James Richard Curry: Serial Killer in California and Nevada
Early Life and Criminal Background
James Richard Curry was born on November 16, 1946, in Bexar County, Texas. Relatively little reliable information is available about his childhood and early family life. By adulthood, however, Curry had developed a serious criminal record. He was convicted of robbery and assault in Texas and received a lengthy prison sentence. He served part of that sentence at the Huntsville prison system before being released in 1977.
Following his release, Curry left Texas and moved to California. He settled for a time in Waukena, a small community in Tulare County, where he worked in the locksmithing business. This employment brought him into contact with James DeWitt Robinson, a fellow locksmith whose later disappearance became an important unresolved part of the investigation into Curry.
Curry eventually moved north and became involved in the operation of a self-storage business in Santa Clara, California. His position gave him access to storage lockers and brought him into regular contact with customers and other people in the storage industry. At least three of the people Curry later admitted killing had connections to him through this business.
The Disappearance of James DeWitt Robinson
One of the earliest people investigators later associated with Curry was James DeWitt Robinson, approximately 40 years old, who worked with Curry in the locksmithing business in the Waukena area.
Robinson reportedly had received about $10,000 through a personal-injury settlement and had also been involved in property transactions in the Tulare area. He disappeared in approximately 1978. His body has never been recovered, and there is no verified date of death.
After Curry was arrested years later, investigators searching property associated with him discovered items belonging to Robinson, including identification or personal documents, checkbooks and a handgun. The discovery raised the possibility that Curry had killed Robinson and taken his possessions. Because Robinson's remains were never located and Curry died before investigators could fully question or prosecute him, Robinson's suspected murder was never conclusively established in court.
The Murder of Richard Lemmon Jr.
By the early 1980s, Curry was managing a self-storage facility on De La Cruz Boulevard in Santa Clara. One of his customers was Richard Lemmon Jr., a Bakersfield man who stored motorcycles, a truck and other property at the facility.
Curry and Lemmon initially appeared to have a friendly relationship, but the relationship deteriorated. According to accounts reconstructed from Curry's eventual confession, Curry killed Lemmon in February 1982 after getting him to the storage facility.
On February 17, 1982, Curry shot Lemmon in the head with a revolver. He then concealed Lemmon's body inside a wooden crate and left the remains hidden at the storage facility. The body remained there for months. Curry also took possession of property belonging to Lemmon, including one of his motorcycles.
Lemmon's disappearance did not immediately expose Curry. The body remained concealed until January 1983, when police investigating Curry in connection with two other murders searched the storage facility. Investigators opened the crate and discovered Lemmon's badly decomposed remains. Curry subsequently admitted that he had killed him.
Some later victim databases have listed Lemmon's date of death as February 18, 1982, but detailed accounts of Curry's confession and the reconstructed killing place the shooting on February 17, 1982.
The Murder of Mary Edith Silvani
Curry's connection to another murder would not be discovered until decades after his death.
On July 17, 1982, hikers found the body of a woman in the Sheep Flat area near the Mount Rose Highway in Washoe County, Nevada, not far from Incline Village and Lake Tahoe. The woman had been sexually assaulted and shot in the back of the head. She carried no identification, and investigators could not determine who she was.
For decades, she was known as "Sheep's Flat Jane Doe." Her fingerprints, dental information and other identifying characteristics were compared with missing-person cases, but none initially provided an answer.
Modern forensic genealogy eventually changed the investigation. DNA analysis enabled investigators to identify the victim as 33-year-old Mary Edith Silvani, originally from Michigan. Her identity was additionally confirmed through fingerprints associated with an earlier record in Detroit.
Investigators then turned their attention to DNA evidence preserved from the sexual assault investigation. Genetic genealogy pointed detectives toward James Richard Curry. DNA provided by Curry's surviving children helped investigators confirm the biological connection. Authorities ultimately concluded that Curry was the man who sexually assaulted and murdered Silvani on July 17, 1982.
The discovery was significant because Curry had been dead for more than three decades. When he was arrested in 1983, investigators had no known reason to connect him with the unidentified woman found near Lake Tahoe. The DNA investigation therefore added a fourth confirmed murder to Curry's known crimes long after his death.
The Murders of Gerald and Sharon Novoselatz
Curry's final known murders occurred on January 2, 1983.
Gerald Novoselatz, 39, and his wife, Sharon Novoselatz, 34, operated a self-storage business in the San Jose area that competed with the facility Curry managed. Curry knew the couple through the storage business. He later described having developed hostility toward Gerald following disagreements between them.
On January 2, 1983, Curry went to the Novoselatz residence at 1020 Spring Street in San Jose. Gerald was reportedly interested in purchasing a .45-caliber handgun from Curry. During the meeting, Curry took control of the weapon and shot Gerald in the head, killing him inside the residence.
Curry then turned his attention to Sharon. He stole money from the residence, sexually assaulted her and forced her into his vehicle. Curry drove away from San Jose with Sharon as his captive.
While traveling toward the San Francisco Peninsula, Curry stopped along State Route 92. Sharon attempted to escape. Curry chased her down, caught her and again assaulted her. He then shot her in the head and abandoned her body near the Crystal Springs Reservoir area in San Mateo County.
Sharon's body was discovered along Highway 92 later that day. Investigators quickly began examining the connection between her death, Gerald's murder and Curry.
Arrest and Confession
Police focused on Curry almost immediately following the murders of Gerald and Sharon Novoselatz. On January 4, 1983, two days after the killings, Curry was taken into custody and questioned by San Jose investigators.
During the investigation, authorities obtained permission or warrants to search property connected to Curry, including the Santa Clara storage facility. The search produced the crucial discovery of Richard Lemmon Jr.'s body concealed in the wooden crate.
Confronted with the evidence, Curry confessed to killing Lemmon and to murdering Gerald and Sharon Novoselatz. His admissions gave investigators a disturbing picture of a man who had been able to conceal one murder for nearly a year while continuing to live and work in the community.
Investigators also found property belonging to James DeWitt Robinson. That discovery suggested that Curry's violence might have started years earlier than the confirmed 1982 murders. Detectives attempted to determine what had happened to Robinson, but no body was recovered.
At the time, authorities knew nothing about Curry's involvement in Mary Silvani's Nevada murder. That connection would remain hidden until advances in DNA technology and forensic genealogy solved the case in 2019.
Suicide and Death
Curry did not live long enough to stand trial.
While being held in the Santa Clara County Jail following his January 1983 arrest, he attempted suicide by hanging himself with material fashioned into a makeshift noose. Jail personnel found him and attempted to save him. Curry was transported to a San Jose hospital and placed on life support.
His condition did not improve. James Richard Curry was pronounced dead on January 7, 1983, at the age of 36 after life support was discontinued.
His suicide abruptly ended the criminal investigation's most important opportunity to question him about other disappearances and unsolved murders. Because he died before trial, prosecutors never had the opportunity to present the Lemmon or Novoselatz cases to a jury.
Confirmed and Suspected Victims
- Richard Lemmon Jr. - February 17, 1982 - Santa Clara, California: Lemmon was a Bakersfield man who stored motorcycles, a truck and other belongings at the Santa Clara storage facility managed by Curry. Curry shot him in the head and concealed his body inside a wooden crate in the storage facility. His remains were discovered after Curry's January 1983 arrest. Some victim records give February 18 as the date of death, while detailed accounts of Curry's confession place the killing on February 17.
- Mary Edith Silvani - July 17, 1982 - Sheep Flat, Washoe County, Nevada: Silvani, 33, was sexually assaulted and shot in the back of the head near the Mount Rose Highway above the Lake Tahoe area. Her unidentified body became known as "Sheep's Flat Jane Doe." Genetic genealogy identified Silvani and subsequently identified Curry as her killer decades later.
- Gerald Novoselatz - January 2, 1983 - San Jose, California: Gerald, 39, operated a storage business with his wife Sharon. Curry went to the couple's Spring Street residence in connection with the proposed purchase of a handgun and shot Gerald in the head inside the home.
- Sharon Novoselatz - January 2, 1983 - San Mateo County, California: Sharon, 34, was kidnapped from her San Jose home after Gerald was murdered. Curry sexually assaulted her and transported her in his vehicle. After Sharon attempted to escape along State Route 92, Curry recaptured and killed her. Her body was found near the Crystal Springs Reservoir area.
- James DeWitt Robinson - Suspected victim - disappeared approximately 1978 - Waukena/Tulare County, California: Robinson, approximately 40, was a locksmith who had worked with Curry. His remains have never been recovered, so no verified date of death exists. Investigators became suspicious after finding Robinson's handgun, financial records and other personal property among items connected to Curry. Curry remains strongly suspected in Robinson's disappearance, but Robinson should be distinguished from Curry's four confirmed homicide victims.
The Scope of Curry's Crimes
The known evidence establishes Curry as responsible for four killings: Richard Lemmon Jr., Mary Edith Silvani, Gerald Novoselatz and Sharon Novoselatz. James DeWitt Robinson represents a possible fifth victim, although the absence of Robinson's remains and Curry's death prevented investigators from establishing the suspected murder conclusively.
Curry's crimes crossed state and county lines and involved different circumstances. Lemmon was connected to him through the storage business. Gerald and Sharon Novoselatz were also connected to the same industry. Mary Silvani's relationship, if any, to Curry remains unclear. The Nevada killing demonstrated that Curry's violence was not necessarily limited to disputes involving people he knew through work.
Robbery and theft also appeared alongside several of the crimes. Curry took property belonging to victims, and investigators found personal belongings of people associated with him. Sexual violence was a feature of the murders of Mary Silvani and Sharon Novoselatz.
Identification Through Genetic Genealogy
The Mary Silvani investigation became one of the most notable parts of Curry's story because neither the victim nor her killer was known when her body was discovered in 1982.
Investigators preserved evidence for decades. Eventually, forensic genealogists used DNA databases and family-tree research to identify Silvani. Once investigators knew who she was, they continued analyzing the DNA of the unidentified man connected to the assault.
That research eventually pointed toward Curry, despite the fact that he had died in 1983 and had never been convicted of the California murders. Investigators obtained cooperation from Curry's family, and DNA comparisons confirmed him as Silvani's killer.
In May 2019, authorities publicly announced that both sides of the decades-old mystery had been solved: "Sheep's Flat Jane Doe" was Mary Edith Silvani, and the man responsible for killing her was James Richard Curry.
Legacy of the Investigation
James Richard Curry's confirmed killing period was relatively short, extending from February 1982 through January 1983, yet investigators believe his involvement in violent crime may have begun earlier. His suspected connection to the 1978 disappearance of James DeWitt Robinson leaves open the possibility that additional offenses were never discovered.
Curry's suicide prevented trials that could have established a more complete public record of his crimes. It also deprived investigators of the chance to question him extensively about Robinson and other potentially unexplained cases.
More than 36 years after Curry's death, the identification of Mary Edith Silvani demonstrated how preserved forensic evidence could reveal information that investigators in 1982 could not have obtained. Genetic genealogy not only restored the identity of a woman who had remained nameless for decades, but also connected her murder to an already-dead serial killer whose known crimes had occurred hundreds of miles away.
Today, Curry is generally considered responsible for four confirmed murders in California and Nevada, with James DeWitt Robinson regarded as a suspected additional victim. His case is particularly remembered for the long-delayed solution of the Mary Silvani murder and for the role modern DNA technology played in uncovering a crime that remained hidden throughout Curry's lifetime.
