New push to solve Calif. Halloween cold case murder
POLLOCK PINES, Calif. -- Investigators in El Dorado County, Calif. are making a new push to solve the 20-year-old cold case murder of a California man found shot to death in a truck on Halloween.
William Keefauver was out partying the night of his murder- - Oct. 31, 1995. According to the El Dorado County District Attorney's Office, the 32-year-old had been hanging out with his friends near his home in rural Pollock Pines, east of Sacramento. One friend had loaned him his truck, investigators say, asking that Keefauver stop by the home of a woman the friend used to date to pick up some of his clothes.
Investigators say there may have been bad blood between Keefauver and the woman, who had publicly accused him of stealing her money. The woman was with another man when Keefauver stopped off to pick up the clothes.
What happened afterward remains a mystery. Investigators say that night, they found the truck pulled off at the end of a rural road, with Keefauver shot to death inside. Neighbors told them they heard shots and saw two people running away.
Keefauver's murder is among the dozens of cold case homicides in El Dorado County, Calif. that a special task force is aiming to solve. The task force was launched by county district attorney Vern Pierson in 2013 in an effort to close the more than 60 cold case murders in the county of 180,000 -- nearly double the amount of cold cases in nearby counties twice its size, according to the DA's office.
As a part of that effort to solicit tips from the public, the office is developing a series of videos highlighting each of the cases and releasing them monthly on their Facebook page. 48 Hours' Crimesider is highlighting the videos and reporting on the cases.
Keefauver's half-sister Michele Marabuto remembers her younger brother as funny and outdoorsy. He didn't have steady work, she told Crimesider, but took on odd jobs around town, and was installing a new roof on their mother's home in Pollock Pines at the time of his murder. Her brother was the youngest of four siblings, Marabuto said, and at 16 years her junior, she says she raised him like a son.
"Nobody deserves to be killed -- it's just not right to take another human being's life,"said Marabuto, 68.
Marabuto said she's not sure who is responsible for the murder, but she suspects it was someone who knew him. She said her brother's violent death devastated his family and continues to haunt their mother, now 87.
Investigators think the case may be solvable if someone who has information about the murder steps forward. Marabuto agrees.
"It would be such a blessing, especially for my mother," Marabuto said. "She lives to get this solved - she would be so at peace to find justice done."
Anyone with information in the case of William Keefauver is asked to call 530-903-8468 or email robert.cosley@edcgov.us.