Convicted serial killer Wesley Shermantine, one half of the duo dubbed The Speed-Freak Killers for their meth-fueled killing spree in the 80s and 90s, has been opening up to investigators about the whereabouts of victims' remains. He even drew them a map, leading to an abandoned well on a piece of property his family used to own where authorities have now dug up about 300 bones, representing the remains of at least ten different victims.
Shermantine is on death row after being convicted of four murders following his arrest in 1999. His partner in murder, his childhood friend Loren Herzog, was convicted of three murders but paroled in 2010 after getting a reduced sentence after an appeals court ruled his confession had been illegally obtained. He was living in a trailer outside the High Desert State Prison in Susanville, essentially because he was unwelcome everywhere else in the state. Herzog committed suicide last month after hearing that Shermantine was disclosing the locations of victims, including the well in Linden, CA which appears to have been their primary burial ground. The spot is about 60 miles south of Sacramento in San Joaquin County.
Remains found in a different location disclosed by Shermantine, this one in Calaveras County, were identified via dental records Thursday as being those of 25-year-old Cyndi Vanderheiden who disappeared in 1988.
More victims are expected to be identified as the excavation of the well continues and bone fragments are sent for DNA testing.
In total, Shermantine and Herzog's killing spree is said to have claimed as many as fifteen victims. Shermantine's recent disclosures came as a result of a $30,000 payment by bounty hunter Leonard Padilla, who hopes to recoup the cash and perhaps make a little extra for himself by collecting outstanding rewards from victims' families.
