In the fall of 1986, a shadow fell across the communities of Placer County, California, as a series of brutal killings stole the lives of three young women. The youngest among them was LanciAnne Sorensen, a 15-year-old girl whose future was extinguished on October 7, 1986. A sophomore in high school, LanciAnne was just beginning to navigate the path to adulthood when she crossed paths with a predator who would bring her journey to a violent and tragic end in the small town of Loomis.
On
the night she disappeared, LanciAnne had been spending time with a friend. At some point in the evening, she made the fateful decision to leave alone and hitchhike home. It was a choice that placed her in the hands of David Allen Rundle, a 21-year-old floor installer with a deeply troubled past. For weeks, LanciAnne's family held onto hope, reporting her missing on October 13. That hope turned to unimaginable grief when her body was discovered more than a month later, on November 14, discarded in a culvert off an Interstate 80 exit. Her hands had been bound behind her back with her own pants.
The discovery of LanciAnne’s body came amidst a growing sense of fear in the Sacramento Valley region. Just two months earlier, in September, 18-year-old Caroline Marie Garcia had vanished from a bus stop in Colfax. The first known victim in this spree was 24-year-old Elizabeth Latorre Lactawen, whose body was found beneath the Pioneer Bridge in Sacramento in May. The victims were seemingly unconnected, leaving communities on edge and law enforcement searching for a ghost.
The break in the case came from an unexpected turn of events. While investigators were searching for Caroline Garcia near Rollins Lake, David Rundle, driving in the area, crashed his car into a police vehicle. He fled the scene and escaped to Carson City, Nevada. This crucial mistake, however, put him on law enforcement's radar. He was arrested in Nevada on November 20, 1986, and extradited back to California to face justice.
Once in custody, Rundle’s façade crumbled. He confessed in detail to the murders of all three young women. He admitted to abducting, sexually assaulting, and strangling LanciAnne, the last and youngest of his victims. He also led investigators to the remote location where he had left Caroline Garcia's body. In his confessions, Rundle claimed to be a sick individual, blaming a history of childhood abuse and addiction to drugs and alcohol for his violent actions.
In 1989, David Allen Rundle was tried for the murders of LanciAnne Sorensen and Caroline Marie Garcia. A jury found him guilty of two counts of first-degree murder with special circumstances, including multiple murders and murder during the commission of attempted rape. As the death sentences were read, jurors were seen weeping. For the murder of Elizabeth Lactawen, he received a separate sentence of 25 years to life in prison.
The legal resolution brought a measure of justice, but it could never fill the void left by the senseless loss of three lives. Rundle's rampage cut short the futures of three women and left a permanent scar on their families and the communities that had been gripped by fear. His name would be added to the list of California's serial killers, a man whose personal demons led him to inflict the ultimate act of violence on others.
David Allen Rundle was sentenced to death and remains incarcerated. For the families of LanciAnne Sorensen, Caroline Garcia, and Elizabeth Lactawen, the pain of their loss endures. The case serves as a chilling reminder of the vulnerability of innocence and the profound and lasting impact of predatory violence. LanciAnne’s life, full of promise, was stolen in a moment of brutality, leaving behind only the memory of a 15-year-old girl who never made it home.
