Cabin 28 Murders – Witness or Dream?

JUSTIN’S DREAM

Now that we’ve heard from the two main suspects and the profiler, how about we hear from Justin, the boy who spent the night at Cabin 28, and whose step-father, Martin Smartt, made an interesting comment about. Which you can find in part II.

The following statements are from Justin speaking to Sheriff Doug Thomas. The numbers you see are as they appear on the official PCSO document. Justin described “a dream” he had the night of the murder, when he was “asleep” a mere ten feet from where the murders occurred. His mother claims Justin had blood on his shoes, so it’s logical to assume he witnessed at least part of the murder.

One might conclude, either his fragile mind couldn’t handle witnessing such horror and processed the murder as a dream, or he feared for his life because he saw who committed the act.

Incidentally, the bloody shoes mysteriously disappeared. Which makes me wonder whose blood was on them. Martin Smartt’s, perhaps?

I have not edited so you can view the statement as is.

Police sketch of suspects. Watch how it relates to Justin’s “dream”.

75. I am on my passenger boat. Somebody got thrown out and there was a fight. He had long black hair, short over the ear. His hair was combed back. He had black glasses with gold ring and a gold frame and black and brown lenses. He had a mustache, jean jacket, blue jeans, no belt. Cowboy boots. Black round toe with a squiggly design. He had a hammer in his left hand and it had a wooden handle and a steel hammering thing and a point at the end.

76. Johnny and Dana fought the man. Dana was almost drunk. He was walking weird. A crowd gathered. Johnny was thrown overboard and Dana. The man ran away. A body was lying on the bow. The mom (Sue). She had black hair and a sheet over her. I looked under the sheet and she was slit on the chest. Everybody started to gather around her and we started to go to shore.

77. The man had a knife like a pocket knife in his right hand. And he cut Sue. He didn’t cut her first. No. Before he went off the boat, he cut her. There was another man dressed up like him. He was in the crowd. But when the man dove into the water, they killed Sue. Nobody had a gun. Then I woke up.

78. The man just said her name – “Sue.” He had brown hair, past his ears, halfway. Curly at the end. Same kind of glasses as the other man and same kind of clothes. He wore marked Army boots, green, like a hiking boot with a Waffle Stomper type sole.

79. The man used a knife on Johnny. I was down by Sue, trying to take care of her. All the blood was coming down and I was trying to patch her up with a blue and white flowered rag. I threw the rag in the water. The men both took the life raft, but the brown-haired man covered Sue first. Johnny and Dana touched the wall by the TV while they were fighting.

80. Justin tells polygraph examiner Sam Lister that he did not have a dream and that he witnessed the murders taking place.

JUSTIN’S STATEMENTS

…to law enforcement after the murders.

81. Justin said that he heard a noise and awoke and went to the doorway and peeked into the living room. Sue was laying on the sofa and the two men he described previously were standing in the center of the room.

John and Dana then came home and entered the front door. John argues with the two men and a fight starts. Dana tried to get away and fled towards the kitchen when the brown-haired man strikes him with the hammer.

Sue rushes to John’s aid and Justin returned to his room and hid behind the door. The suspects then tied up Johnny and Dana.

82. Tina comes out of her room, dragging a blanket, and asks, “What’s going on?” The two men then rush to Tina and grab her by the arms and drag her out the back door as she cries “help, help.”

Later, the brown-haired suspect returns and covers up Sue with the blanket.

83. Justin told his mother that someone had a sweatsuit on. Johnny’s hands were tied and there was blood all over his face. He talked about the TV. Justin said that Johnny and Dana came in at midnight.

85. Justin states that “Sue was cut in the middle of her chest by a black-haired man using a pocket knife.”

86. Justin states that in his “dream” that “I ran down to Mrs. Sharp. She had a cut on her chest. I took a rag and put it on her chest!”

87. Justin then got back into bed and covered himself with a blanket where he fell asleep in about an hour.

Since his statement Justin was swarmed with hypnotists, psychics, and lie detector tests many times. Why psychics? You got it. There’s a paranormal element to this story too.

And that’s coming next.

Looking for a way to commit murder? Sign up for my free .pdf 50 Ways To Murder Your Fictional Characters. An addendum coming soon…

Murder at Cabin 28

Who wouldn’t like a cozy log cabin in the woods?

You may want to reconsider your answer in a moment.

The following is a true account of a quadruple homicide.

CABIN 28 – c2.postimg.org

1979

Glenna “Sue” Sharp, age 36, and her five children got thrown out of their Connecticut home by Sue’s abusive husband, James Sharp. They traveled cross-country visiting friends and old neighbors and settled in Keddie, California, in a 3-bedroom cabin in November, 1980.

Plumas County was not a place where dreams came true. Not a place where perseverance won out. And not a place where one could climb the corporate ladder to success.

Not then anyway. Not in 1980.

Keddie was a run-down, low rent, railroad town. Violence ran rampant.

November, 1980

Despite the circumstances that brought them to CA, the kids nested into their new life, and frolicked in a forest, stream, and on railroad tracks behind the property.

They lived among a cluster of cabins. A dying resort that rented to year-round residents.

Johnny, the eldest child at age 15, took an unfinished room downstairs, off a small utility area in the partial basement. With no indoor stairs or separate bathroom, he used the back staircase or front door to gain access to Cabin 28. Other than this small inconvenience he was content with his new semi-independence. The younger boys, Rick, age 10, and Greg, age 5, shared a bedroom at the front of the cabin, next to the living room, while Sue and her youngest daughter, Tina, age 12, shared the rear bedroom opposite the kitchen.

In mid-February, the eldest daughter, Sheila, age 14, gave birth to a baby in Oregon. The baby was promptly put up for adoption and Sheila rejoined her family in Cabin 28. Now with her child back home, Sue slept in a twin bed while the girls shared the queen. On occasion Sue slept on the pull-couch in the living room, falling asleep in front of the TV.

Times were tough.

Living quarters cramped.

A hard life.

Sadly, that was nothing new. Sue stretched $250 she received from the Navy — which barely covered rent — food stamps, and a stipend she received for being enrolled in CETA — a federal education program of the era — as far it could stretch.

Folks described Sue as a quiet, reserved woman, who primarily kept to herself. No local criminal record and not known to local authorities. She had one close girlfriend, a neighbor woman with the last name of Meeks.

Despite her personality, Sue managed to wrangle dates with some frequency, hanging at a neighborhood bar called The Back Door drinking beer and playing pool. Several boyfriends seemed at odds with her temperament and background. Sue had a steady boyfriend — another volatile relationship — that ended in a shouting match around late March, 1981.

April 12, 1981

Sunday, 7:45 a.m. (approx. time)

Fifteen feet south of her home, Sheila Sharp (14) woke at Cabin 27, the Seabolts residence, where she had spent the night. The Seabolts invited her to attend church with their family. All she needed was her Sunday clothes.

Sheila swung open the front door of Cabin 28.

Three dead bodies on the floor. The furthest away covered with a blanket.

Between the doorway and the closest body was a knife, bent at such an angle that Sheila mistook it for an open pocket knife.

It wasn’t a pocket knife.

It was the knife used to slaughter her family.

Screaming, crying, Sheila careened to the Seabolts.

The matriarch, Zonita Seabolt, rushed Sheila across the street to Cabin 25, the landlord’s residence.

Zonita called the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office.

PCSO dispatched a car.

How could they stand idly by and do nothing?

They couldn’t. No one could.

With the help of Zonita’s eldest son Jamie, they returned to Cabin 28. Around back, Jamie knocked on the boys’ bedroom window.

A face appeared in the glass.

Someone survived. Three children survived.

Jamie dragged Greg, Rick, and a neighbor child, Justin Smartt, age 12, from that window. All three unharmed.

Justin was on a sleepover. He believed he was safe. No one could have predicted what would happen during the early morning hours.

Determined to find more survivors, Jamie crept up the back stairs.

The killers had escaped. The back door left ajar.

Jamie witnessed the carnage, the aftermath of murder.

Three dead: Sue (36), John (15), and John’s friend, Dana Wingate (17).

Stabbed.

Claw hammered.

Strangled.

Missing from the cabin was Sue’s twelve-year-old daughter, Tina.

Who committed the murders?

Two primary suspects: Martin Smartt and John “Bo” Boubede.

Smartt served two tours in Vietnam and was seeking psychiatric help at the Reno VA hospital a few weeks before the murders.

Boubede, who had a criminal history of bank robbery for which he spent time in prison, claimed he was at the hospital for epilepsy and a suicide attempt.

The two men met there, and when Smartt left the hospital he brought Boubede with him to Keddie, California.

The police interviewed Smartt and Boubede, but neither were ever charged with the murders.

Both have since died.

1984

Fifty miles from Cabin 28, Tina’s skull was found near a waterfall.

This case has never been solved.

Why am I telling you this heartbreaking story?

Because I spent most of my day yesterday reading transcripts of Smartt and Boubede’s interviews.

Guess what? I have a special treat for you.

Former Supervisory Deputy United States Marshall Mark McClish analyzed these interviews, pointing out key words and phrases that show when a suspect is lying. Mr. McClish has an extensive background as a Secret Service Agent, FBI, and U.S. Marshall.

Now retired, Mark McClish started Advanced Interviewing Concepts, a company that provides interviewing skills training and assists investigators in analyzing statements. Mark currently gives presentations and seminars on Statement Analysis throughout the U.S. He has spoken at numerous conferences and has trained a variety of law enforcement agencies and military organizations. He is the author of the books I Know You Are Lying and Don’t Be Deceived. He also developed the Statement Analyzer which is software that will analyze a statement for deception.

Are you ready?

Mr. McClish gave me permission to publish his analysis of Smartt and Boubede’s statement. Yay! This is pure gold for a crime writer. I can’t tell you how thrilled I am to share this with you.

But…you will have to wait till next time. I promise, it’ll be worth the wait.