[6] Loren Joseph Herzog (December 8, 1965 — January 16, 2012) and Wesley "Wes" Howard Shermantine Jr. (born February 24, 1966) grew up in the town of Linden, California, and lived on the same street.
Shermantine's father was a successful local contractor and real estate developer who frequently "spoiled" Wesley with gifts and money throughout his life.
They graduated from Linden High School in 1984 and took pleasure in bullying other people, drinking alcohol, and using drugs, especially methamphetamine, in their apartment in nearby Stockton, California.
Kim's 25-year-old sister, Cyndi Vanderheiden of Clements, California, went missing after leaving the Linden Inn with Herzog and Shermantine on November 14, 1998.
Cyndi Vanderheiden's blood was discovered in the car, and while DNA test results were being confirmed, the sheriff's department focused on Herzog, Shermantine's friend and suspected accomplice who was extensively questioned.
Herzog ultimately divulged incriminating details such as describing how Shermantine had shot a hunter they ran into while on vacation in northern Utah in 1994.
Herzog also said Shermantine was responsible for killing Henry Howell, 41, who was shot dead and found parked off the road on Highway 88 in Alpine County near Hope Valley with his teeth and head bashed in.
Additionally, Herzog gave specific details about how Shermantine killed Robin Armtrout, 24, whose nude body was found stabbed nearly a dozen times on the east bank of Potter Creek near Linden.
Herzog and Shermantine were arrested by the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Department and charged with several counts of murder each on March 17, 1999.
[8] In 2001, a jury found Shermantine guilty of four murders: those of Vanderheiden, the robbery-murder of drifters Howard King, 35, and Paul Raymond Cavanaugh, 31, whose bodies were found shot to death in a car off a remote road on Roberts Island on November 27, 1984, and 16-year-old Chevelle "Chevy" Wheeler, who disappeared in 1985 from Franklin High School in Stockton after telling friends she was leaving school to go with Shermantine to his family's cabin in San Andreas.
[citation needed] One woman claimed that after rear-ending her car, he held her hostage with a knife when she pulled over to exchange insurance information.
[16] In February 2010, while Shermantine waited on death row, his sister Barbara received letters from him identifying the locations of victims in an abandoned well on Flood Road near Linden, California.
[21] Two separate burial sites in Calaveras County, California were investigated in February 2012 based on a letter Shermantine wrote to Padilla that detailed possible locations of victims.
[23] Shermantine also claimed to know the locations in the Cow Mountain Recreation Area of bodies of victims killed by other death row inmates.
"[25] In 2010, Shermantine wrote a letter to California State Senator Cathleen Galgiani revealing the locations of the remains of additional victims.
[26] Galgiani turned the letter over to law enforcement and later alleged that missing person records related to the "Speed Freak Killers" case had been deleted, hampering the further investigation.
[28] In 2015, a retired FBI agent corroborated her claims, alleging that the SJCSO deliberately used a backhoe to dig up remains, mangling them to prevent identification, so that the absence of certain files would not be discovered.
[30] In a confrontation with one woman he tried to rape in a trailer park, Shermantine allegedly told her after he had pushed her head to the ground: "Listen to the heartbeats of people I've buried here.
[41] However, DNA profiling completed later that year excluded Garecht as a possibility; the bones believed to have been hers were determined to be those of 19-year-old Kimberly Billy, who had disappeared in 1984.
[43] In December 2020, suspected serial killer David Emery Misch was arrested for Garecht's murder after he was linked to the crimes via fingerprints left on Michaela's scooter at the abduction site.