In the late summer of 1986, Dagmar Linton, a 59-year-old White female, and her husband, Robert, embarked on a new chapter of their lives. Having recently retired from their county jobs in Stockton, California, they set off in their RV on a long-planned three-month adventure. Their destination was the World's Fair in Vancouver, British Columbia, a trip they had eagerly anticipated. For the first month of their journey north, they stayed in regular contact with their family, their calls home a cheerful chronicle of their travels. But as they reached Washington state, the calls abruptly stopped.
On August 22, 1986, the couple checked their travel trailer into the Naco West campground in Brinnon, located on the scenic Hood Canal. They unhooked the trailer, intending to take a day trip in their 1982 Dodge Ram pickup truck to Mount Baker. They were never seen again. Their abandoned pickup truck was later discovered on the same day at the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. Inside the vehicle, investigators found blood and hair, grim evidence of a violent struggle. The blood was determined to be of three different types, two of which matched the Lintons. The discovery led their family to hold a memorial service on October 19, 1986, accepting the tragic reality that Dagmar and Robert were gone.
Shortly after their disappearance, a sinister trail began to emerge. Someone started using the Lintons' credit cards across several states. In one instance, a large, bearded man with a bandaged right hand was seen purchasing a clarinet. The use of the credit cards eventually ceased after the activity was reported in the news. The investigation into the couple's disappearance continued for years without a significant breakthrough.
A major development in the case came in August 1990 with the arrest of Charles Thurman Sinclair in Alaska on unrelated charges. Investigators discovered items in Sinclair's possession that had been purchased with the Lintons' credit cards. Further investigation revealed that Sinclair's handwriting matched the signatures on the credit card receipts. Property bought with the stolen cards was also found in a storage shed belonging to him. Authorities believe Sinclair, a suspected serial killer responsible for multiple murders across several western states, killed the Lintons to use their credit cards. Tragically, just two weeks after his arrest, Sinclair died in his jail cell from an overdose of heart medication, taking any confession or further details about the Lintons' fate with him to the grave. He was never formally charged with their murders, and their remains have never been found.
