Anne Catherine Swanke was a 22-year-old University of San Diego student who disappeared in November 1984 after her car ran out of gas at a La Mesa intersection. Four days later, on November 24, 1984, her body was found in a remote area of Spring Valley with her throat slashed, one of the killings later grouped into the Throat-Slash Murders.

David Allen Lucas, born in 1956 in the Philippines, was arrested in December 1984 and later tried for Swanke’s murder. In 1989 a jury convicted him of three murders, including Anne’s, after a protracted trial that required five months to seat a jury, 56 days of testimony and seven days of deliberation. He was sentenced to death on September 19, 1989; the conviction and use of serological evidence were subsequently upheld by the California Supreme Court.

Anne’s father, Dr. John Swanke, a philosophy professor at the University of San Diego, described the ordeal as torturous and was visibly emotional when the verdict was announced. Does anyone have memories of Anne or information about her movements in La Mesa on the day her car ran out of gas?