The Lake Herman Road murder site

Crime Scene Location Benicia, California

This is the location where the Lake Herman Road murders occurred.

The site is situated on the northern outskirts of Benicia, California.

On December 20th, 1968, Betty Lou Jensen (16) and David Arthur Faraday (17) were shot dead while they were parked at this turnout.

The two teenagers are believed to be the first victims of an unidentified serial killer called the Zodiac Killer.

Crime scene — This image shows where the victims were found.

On that cold Friday night, Faraday and Jensen were on their first date together.

Although they originally planned to attend a Christmas concert at a local high school, they decided to go to a friend's house and then visit a local restaurant instead.

At roughly 10.15 p.m., Faraday parked his station wagon at this gravel turnout on Lake Herman Road, which was a well-known "make-out" spot.

Shortly before 11 p.m., an unidentified man pulled into the turnout.

Lake Herman Zodiac site — It is believed that the killer pulled up on their right side. Note that this Rambler is not the exact vehicle model. Faraday was driving his parents' 1960 Rambler station wagon. The vehicle in the image above is a 1965 Rambler Classic 770 Cross Country.

After exiting his vehicle, the man approached the couple with a .22 caliber handgun and ordered them to get out. It is believed that he fired two warning shots into the station wagon to scare them into compliance.

If this is true, then it clearly worked, as the crime scene indicated that the young couple had exited the vehicle before the killings took place.

When Faraday got out of the driver's door and walked around to the other side, his assailant wasted little time shooting him in the head.

The bullet entered his skull beneath his left ear, fatally wounding him.

Jensen, having just witnessed her date's murder, turned around and attempted to flee. She only managed to make it 10 yards, however, as the killer shot her five times in the back, causing her to collapse forward onto her stomach.

Once the killer was satisfied that the two teenagers were dead, he got in his vehicle and drove away.

Google Street View — At the time of the murders, the turnout was much larger. It had a reputation for being a lovers' lane. Of course, the killer may have known this and specifically targeted it for that reason. Credit: Google Maps. March 2021.

A few minutes later, a motorist named Stella Borges passed by the crime scene and saw Faraday and Jensen lying on the side of the road.

Realizing that she had just stumbled across a double murder, Borges raced into nearby Benicia to raise the alarm. She then flagged down a passing police patrol car by repeatedly flashing her headlights and honking her horn.

David Faraday and Betty Lou Jensen — These are digitally enhanced photographs of Faraday and Jensen. Faraday was still breathing when the police arrived. He was pronounced dead at a nearby hospital roughly 30 minutes later. Jensen, who had been shot five times in the back, showed no signs of life.

The investigation into the murders faced significant challenges. There was no apparent motive, as the victims hadn't been robbed or sexually assaulted. Furthermore, the ground was too frozen to capture any footprints or tire marks.

With no leads or apparent motive, the case quickly stalled.

Aerial image — The X characters mark the locations where the victims were found. Jensen attempted to flee westward and was subsequently gunned down about 10 yards away from the vehicle.

In July 1969, the Zodiac Killer anonymously called the Vallejo Police Department to claim responsibility for the shooting of Darlene Ferrin and Michael Mageau. During the call, he also confessed to killing Faraday and Jensen seven months earlier.

Despite decades of investigation by law enforcement, authors, and amateur crime sleuths, the identity of the Zodiac Killer remains a mystery to this day.