The Bones in the Canyon: The Murder of Kerry Patterson
Denied justice for over 40 years, the family of a California teenager have never given up hope in solving her murder
The summer of 1980 was a memorable one. As a famous heatwave bore down across the country, Ted Kennedy won the presidential primary over Jimmy Carter in California, the Unabomber struck again in Illinois, and the face of news broadcasting was changed forever as Ted Turner launched CNN. “The Empire Strikes Back” was in theaters, and the likes of Paul McCartneyand Billy Joel were the songs everyone was playing. It was the dawn of a new era, including for the Patterson family in Fullerton who had just moved into their new home, having left Cerritos.
Fullerton is a small city in Orange Country, California, that, back in 1980, had a population of just over 100,000. A traditional center for agriculture, Fullerton became an industrial hub following the Second World War as veterans migrated in, expanding the city and sending the population soaring. Fullerton became home to aerospace contractors and other industries, and in 1949 Leo Fender invented the first successful electric guitar there, the Fender Telecaster.
The city’s development created class divisions between the affluent northern and western areas and the south bordering Anaheim. The Patterson family moved into a well-kept neighborhood that had only recently been developed. The Peacock Lane lawns were neatly mowed, the hedges neatly cut, and a smattering of American flags flew proudly from porches, with Ronald Reagan’s warnings on the campaign trail over the threat from the USSR ringing true for many.
Their time in Cerritos had not been a happy one. 15-year-old Kerry Patterson had attended Cerritos High for her freshman year and been a popular girl, noted for her athleticism and ability at softball. There was plenty of interest from boys and, in turn, jealously from girls, with this even turning to violence. Such was the fear from Kerry’s mother, Chrystal Patterson, that the entire family moved to Fullerton, intending to enroll Kerry at Sunny Hills High, which was just a stone’s throw from Peacock Lane.
Speaking to The OCR in 2019, Kerry’s sister, Michelle Patterson, said, “She was really pretty and had a lot of boyfriends. She got hassled by a lot of girls. She was getting in fights. Someone ripped a gold necklace off her.”
Peacock Lane and the surrounding area were an active neighborhood, with plenty of people enjoying the sun. There were kids on bikes, others would walk their dogs, more would roller-skate by, with shorts and mustaches still the fashion. The family had only moved into their new home two weeks before and were likely still unpacking and settling in when on June 26, Kerry Patterson asked her mother about taking the bus to Huntington Beach with Michelle. They had new boogie boards and wanted to try them out.
Expecting the removals firm to be dropping off more furniture, Chrystal needed to leave for work and asked her daughter to stay at home until they had arrived and unloaded. Tragically, Kerry decided to ignore the request and, after watching soap operas with her sister, went out anyway at around 1pm. She had agreed to meet her friend Daniel “Danny” Wozab at the ice cream parlor and left her younger sister at home to deal with the furniture, telling her she’d bring back a candy bar.
Alongside Wozab, Kerry met with two other male friends that she had known from the family’s time in Cerritos, the friends having also moved to Fullerton. They were Michael Cruz and Troy LeClear. Together, they visited Ice Cream Castle at the corner of Euclid and Roscrans, a small strip mall area in the city, and after a time, Kerry told her friends that she wanted to return home to wash her shoes, a white pair of Vans. She said that she may go and visit the local horse stables afterward.
Kerry rode on the handlebars of Wozab’s bike back home, being said to have had a huge crush on the young man. Perhaps Wozab felt protective of her, with Kerry telling him that a “creep” had been following her. Wozab dropped her off at the corner of Parks Rd and Peacock Lane around 4 pm, within viewing distance of the Patterson home. She was never seen alive again.