically for Caroline's family, he provided investigators with a map that led them directly to her remains near Rollins Lake on November 21, 1986, finally ending their agonizing wait. Her body was found unclothed with her arms bound tightly behind her back.
In 1989, a Placer County Superior Court jury convicted David Allen Rundle of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances for the deaths of Caroline Garcia and LanciAnne Sorensen, along with two counts of attempted forcible rape. During the penalty phase, prosecutors presented extensive aggravating evidence, including his confession to the murder of Elizabeth Lactawen, sexual assaults against three young children when he was a teenager, and the physical and sexual abuse of his ex-wife.
The jury, some of whom were reportedly in tears as the sentence was read, returned a verdict of death. Rundle was sentenced to death for the murders of Caroline and LanciAnne, and he received a separate sentence of 25 years to life for the murder of Elizabeth Lactawen. For more than three decades, he has remained on death row in California. His appeals have been consistently denied, with courts affirming the original judgment.
