The views and opinions expressed in Cold and Missing are exclusively those of the hosts.
All parties mentioned are considered innocent until proven guilty in a court of law.
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I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin-Sulkowski.
And I'm your co-host, Eli Sulkowski.
And this is Cold and Missing, where we cover cold cases and missing person cases.
Hello everyone and welcome back to Cold and Missing.
I'm your host, Ali.
And I am your co-host, Eli.
We're back together for this week.
Yeah, we're always together.
I got a new job on top of all my other little jobs.
One that I'm very happy at, but it was an adjustment.
Going back to just a different schedule, but yeah, I'm trying to be as consistent as possible
in my co-host place here.
But we are together always.
Yes, we have not broken up.
We are together always.
I don't know where we're at.
Episode 60 something.
I think it's episode 67.
All right.
Is this a cold or missing person's case?
This is a cold case.
All right, let's jump into it.
Today we are talking about the cold case of Jenny Lin.
And this takes place in May of 1994 in Castro Valley, California.
But first a little bit about Jenny.
Jenny was 14 years old in 1994.
She had just celebrated her 14th birthday two days before her murder.
She would be 43 years old today.
Jenny was just weeks away from her middle school graduation where she was an exceptional
student.
She was slated to be the valedictorian and was an accomplished musician playing both
the viola and piano.
Jenny was well liked and had a lot of friends at Canyon Middle School.
Jenny lived with her mother and father in an upscale neighborhood with a very low crime
rate.
Her older sister was at Stanford University.
Jenny had a usual routine after school.
She would usually get off the bus between 2.30 and 2.45, walk the block from the bus
stop to her home, play with the family dog, watch TV, and then start on her homework.
She would usually fit in a little music practice and chatting on the phone in there as well.
And now a timeline of events.
On Friday, May 27th, 1994, Jenny had a normal day at school and got home at her usual time
between 2.30 and 2.45.
Jenny's mother, May Leanne, calls the house that afternoon but Jenny doesn't pick up.
However, we do know that Jenny talked with two friends on the phone that evening and
she sounded fine.
Her last phone call was around 5.15 p.m.
Now I'm not sure if that's when she hung up or when she started the call.
But this would be the last time anyone spoke with Jenny.
When her father arrives home at 6.45 p.m., he notices that a sliding glass door that
led into the backyard was open.
When he goes upstairs into the master bathroom, he stumbles into a horrible scene.
Jenny is found in a pool of blood.
She had multiple stab wounds in her abdomen and her clothes had been forcibly removed
according to police.
She was bound with duct tape.
There were no signs of a struggle.
The home had not been ransacked and nothing was missing or stolen.
There was very little blood elsewhere in the home outside of the bathroom.
John immediately calls the police who are baffled by the gruesome crime scene in the quiet neighborhood.
Police begin processing the scene and despite her clothes being removed, Jenny did not appear
to be sexually assaulted, but police will wait for the autopsy results before this is
ruled out as a motive.
Lieutenant Ted Nelson says, quote, There aren't even signs of any intent to rob the home.
The whole thing appears very controlled, end quote.
Jenny's body is removed from the home in the early hours of Saturday, May 28th and
despite the odd hour, neighbors are outside just waiting to say goodbye to the sweet girl
they all knew who always had a smile on her face.
The neighborhood is shocked by the gruesome murder of Jenny and the overall safety that
the neighbors had felt had been shattered.
People used to leave their doors open before the murder of Jenny.
But after that is no longer the case.
A neighbor Sophia Limanos says, quote, I moved here because it's safe, but not now.
She was a friendly, nice girl.
We are all so upset, end quote.
Police reach out to the FBI to try to get help in their investigation, specifically a
profiler to help give shape to the suspect.
Police spend Saturday processing the crime scene and searching the wooded hilly area
behind the Lin home to see if there's any evidence out there as investigators believe
that the killer could have slipped out through the back and not been seen by anyone.
On Sunday, May 29th, just two days after Jenny's murder, her autopsy is conducted, but it sheds
no light on the motive.
The autopsy confirms what police thought that she had not been sexually assaulted.
She had been stabbed several times in the stomach.
Police have very little to go off of.
They wonder if the killer was a drifter who just happened to find an open door or if the
intent was to rob the home, but Jenny's presence interrupted them.
Lieutenant Ted Nelson says, quote, it appears that the motive was to kill her, but why?
She's just a cute little sweetheart of a girl, just a nice kid, end quote.
Police are stumped as to why the murderer would take off her clothes if she was not
assaulted.
Again, Lieutenant Ted Nelson says, quote, we'd sure like to know why he did that.
It's one of the big issues, end quote.
Police pretty quickly believe that a man committed the murder due to how quickly Jenny was overpowered
and police believe that Jenny did not know him.
Police continue to search the woods behind her home and question neighbors.
Her family and friends set up the Jenny Lin Trust Fund to start to collect donations for
a reward for information leading to the arrest of her killer.
On Tuesday, May 31st, 1994, police hold a press conference to plead to the public for
information about Jenny's killer.
Her father, John, speaks at the press conference and he recalls a strange interaction that
happened two weeks before the murder.
He tells the police and the public that a man had approached him in the Bayfair BART
station parking lot.
So BART stands for the Bay Area Rapid Transit, so a train parking lot.
John was headed home after working in San Francisco when a disheveled man approaches
John's car and says something along the lines of, quote, I have a proposition for
you.
I got your daughter, end quote.
John dismisses the man as a kook.
He knows that Jenny is at her viola lesson and when he gets home, he calls his daughter
at Stanford and she is fine and well.
John doesn't report this encounter to police or even think about it again until after Jenny's
murder.
Police have never been able to ID the man who approached John at the station, but police
believe the events are not connected.
John had never seen the man before and can only give police a vague description of what
he looked like.
Police share that they believe the killer entered the home either through the sliding
glass door or through a window that was broken and that the only intent of the person was
to kill Jenny or someone else in the family since nothing else happened at the home.
John tells the media, quote, we are a very simple, hardworking family with outstanding
children, living a straightforward American lifestyle.
We never did anything to hurt anyone.
We cannot imagine how Jenny could be the target of such a murder, end quote.
On Thursday, June 2nd, just six days after Jenny's murder, over 1200 people gathered
to celebrate her life at her memorial service.
Her casket is lined with stuffed animals, troll dolls, and she is buried with her viola.
Her mother accepts all of her school awards she would have gotten at her graduation that
are awarded to her at her memorial service.
On June 8th, 12 days after the murder, Jenny's family, friends, and community have raised
$50,000 for the reward fund.
Now at this point in the timeline, Jenny's case takes a little bit of a sideline in the
press because on June 12th, the Nicole Brown Simpson murder takes place and that dominates
the headlines.
But on Tuesday, June 14th, 18 days after the murder, police begin to walk back their statement
that sexual assault was not a motive in this case.
They believe that the murderer could have been a serial rapist.
In talking about the crime scene, Lieutenant Ted Nelson says, quote, it indicates that
this may have been some type of sexual assault that was interrupted.
This is all a theory at this point, but we can't rule anything out.
We can't afford to put our blinders on.
This was a cold and calculated killing and the fact that the crime scene was limited
to just the upstairs bathroom where the girl was killed indicates that the suspect took
pains to keep evidence to a minimum.
We think that the killer took her clothes off, which supports sexual assault as a possible
motive.
And if the suspect did this once, he could have done it before, which leads us to the
possible serial aspect of this case.
End quote.
Police are slowly working their way through the 125 tips they have received and FBI profilers
are assisting on the case in creating a profile of the suspect.
Over the next week, police are able to track down and eliminate three motorcyclists that
were seen in the neighborhood that day that Jenny was murdered.
With these leads eliminated, police return to the hills behind the Lin home, hoping
to find more evidence.
Lieutenant Ted Nelson says, quote, We've already gone over the area with dogs and
on foot for physical evidence.
What we want to have another look at is the layout of the landscape and tactical possibilities
like routes of egress or staging areas that could have been used by the killer.
If we are going to find anything, it will probably be over that ridge.
That would be the most likely way for someone to go.
But we'll go over the whole area just in case.
End quote.
The ridge that Lieutenant Nelson is talking about was a grove of trees to the left of
the Lin home on Wednesday, June 29th.
So it's been over a month since Jenny's murder.
Police announced to the public that they are looking for two vehicles in 1960s, two door
Chevy two and a newer pickup.
So this would be an early 90s pickup truck that is red in color.
Lieutenant Ted Nelson says, quote, These vehicles were in the Palomari Hills area at the time
of the killing and they remain unaccounted for.
We'd like very much to know who was in them and what they were doing there.
End quote.
It's unclear if police ever tracked down the drivers of these vehicles.
And if they do, they never talk about it publicly.
On Thursday, August 11th, it's now been over two months since Jenny's murder.
John Lin commissions an artist to draw a composite sketch of the man who approached
him at the BART station.
The police did have their own sketch artists create a sketch closer to Jenny's murder,
but the police believe the encounter is unrelated to the murder.
So they never released the sketch to the public.
But John Lin believes that they are connected.
Police say that they do not consider this man a suspect, but would like to ID him.
Ultimately, John Lin releases the sketch on his own without the police officially releasing
their composite sketch.
On Thursday, September 1st, so it's now been over three months since the murder of Jenny
Lin, the family has set up the Jenny Lin Foundation with their own tip line to try
to solve the case.
Police reveal that they believe the killer did break in through the small downstairs
window.
They believe the killer acted alone and was familiar with the neighborhood and the schedule
of the Lin family.
Police also mentioned that they are interested in IDing a man that was seen on the day of
the murder walking away from the Lin home carrying a small canvas bag.
He was headed towards an athletic field in the neighborhood, but there were no official
activities on the field that night.
And after this, the case drops out of the media for a while.
Again, the case was happening alongside the Nicole Brown Simpson murder and ultimately
the OJ Simpson murder trial.
The next update comes at the one year mark of Jenny's murder.
Police believe that the murder was a carefully planned and prepared for act.
Police have been working with the FBI profiling team to create a profile of the suspect.
They believe that the killer is a man with well developed social skills and is educated.
He would not normally show aggressive or abhorrent behavior.
That the killer would have had legitimate reasons to be in the neighborhood, either
professionally or socially and would not seem out of place at all in the neighborhood.
The killer probably took time to learn the Lin family routine and they wouldn't be
surprised if he had a past criminal history of exhibitionism, burglary, and or was a peeping
tom.
By the way that Jenny was bound with duct tape, he may also have a history of bondage.
Mary Ellen O'Toole from the FBI Behavioral Science Unit says, quote, most people assume
in a crime as egregious as this that no one they know could do such a thing.
The person who did this will appear to others as normal and well adjusted.
He will not seem bizarre or like a loner.
He has compartmentalized this part of his life.
Right after the event, his anxiety was high because of paranoia about what clues he left
behind.
End quote.
Again, while Jenny was not sexually assaulted, they do believe that the crime could be sexually
motivated.
Agent O'Toole says, quote, offenders can enjoy the planning or the interaction with
the victim before the crime takes place.
There are pre and post crime encounters with the victim that might be pleasant to him.
A year later, he would recall this almost in a dreamlike fashion.
He would think back and relive the fantasy.
End quote.
The FBI is reviewing all the evidence collected at the scene and the Jenny in Foundation
has now raised $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the
killer.
At the three-year mark in 1997, and what should have been Jenny's 17th birthday, the police
and FBI still believe the killer is in the area.
The FBI profiler team add that the killer likely went through behavioral or mood changes
in the days leading up to Jenny's murder.
Some stressor in his life, such as losing a job or a relationship.
After Jenny's murder, he would have been withdrawn.
Police are worried that the killer will strike again.
Over the next two decades, police will name and eliminate several suspects in the murder
of Jenny Lin.
For one time, the prime suspect in the case was a man named Sebastian Shaw, but police
were ultimately able to eliminate him.
The last update on the case that I could find actually comes from 2022, when police and
FBI re-examine the evidence from the crime scene with new, more sensitive technology.
Through this re-examination, police are able to develop new leads in the case.
Sheriff A. Hearn says, quote, we have a couple of possibilities that we are holding close
to our vest.
We want to make sure we don't disclose too much to a potential suspect, end quote.
And that is the last update that I could find that was really adding information to the
Jenny Lin murder.
So if you know anything about the murder of Jenny Lin in May of 1994, please call the
Alameda County Sheriff's Office at 510-667-3622 or the FBI San Francisco office at 415-553-7400.
And the sources for the timeline today come from ABC7, the FBI, the San Francisco Examiner,
the Desert Sun, the Press Democrat, Camarillo Star, North County Times, Oakland Tribune,
the Napa Valley Register, the Sacramento Bee, the Modesto Bee, and the Tribune.
So that is the case of Jenny Lin
My first reaction is just really sad for her parents.
You gave us gratefully a lot of information, or not a lot, definitely not enough because
still the ultimate question has yet to be answered.
But in learning quite a bit about her parents in particular, it's just like it's so beautiful
that they've dedicated their lives to finding the answer, you know?
And it's also heartbreaking that it's like what their lives turned into, you know?
My heart just really goes out to them and you can tell that just every part of their
existence seems to have gone into figuring out like who took their beautiful child from
them.
Yeah, and I didn't get a chance to mention this during the timeline, but her parents
are very active in, you know, victim advocacy and trying to get answers and legislation
passed, you know, for victims' rights, for families of victims.
So what you said sums it up perfectly that their life has really been dedicated to not
only helping solve Jenny's murder, but also helping other families that unfortunately
go through things like this.
Yeah, just to add to that, yes, they're looking to solve their daughter's murder, but also
that they are doing it for the community too, you know?
Not immediate community, but like, I don't know, I just think it's beautiful work for
what it is, you know, to do that from that kind of losses, it's incredible.
You know, I think it just takes an incredible amount of strength to do something like that.
I don't know if I have a ton of questions.
Yeah, I guess I want to know more about what you think about the possibilities around finding
an answer.
Yeah, I think this is one of those cases where there's a really good chance that it could
be solved in the next few years.
I was really encouraged by the update from 2022, where police and FBI were retesting
the evidence and they seem to get new leads from this.
So I'm guessing that that is some kind of DNA profile that they were able to generate
from evidence at the crime scene.
And whether that has led them to, you know, a pool of suspects, or maybe they're going,
you know, kind of through the genealogy of, you know, open DNA databases.
I'm not sure.
I would love to know.
I would be very curious about what they're doing with that information that was generated.
But it does feel like this is a case that has remained pretty active and has been revisited
again and again as technology advances.
So I think we could really see a resolution in this case in the next few years.
And hopefully the person is still alive and can be held accountable for the crimes that
they did.
One thing that kind of kept sticking in my mind as I was researching this case and going
through the old newspaper articles, I just, I know that the police believe that it was
a man because of how quickly Jenny was overpowered.
And I do think that's correct.
But I also just kept coming back to like, could this have been a woman who removed the
clothes as almost like a distraction to like point towards a man?
Like that's just one thing that I kept kind of coming back and back to again that just
kind of started eating at my brain a little bit was, could this have been a woman that
did this?
Because somebody snuck in through a pretty small downstairs window.
So I just am curious about that.
But again, that's just me kind of speculating.
But it's a thought that I kept having cross my mind again and again.
So you know, if I got to sit down and look at the police file and just review everything
and talk with investigators, that's one thing that I would just want to ask them about in
a little bit more detail.
Like could a woman have done this?
You know, Lieutenant Ted Nelson talks about putting blinders on that the police couldn't
afford to do this because it was very cold and calculated.
So to me, I just I want to consider everything in this case because it is so egregious that
it's like everything has to be considered until it can absolutely be eliminated.
And you know, it is possible to do that through DNA.
So maybe the DNA they have developed does show something like that to where they are
able to eliminate a little bit.
It's very strange to think about this suspect that is well educated, would not seem out
of place in the neighborhood, could easily kind of slip in and out that like neighbors,
even after the murder wouldn't be like, oh, this person, this person was in the neighborhood,
they would just like write them off very quickly and not even think about it.
So yeah, it's just a horrible case and a calculated case.
And it makes me wonder, has this person done anything like this since then?
I don't know.
But it just seems like one of those murders where you probably wouldn't stop at one.
And even the police think that at one point that they're nervous that the suspect will
strike again.
I echo you that like it really could until we know just even just a few more details,
it could be a multitude of horrifying storylines, you know, or events.
You know, in this case, the FBI and the police, they created this profile with like very specific
points on who the suspect could be, you know, what happened to him in the days leading up
to the murder, how he was acting afterwards, his mindset, his education level, all of that
is out there.
Kind of like making this like shadow of a suspect.
And it's hard not to like want to fill it in yourself.
But with all this specificity, I almost wonder if police kind of have a suspect in mind,
and they're kind of loosely describing him hoping that more people will call in with
this person's name, or maybe this person will like trip up somehow and talk to somebody
or, you know, kind of revisit the crime scene, drive by it, you know, kind of catch him in
that way.
So I do wonder if the police do have somebody in mind.
And we know over the years they have named other suspects.
But I wonder if there's somebody that they haven't named yet that's kind of sitting
in their file, just kind of waiting for those pieces to fall into place.
And hopefully with this 2022 update, they do have more DNA, they are able to put those
pieces into place and really finally find the person who did this because they do believe
it was one person that that part they seem pretty sure of.
But again, if you know anything about the murder of Jenny Lin, please call the Alameda
County Sheriff's Office at 510-667-3622 or the FBI San Francisco office at 415-553-7400.
And I just want to give a quick shout out we had a new written Apple podcast review,
which was so kind, so thoughtful.
Thank you so much for taking time out of your day to do that.
And if you maybe have a couple extra minutes today before you move on to your next podcast
or your next task, if you could just leave us a written review if you're an Apple or
a five star thumbs up whatever the metric is in your favorite podcast player, it would
be so helpful in others finding these cold cases and missing people cases and just getting
their names out there.
You can also visit our website www.coldandmissing.com where we have transcripts of all of our podcast
episodes so if you or someone you love is hard of hearing, they can follow along and
learn about these cases through our transcripts of each episode.
We also have our YouTube videos up on there.
You can subscribe to our YouTube channel if that's maybe where you like to intake your
media.
There's lots of conversations happening in the comments so you can join us over there
to kind of chat in real time if that's what you're into.
And of course, we will be posting pictures of Jenny on our Instagram this week as well
as the suspect sketch that her father John Lin had commissioned about the man who approached
him talking about his daughter two weeks before Jenny's murder.
We'll also be posting that this week so if you're not following us yet, please find us
on Instagram at cold and missing will pop right up.
Our logo is the same as it is in your podcast player so we should be pretty easy to find.
And we also post throughout the week on our stories of active missing person cases that
are happening or developments in other cases around the country that fall into cold and
missing.
So please follow us there if you like just taking in true crime and kind of being part
of the advocacy work of cold cases and missing people and specifically cases that need a
little bit more attention that haven't gotten the media coverage.
But that is all I have.
Thanks for listening to cold and missing.
I'm your host, Ali McLaughlin, so Kowski and I'm your co host Eli so Kowski.
Have a great week and stay safe y'all.
Stay safe y'all.