Do you know who committed the \Keddie Cabin Murders\ in 1981?
Tina Sharp, age 12, was one of the victims of the notorious Keddie Cabin Murders that took place on the night of April 11, 1981, in Cabin 28 at the Keddie Resort in Plumas County, California. The attack claimed the lives of Glenna "Sue" Sharp, Tina's older brother John, and John's friend Dana Wingate. All three were found brutally murdered in the cabin. However, Tina was initially missing from the scene, which led to an extensive search.
It was not until April 22, 1984—three years later—that Tina’s remains were discovered in a wooded area in Butte County, approximately 100 miles from Keddie. A bottle collector found part of her skull and a section of her jawbone, which were later confirmed to be hers through forensic analysis. Her remains were found near Feather Falls, a location far from where the initial crime took place, adding further mystery to the case. Shortly after the discovery, an anonymous call was received by law enforcement identifying the remains as belonging to Tina, but the recording of this call was lost until it was accidentally found years later in an evidence box.
The initial investigation of the Keddie murders was flawed and inconsistent, with many leads and pieces of evidence either ignored or mishandled. Martin "Marty" Smartt, who was a neighbor of the Sharp family, became a primary suspect. He allegedly confessed to his counselor about the murders, admitting that Tina was killed because she had witnessed the attack. Despite this confession, no charges were brought against him. Moreover, a hammer believed to be a potential murder weapon was only recovered decades later, in 2016, from a pond near the cabin site.
The Keddie murders remain officially unsolved, but the involvement of Smartt and his friend John "Bo" Boubede, both of whom were in the area during the time of the murders, has continued to generate suspicion. Both men have since passed away—Boubede in 1988 and Smartt in 2006—without ever being charged in connection with the crimes. To this day, the Keddie Cabin Murders, including the tragic death of Tina Sharp, remain an unsolved mystery, marked by investigative oversights and unanswered questions.
