Jennifer Jenny Lin was 14 when she was found murdered in her Castro Valley home on the evening of Friday, May 27, 1994. Her father dropped her at school that morning; he discovered her body at 6:45 pm. Jenny had multiple stab wounds, was bound with duct tape, and her clothes were partially removed. A broken window suggested forced entry; one friend had spoken to her by phone at 5:15 pm, narrowing the window for the crime.

Investigators received few leads. A neighbor came forward four months later saying they heard glass breaking and saw a man outside the house. Fifteen days before the murder a man told Jenny’s father at a BART station that he had his daughter; the father checked on his children and initially did not report the interaction as linked to the killing. A sketch of that man was released but he was not identified.

Authorities named one suspect publicly on May 25, 2006: Sebastian Shaw, linked by stolen property and prior homicide arrests. On May 27, 2007 the District Attorney declined to charge Shaw in Jenny’s death for lack of evidence; he later died in prison in 2021. The case remains open and unsolved. Anyone with information, including about the man who spoke to Jenny’s father, is asked to contact the Alameda County Sheriff’s Department or the Jenny Lin Foundation.