Slayer of Teen Pair Possibly Injured

There are indications that the slayer of teen-age sweethearts at a remote beach spot June 4 might have been injured during the course of his vicious attack on the pair, Sheriff James T. Webster said today.

Sheriff Webster said that the most recent survey of the rugged area 25 miles north of Santa Barbara has uncovered blood stains on rocks 75 yards uphill from the shack where Linda Edwards, 17, and Robert Domingos, 18, of Lompoc, were found the night of June 5.

It is possible, Sheriff Webster and Inspector Charles Taylor speculated, that the assailant was bleeding as he fled the scene toward the railroad tracks and Highway 101.

ROCKS EXAMINED

Some rocks which were easily removable were sent today to Ray Pinker, Los Angeles Police Department forensic chemist, who is doing a detailed analysis of materials from the death scene.

Sheriff Webster and his staff, who have questioned dozens of persons over the past 10 days and nights, including friends and relatives of the victims—and several “hot” suspects—were pinning hopes on possible fresh clues and leads which Pinker might come up with in his analysis.

The most recent search of the area, third to be made since the bodies were discovered by a California Highway Patrol officer, turned up four rattlesnakes, which were killed, but no trace of any weapon. A .22 caliber rifle, revolver, or both are believed to have been used by the killer.

BODIES DRAGGED

It is conceivable, Sheriff Webster said, that the couple was accosted on the trail as they made their way down to the desolate beach; that they were found on the beach and forced to walk to the shack hidden in an arroyo up from the beach, or that the killer came upon them inside the shack and forced them to go outside, where they were killed. In any event, they had been dragged about 20 feet and left in the shack, and an effort was made to set fire to it.

In a letter written May 28, a week before the murders, to a former high school friend now living in Paramount, and received after the couple was dead, Miss Edwards told of the senior week activities ahead at Lompoc High School, and of her plans to marry the Domingos youth in November, “in a small wedding.”

The youth, she said, was going to go to work after school was out driving a gasoline truck for the Richfield Oil Co.

And she discussed the senior trip planned by the school for the “ditch day” on which she was killed. The class, of which she and Domingos were graduating seniors, had voted to go to Santa Barbara beach, she wrote, adding:

“They can have it, as far as I’m concerned.”