Seventeen-year-old Patricia Ann Moore vanished from a Redding, California motel in early August 1978. More than two weeks later her nude body was found at the rural Igo dump west of Redding. The autopsy recorded multiple fractured teeth, crushing blows that caved in the right-front portion of her skull, and signs of manual strangulation; the official cause of death was hemorrhage and shock from blunt-force head injuries.

Detectives encountered future suspect Darrell Keith Rich after he located the dump-site bodies and offered to show deputies the scene. Rich, 23 at the time and nicknamed Young Elk, failed a voluntary polygraph, boasted to friends about being paid to snuff a victim, and was arrested on August 23, 1978. He confessed during a taped interrogation and was later indicted on four counts of first-degree murder plus sexual-assault and kidnapping charges. A Yolo County jury convicted him in January 1981 and imposed a death sentence for Patricia’s slaying and two of the other murders; he received life without parole for the fourth count. Rich was executed by lethal injection at San Quentin on March 15, 2000. No other suspects have been identified and no parallel arrests were reported.

Does anyone have memories or information about Patricia’s life in Redding in 1978 that could add context to her last known days?