San Francisco Chronicle
August 7, 1969 - p. 3

Official's Theory
    San Jose Killer
    May Be Woman

By Peter Stack

    The killer of two young San Jose girls whose fully clothed bodies were found Sunday on a parched hillside near their subdivision homes may have been a woman, some officials were speculating yesterday.
    One official intimately connected with the search for the killer of Deborah Gay Furlong, 14, and Kathy Snoozy, 15, both of whom died from a frenzied flurry of stab wounds, said the pattern of wounds inflicted on their bodies could indicate a "negative sexual attitude."
    "There is every possibility that since the wounds were not concentrated on the breasts or the face, and that there were no wounds below the waist, that the murderer may have been a woman," said the official, who asked to remain anonymous.

THEORY

    According to his theory, if the killer was a woman some light might be shed on at least one baffling aspect to the bizarre crime — that the girls showed no sign of having struggled.
    "They would have tended to be friendly toward a woman," the official said, adding, "and a woman would possibly have naturally avoided certain parts of their bodies."
    Meanwhile, San Jose Police detectives said they had no new clues in their round-the-clock search for the killer.
    Chief of Detectives Barton Collins said his men were continuing to check out the hundreds of phone tips they had received.

VAN

    A theory that the girls might have been slain in a white van suffered a setback when it was revealed that the owner of such a vehicle, seen on the knoll where the bodies were found, had been located and knew nothing of the crimes. He had been there part of the day taking pictures.
    A team of policemen was sent to the wooded hill, only blocks from the Sunrise tract of eastern San Jose's Almaden section, to comb through the dry grass for evidence.
    The girls, classmates at Oak Grove High School, had ridden their bicycles to the hill for an afternoon picnic. The area is a popular recreational spot for residents of the tract.


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