The 1978 Guadalupe Jane Doe

In 1978, the body of a young woman was found by a highway worker along Highway 297, at the junction of I40 and US Highway 84 near Santa Rosa. She had been shot twice in the head with a .22 handgun only a few hours to a few days before being discovered. She had strawberry blonde hair but brown pubic hair, leading cops to think she had dyed her hair, though I think it is fairly common for body hair to be darker than head hair. She also had blue eyes, weighed about 145 pounds, stood at 5’8”, and was about 17 to 25. Three of her wisdom teeth had been pulled and she had four fillings, indicating at least a fairly economically healthy background. She was clothed in blue denim cutoffs, brown moccasins, a red bandana, Native American jewelry, and a denim halter top, definitely a 70s style. 

We actually know who killed her. It was a Natural Born Killers-type couple, named Ronald Lanphear and Diana Geisinger. This couple had been friends and they met up in Sioux City, IA, after Lanphear escaped prison in Elk Point, SD. They planned to elope to Las Vegas and Geisinger was seven months pregnant, though with whose baby is unclear. The couple only had $30 and a handgun that Lanphear had stolen from a guard in jail. They took off to Texas, with Las Vegas being their ultimate destination. To get money, they went on a killing spree, for which they were arrested on October 14, 1978. Geisinger rolled over on her lover and served as the prosection’s witness, leading to Lanphear being given the death sentence. He appealed on grounds of improper defense but was still found guilty. 

According to Geisinger, the couple first robbed a convenience store in Emporia, Kansas, in 1978, shooting the clerk. Then they picked up our Guadalupe County Jane Doe in Perry, Oklahoma, where she was hitchhiking to California. This was on July 9 or 10, 1978. This hitchhiker told them that she had hitchhiked to Perry and she needed a ride to California to see her mother. First they hung out at a bar and had coffee, then they hit the road.

On July 11, the trio was near Santa Rosa, New Mexico, when the girl requested that they drop her at a payphone. She stated it was her birthday so she wanted to call her mom. Lanphear shot her in the back of the head twice as she walked away from their car and then straddled her lifeless body to rifle through her pockets. Finding nothing, he rolled her off a cliff with Geisinger’s assistance. They took the $1.50 in her coin purse and her guitar, which they pawned for a small amount of money in Henderson, Nevada. Apparently she had also had papers and drugs on her person, which the serial killer duo threw away. These papers may have been identification documents that would have solved this case.

Later that day, the couple made it to Geinsinger’s brother’s house in Glendale, AZ. They spent a day there, and then went on to Las Vegas on July 13. Despite only having $60, they were able to party there, staying at casinos. I wonder if they robbed someone else to fund this? It appears that they did not wed in Las Vegas as they had planned. 

From Las Vegas, they drove to San Bernardino, CA. Their Camaro broke down, so they hitchhiked and caught a ride with their final victim, Robert Unger, who was driving a 1971 Matador with Ohio plates. They robbed and shot him like their other victims. Then they dumped his body in the California desert. 

The couple returned to Glendale for a while and stayed with Diana Geisinger’s brother after this last known killing. It’s unknown if the brother was aware of their crime spree or not. Lanphear worked as a roofer during this time. The two began fighting a lot and one night Diana Geisinger called the police for domestic violence, causing Lanphear to move out of her brother’s home.

He showed up at her brother’s door on October 10, demanding that Diana give him his things. She claimed she had thrown it all out, so he told her that she should dig a hole and she would be number four. Geisinger’s neighbor, Patsy Hall, overheard this and demanded to know what Lanphear was referring to. Geisinger broke down and confessed their killing spree to her, and Hall convinced her to go to the police. Geisinger turned herself in on October 14 and led police to Unger’s body in California. 

Meanwhile, on October 12, Lanphear called his friend Carolyn Williams and said he was going to send her some letters to mail for him. He talked about doing things he really regretted and said all the details were in the letters. Carolyn thought he was about to commit suicide. He called again a few days later from Las Vegas, saying he had changed his mind and Williams should just burn the letters whenever they arrived. Williams received the letters shortly after; they were addressed to the Peoria, AZ police, Diana Geisinger, and the Sioux city, IA police. She read them and saw that they were confessions to three murders in Kansas, New Mexico, and California. Lanphear swore in the letters that he was fully culpable and Geisinger had nothing to do with the murders. He claimed that Diana Geisinger was only his accomplice because she was terrified of him. Carolyn Williams turned these letters into the police.

October 18, 1978, police caught up with Lanphear in Las Vegas and arrested him. He was wearing shoes and a watch stolen from Robert Unger. Lanphear confessed and swore that Diana Geisinger was completely innocent.

It wasn’t until the jury trial that his story completely flipped. He attempted to paint Diana Geisinger as the true perpetrator of the crimes. He claimed they parted ways in Perry, OK, and met up later in Glendale, so she had to have killed Guadalupe County Jane Doe herself. He also claimed that the Camaro broke down so he sent Greisinger to junk it but she returned with Unger’s blood-covered car instead. He helped her spray paint the vehicle and pretended not to know what she had done. Based on the fact these two had completely different stories, I think that they were both lying and they were equally culpable.

There is nothing romantic about Geisinger and Lanphear. They didn’t even need to kill these people and they certainly didn’t benefit much financially from killing Guadalupe County Jane Doe. If they had wanted to steal her guitar and meager pocket change, they could have just driven off with it as she walked away. Shooting her in the back of the head was cowardly and sickening, and totally unnecessary. It saddens me that she died so young and never got to make it to wherever she was going. 

I really think this Jane Doe can be identified. We know that this girl’s birthday was July 11. We also know she said she was 17, meaning she must have been born in 1961. We know her mom resided in California. We also know what Jane Doe looks like. This gives some important clues about who she is. Her mother surely reported her missing after she never showed up in California. Yet she has still not been identified and there is a long list of rule-outs on her NamUs page.

It is entirely possible she lied to the couple about her age, her birthday, and/or her mom in California. As a teenage runaway, she may very well have lied about going to see her mom to avoid being turned into the police.

She has DNA and dental records on file, which should identify her sooner or later. If only we had the papers that this serial killer couple stole from her and threw away. 

If you think you know who this young woman is, help give her her name back by contacting the New Mexico State Police at either 505-827-9604 or 505-841-9256, or the Chief Medical Examiner of New Mexico at 505-272-3053.

https://law.justia.com/cases/california/supreme-court/3d/26/814.html