Investigators in Hayward believe a nine-year-old girl missing since 1988 could be linked to the “Speed Freak Killers”, Wesley Shermantine and Loren Herzog.
Hayward Police are now conducting an investigation in San Joaquin County in conjunction with the current search and investigation going on for other victims of Shermantine and Herzog.
Shermantine has repeatedly reached out to law enforcement offering information about his and Herzog’s victims.
Apparently in a letter he wrote recently, Shermantine comments on the similarities between Herzog and a sketch released decades ago in the disappearance of a woman in Hayward. (Click here to see the sketch)
Machaela Joy Garecht went missing on November 19, 1988. The nine-year-old girl was kidnapped in front of a Hayward market in broad daylight. According to a website dedicated to finding Garecht, she was taken by a man and pulled into a car as her friend watched.
Although officers say her case has never gone cold, they have not had many leads. In fact, at one time investigators thought Garecht was a victim of convicted kidnapper and rapist Phillip Garrido. Read the story here.
Hayward Police looked into the references made in Shermantine’s letter, and Wednesday announced there is an investigation underway in San Joaquin County.
A letter Shermantine wrote last year to the Stockton Record has gotten some attention from officials and bounty hunters, who have raised the issue with the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation.
The content of the letter, which reportedly identifies where more victims of the “Speed Freak Killers” are buried, sparked a search in San Joaquin County last week. Watch FOX40’s story on the search here.
The search turned up nothing of note, and in a press conference earlier this week, San Joaquin County’s Sheriff said he has concerns about bringing Shermantine from Death Row to the location in order to help the search. Watch Sheriff Moore’s statements here.
Shermantine is currently sitting on Death Row at San Quentin.
Herzog’s conviction was overturned and he pleaded to lesser charges and served a shorter prison sentence. He was released in 2010 and lived in a trailer on the grounds of a prison facility in Susanville. Herzog was found dead earlier this year, it is believed to be a suicide.
This is the original suspect sketch of the man who kidnapped Machaela Joy Garecht in 1988. Hayward investigators now believe she may have been taken by Loren Herzog.
