Barbara Harmon, 58, was killed on March 2, 1975, at the Ship Ashore motel in Smith River, California. A guest, 21-year-old Robert Paul Sander of Cincinnati, Ohio, opened fire from a balcony with a high-powered rifle; Harmon was the first person shot and died instantly. Her husband, Percy, was critically wounded.

Sander’s rampage continued in the motel office, where manager Gordon Knott and his wife Shirley Gail were fatally shot. Maid Ella Beam was also killed after coming out upon hearing the shots. Two other guests, Denise Dedraff and Carla Brough, were injured; Denise was hospitalized in critical condition. Sander was arrested about three hours later on the Redwood Highway near Grants Pass, Oregon, and was booked on four counts of murder. Reports note he had recently quit his job, bought a rifle, and had an earlier 1969 robbery conviction with probation.

What details about that night or the victims’ movements might help explain how events unfolded?