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By: Bernie Sumner on Mon May 26, 2008

What were the Keddie Murders, and why do they still haunt people to this day, almost 30 years after they first took place? The Keddie Murders were four murders that took place in the Keddie resort in Keddie in 1981. Keddie is a small town with a population of less than 100 located in Plumas County, 3205 feet above sea level in the Sierra Nevadas mountains of northern California.

The Keddie Resort was founded in 1910, comprised of 33 cabins and a large log lodge, hand-crafted. The excellent trout-fishing and hiking opportunities soon made the resort a popular destination for tourists, and by the time of the murders, a tight-knit community of cabin dwellers and townsfolk had grown accustomed to a quiet pace of life, and genial relations.

But on the night of April 11, 1981, something so awful and evil happened that it would drive countless residents away, determined never to think about Keddie and what happened there and stop many visitors from ever considering a vacation at Camp Keddie. A mother, her two children, and a friend were brutally tortured and stabbed to death in cabin #28.

Between 9pm and 10pm, Dana Wingate (age 17) and John Sharp (age 15) arrived in Keddie after hitch-hiking from nearby Quincy. John Sharp had been living with his mother Glenna Sharp (age 36). The three were bound with electrical wire and duct tape, and soon after, Tina Sharp (age 13), John’s sister arrived and was bound as well.

Over the next ten hours, the killers brutally bludgeoned and mutilated their four victims with a claw hammer and steak knives until their corpses were completely unrecognizable. The grisly scene was discovered by Sheila Sharp (age 14), sister to John and Tina, who had been sleeping in a nearby cabin.

Many other cabins surrounded cabin #28, but on that night, nobody had heard a thing.

And there were other strange elements of the brutal crime. Young Tina had been murdered at the scene, but her body was missing, and her severed head and other remains were eventually found 50 miles from the scene of the crime at a waterfall named Feather Falls in Butte Country three years later in 1984. Also, three very young children (two of which were children of Glenna Sharp) who were sleeping in a bedroom in the cabin hadn’t been touched at all, and were able to provide police with details to come up with a sketch of one of the suspects. Unfortunately, the boy’s youth made the police deem the photo unreliable.

Sheriff Patrol Commander Rod DeCrona, head of the investigation, 20 years after the incident still admitted they had no motive, and no suspects for the crime. It still remains a mystery, and one that has been combed over by numerous cold case experts and other interested parties.

In 1984, the owners of the Keddie resort put it up for sale for $1.8 million, but the memory of that horrific night ensured it wouldn’t sell, and for nearly 20 years, it began to fall apart, many buildings condemned by the county and partially occupied by squatters and hobos. Eventually rehabilitation of the site included the demolition of the infamous Cabin #28 in the summer of 2004, after years of reports of ghostly occurrences, and now, in 2008, comes a new movie called “The Stranger.” The movie is directed by Bryan Bertino; stars Liv Tyler, Peter Clayton-Luce, Scott Speedman, Kip Weeks, Laura Margolis (of the ABC television series “Dirty Sexy Money”), and Glenn Howerton (of “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”); and is based on the Keddie Murders.