On April 12, 1981, a quiet resort town in Northern California became the site of one of the most brutal and baffling quadruple homicides in American criminal history. Occurring inside Cabin 28 of the Keddie Resort, the attack claimed the lives of Glenna "Sue" Sharp, her 15-year-old son John, John's 17-year-old friend Dana Wingate, and left Sue's 12-year-old daughter Tina missing. Decades later, despite shifting suspect pools, mismanaged physical evidence, and later discoveries of potential murder weapons, the Keddie Murders remain officially unsolved, haunting investigators and true crime researchers alike.
Understanding what happened at Cabin 28 requires looking past sensationalized imagery and examining the structural failures of the initial investigation, the timeline of that night, and the persistent clues that keep the case alive. This deep dive unpacks the facts, the primary suspects, and the lingering questions surrounding the tragedy.
The Setting and the Fatal Night
Keddie was a fading resort town in Plumas County, tucked away in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Sue Sharp had rented Cabin 28 months earlier, seeking a fresh start after escaping an abusive marriage. On the evening of April 11, 1981, Sue's 14-year-old daughter Sheila went to stay overnight at a neighboring cabin, while Sue remained home with John, Dana Wingate (who was visiting), 12-year-old Tina, and two young boys sleeping in a back bedroom—Sue's youngest son Greg, his friend Rick, and a young family friend named Justin Smartt.
What transpired in the living room during the early morning hours involved extraordinary violence. Sue, John, and Dana were bound with medical tape and electrical wire, then subjected to a ferocious assault using knives and multiple claw hammers.
- Glenna "Sue" Sharp: Found lying near the living room sofa, she had suffered severe blunt-force trauma, knife wounds to her throat, and an imprint matching the butt of a pellet gun on her skull.
- John Sharp and Dana Wingate: Both teenagers suffered catastrophic head injuries from hammers and deep stab wounds. Dana had also been manually strangled.
Remarkably, the three young boys sleeping in the rear bedroom—including Justin Smartt—remained physically unharmed, and investigators later debated whether they slept through the commotion or were shielded by closed doors and loud ambient noise. Tina Sharp, however, was missing from her bed.
The Discovery and Investigation Failures
The horror was discovered around 7:45 a.m. on Sunday morning when Sheila Sharp returned from her sleepover. Opening the front door, she found the gruesome scene and ran screaming to neighbors. Local authorities were called, but the initial response by the Plumas County Sheriff's Office was marked by critical missteps.
- Contaminated Crime Scene: Officers allowed bystanders and family members to walk through parts of the cabin before it was fully secured, disrupting potential footprints and fiber evidence.
- Overlooked Victims: Authorities initially failed to realize a fourth person was missing. Tina Sharp's absence wasn't formally processed as a kidnapping until hours later.
- Mishandled Evidence: Decades later, lead investigators reviewing the cold case files discovered that critical pieces of physical evidence had been stored improperly, left uncatalogued, or left in unsealed containers.
For more context on how historical cold cases are re-examined using modern protocols, read resources from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Primary Persons of Interest
While no charges were ever filed, two main local figures quickly drew the scrutiny of both the police and the victims' families: Martin Smartt (stepfather to young survivor Justin Smartt) and his acquaintance John "Bo" Boubede.
- Martin Smartt: Smartt had a volatile relationship with the local community and knew Sue Sharp. He had a criminal background and suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder following military service. Investigators later learned he owned hammers consistent with the ones used in the attack.
- John "Bo" Boubede: A man with alleged organized crime connections who had recently arrived in Keddie and stayed with Smartt.
Both men were questioned by law enforcement shortly after the murders but were released. Boubede died in 1988, and Smartt passed away in 2000. Investigators active in later decades noted that early tips pointing toward these suspects were inadequately pursued, fueling long-standing allegations of a local cover-up.
The Recovery of Tina Sharp's Remains
For three years, Tina's fate remained an agonizing open question. That changed on April 12, 1984—exactly three years after the murders—when an anonymous caller dialed the Plumas County Sheriff's Department. The caller directed authorities to a remote area near Camp 18 in Butte County, roughly 50 miles from Keddie.
Search teams combed the hillside and recovered a partial human skull and teeth, which were subsequently identified through dental records as belonging to Tina Sharp. The exact mechanism of her death could not be definitively determined from the skull alone, but the location of the discovery confirmed she had been abducted from Cabin 28. The anonymous caller was never officially identified, though investigators suspected the tip came from someone intimately involved with the crime.
Modern Developments and New Evidence
In the decades following the tragedy, Cabin 28 fell into severe disrepair and was ultimately demolished in 2004 to eliminate a morbid tourist attraction. However, renewed pressure from family members and retired law enforcement officers—most notably former Plumas County Sheriff Greg Hagwood and special investigator Mike Gamberg—breathed new life into the investigation.
In 2016, a claw hammer matching the description of the murder weapons was pulled from a local pond and submitted for forensic testing. Furthermore, investigators discovered unexamined audio tapes and DNA samples preserved from the original case files. In subsequent years, officials announced that partial DNA profiles extracted from tape found at the crime scene matched a living suspect, though formal indictments have faced hurdles due to the passage of time and degraded physical evidence.
To explore ongoing criminal justice advocacy and cold case resources, visit the National Institute of Justice.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why weren't the children in the back bedroom harmed?
The three young boys sleeping in the rear bedroom were separated from the main living area by a closed door. Investigators theorize that the killers focused entirely on the front room occupants or that ambient noise and closed doors prevented the attackers from noticing or prioritizing the back room.
Was Cabin 28 ever investigated for drug or ritual ties?
Early rumors circulated suggesting a ritualistic motive or a drug-related hit. However, the lead sheriff at the time explicitly stated that no drugs or drug paraphernalia were found inside the home, pointing instead to personal conflicts and local volatility.
What happened to the physical cabin?
Cabin 28 stood vacant and severely vandalized for years following the murders. Due to its notoriety and decay, the local government ordered the building demolished in 2004, leaving behind an empty dirt lot in the forest.
Is the Keddie Murders case officially closed?
No. The case remains an open, active cold case file under the jurisdiction of the Plumas County Sheriff's Office, with investigators continuing to evaluate modern DNA technology against preserved evidence.
