Terry Childs

Serial Killer

Terry Childs: Serial Killer and the Santa Cruz Cold Cases

Terry Childs was an American serial killer whose known crimes stretched from Nevada to California between 1979 and 1985. Over the course of decades, he was convicted of five murders, but the full extent of his violence remains uncertain. Long after his original imprisonment, Childs began confessing to additional killings, reopening cold cases that had frustrated investigators and victims' families for years. Some of those confessions proved credible enough to result in new murder convictions, while other claims could not be substantiated and were rejected or remained unresolved. Childs was born on September 22, 1955, in Santa Clara County, California, and grew up in the Santa Cruz County area. He accumulated a lengthy criminal record before his murder convictions and spent significant periods of his adult life involved with drugs, burglaries, robberies and other criminal activity. By the middle of the 1980s, he was moving through the Santa Cruz-area criminal and drug scene. His eventual arrest in 1985 exposed only one murder at first. It would take more than three additional decades for authorities to establish the broader pattern of killings connected to him.

The Murder of Rulan McGill

One of the earliest murders conclusively attributed to Childs was the killing of 32-year-old Rulan McGill in Nevada. On July 10, 1979, McGill traveled to the Reno area for a dental appointment, shopping and other errands. She never returned home. Her disappearance triggered a search, but investigators initially had no meaningful suspect. McGill's vehicle was discovered behind a warehouse two days after she disappeared. The following morning, relatives searching the area found her body in an irrigation ditch in Sparks. She had been stabbed and strangled. The murder remained unsolved for nearly two decades. The break in the case came only after Childs was already imprisoned in California. During his later series of confessions, he gave investigators information about McGill's killing that authorities considered significant enough to pursue charges. A Washoe County grand jury eventually indicted him. In June 1998, Childs pleaded guilty to McGill's murder, openly admitting in court that he had killed her. He was sentenced on July 10, 1998, exactly nineteen years after the day McGill disappeared and was murdered.

The Murder of Linda Ann Jozovich

Only a few months after McGill's death, another young woman vanished in California. Nineteen-year-old Linda Ann Jozovich was working at a Mervyn's department store in Santa Clara on November 7, 1979. At approximately 7:00 p.m., she went outside during a break and disappeared. According to Childs' eventual confession, he encountered Jozovich near the store after becoming enraged following an argument with his mother. He admitted attacking her, forcing her into her vehicle and driving her toward the Lexington Reservoir and Santa Cruz Mountains. There he beat her, strangled her with a belt and stabbed her. He abandoned her body in the mountainous area and moved her vehicle elsewhere. Childs later acknowledged returning to the remains and attempting to further conceal them. For years Jozovich's family did not know what had happened to her. Human remains discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains in 1995 were eventually identified as hers, with additional remains found years later. Even the discovery did not immediately identify her killer. In 2007, while already serving lengthy prison sentences, Childs confessed to murdering Jozovich. Investigators said his account contained details supporting his involvement. He was subsequently held responsible for the killing and received another life sentence without the possibility of parole. ...

Confirmed Victims: (5)

Rulan McGill Age: (32), Date of Death: 1979-07-10

Suspected Victims:

Penny Rickenbaker Age: (30), Date of Death: 1974-06-11

Terry Childs (serial killer) - Wikipedia