Richard Edward Stowers was 19 and from Point Reyes Station, California when he and his fiancée, Cynthia Moreland, were shot in the head while hiking in Point Reyes National Seashore on October 11, 1980. Their bodies were not found until nearly seven weeks later during a search that also recovered the remains of two other women, Diane O’Connell and Shauna May, who had been shot to death.

These killings were part of a series of attacks on hikers in Marin and Santa Cruz counties in 1980. The offender was identified as David Joseph Carpenter, known as the Trailside Killer, who was apprehended in May 1981 after a surviving victim, Steven Haertle, helped produce a composite sketch. Carpenter was later convicted in trials that included the murders of Stowers and Moreland.

What recollections do readers have of the trails around Point Reyes in October 1980, or of anything that might still shed light on those attacks?