Lori Lee Kursa was 13 when she was last seen alive on November 20, 1972, in Santa Rosa, California. Reported as a habitual runaway, she was found deceased on December 14, 1972, about 20 to 30 feet down a steep embankment along Calistoga Road, less than a tenth of a mile from Harville Road.

The medical examiner determined cause of death as a dislocation of the first and second cervical vertebrae with compression and hemorrhage of the spinal cord due to trauma. Investigators at the scene noted two wire loops in her pierced ears but no earrings attached. Kursa is one of the victims linked to the Santa Rosa hitchhiker murders, a series of unsolved killings of female hitchhikers found nude in rural areas near steep embankments or creek beds in Sonoma County in 1972–1973.

No suspects or arrests have been reported in her case.