The Unsolved Murder of Cheri Jo Bates

Brutally killed in a dark alley on her college campus in 1966, claimed by an infamous serial killer who remains unidentified

Cheri Jo Bates, “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880–2012”; Ramona High School; Year: 1965; public domain image

In the 1960s, the city of Riverside, California, was a peaceful community full of families who enjoyed relatively crime-free lives. Unlike Los Angeles, 60 miles west, Riverside was a safe place to raise children. Their illusions of relative safety crumbled Halloween morning of 1966 when a pretty, wholesome coed was found brutally slain on her college campus.

Cheri Josephine Bates was a freshman at Riverside Community College that fall. She was born in Omaha, Nebraska, on February 4, 1948, to Joseph C Bates and Irene Karolewicz. When Cheri Jo was very young, the family moved Cheri and her brother, Michael, to Riverside, where she spent her girlhood.

Cheri Jo graduated from Ramona High School in the summer of 1966. She was a varsity cheerleader, homecoming princess, and active in many extracurricular activities.

Cheri Jo Bates, “U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880–2012”; Ramona High School; Year: 1966, Public Domain Image

Students and friends describe Cheri Jo as an outgoing girl who was “popular but not cliquish.” She had no enemies that…