Dorothy Lang, 72, was murdered on the evening of December 6, 1980, in her second-floor Fruitvale Avenue apartment in Oakland, California. Neighbors Teresa and John Santos heard a loud thump and scuffling around 9 p.m., went upstairs, and found Lang unconscious on the floor. Emergency responders pronounced her dead at the scene; the cause of death was asphyxiation due to strangulation.

Her killing was later tied to a series of attacks on elderly residents in Oakland between March and December 1980. David Edwin Mason, 24 at the time, entered victims’ homes, robbed them, and strangled them. Mason confessed in a recorded message and led police to crime locations; he was convicted of multiple first-degree murders. Lang’s death is part of that pattern of violence against vulnerable, older individuals living alone.

Does anyone remember Dorothy or have information about the Fruitvale neighborhood in 1980 that could shed light on her final hours?