Joseph Michael Nissensohn: A Trail of Murder Across California and Washington
Overview
Joseph Michael Nissensohn is an American serial killer convicted of murdering four females, including three vulnerable teenage girls, in California and Washington. His known crimes occurred between 1981 and 1989, although investigators examined allegations that he may have committed additional killings while traveling through other states. Nissensohn worked as a truck driver and moved frequently, allowing him to cross jurisdictions and disappear from communities after violent crimes. His victims included two teenage foster children, a 46-year-old woman in Washington, and a 15-year-old runaway from South Lake Tahoe.
The murders remained separated by geography and time for many years. Nissensohn was first brought to justice for the Washington killing, but evidence and witness testimony later connected him to three unresolved California murders. The California prosecution did not begin until decades after the deaths of the victims, demonstrating how information preserved by investigators can eventually unite cases that initially appear unrelated.
The 1981 Murders of Tammy Lynn Jarschke and Tanya Jones
Thirteen-year-old Tammy Lynn Jarschke and 14-year-old Tanya Jones were living in a foster home in Seaside, California, when they ran away together on June 25, 1981. The two girls were last seen near a Denny's restaurant in the Monterey area. Prosecutors later established that Nissensohn and his associate, Jesse Prieto, encountered the teenagers shortly after they left the foster home.
According to testimony attributed to Prieto, the girls were given alcohol and drugs before Nissensohn took them to an isolated wooded area in Carmel Valley. The prosecution maintained that both teenagers were sexually assaulted and killed during the night of June 25, 1981. Their bodies were concealed in the forest, far from the public roads and businesses where they had last been seen alive.
On September 9, 1981, loggers working in the wooded area discovered the badly decomposed body of Tanya Jones. She had been bound to a tree with electrical wire. A search of the surrounding terrain led investigators to the skeletal remains of Tammy Jarschke nearby. The conditions of the bodies and the passage of time made the investigation extremely difficult. Although authorities recognized that the girls had likely been killed together, the case remained unsolved for decades.
Prieto eventually gave investigators an account implicating Nissensohn in the murders. By the time the California case reached trial, Prieto had died, but portions of his earlier sworn testimony were admitted as evidence. Prosecutors used that testimony, along with evidence concerning Nissensohn's other crimes, to argue that he deliberately preyed upon young girls whose unstable living situations made them especially vulnerable.
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