1980 murders stole Davis\’ innocence
Special to The Enterprise
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If you are under 40 — or new to Davis — chances are you have never heard of John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves, 18-year-old freshmen at UC Davis, whose murders rocked the community in 1980.
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But those familiar with the victims, their families or the crime itself remain stunned and frustrated by a gruesome double homicide that stole a generation\’s innocence on the damp, dreary weekend of Dec. 20, 1980.
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It\’s a truth-is-stranger-than-fiction crime, a tangled web of murder that, despite the DNA match that led to the arrest of a suspect in 2004, is nowhere near resolution.
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Richard J. Hirschfield, 61, was ordered to stand trial in 2007, but that proceeding hasn\’t yet begun. It\’s scheduled to start next August. Even that seems a stretch, as funds for prosecution tighten and witnesses age, die or disappear.
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“I\’m disappointed in the whole judicial system,” said George Gonsalves Jr., Sabrina\’s father. Hirschfield, he added, “is in no rush. He is doing everything he can, and the taxpayers pick up the tab.”
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While the case founders in financially strapped Sacramento Superior Court with a wily suspect who has had more than 100 court appearances, contemporaries of Riggins and Gonsalves solemnly mark the 30th anniversary of the murders.
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The couple were abducted in Davis on the evening of Dec. 20; their bodies were found Dec. 22 in rural Rancho Cordova with their throats slashed. Riggins was beaten, Gonsalves raped. The latter detail did not become clear until the 2002 DNA match, and is the likely motive for the murders, authorities now believe.
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“When John and Sabrina were finally found, concern turned to anger, disbelief and sadness,” recalls Jason Osburn, 47, who was a year behind Riggins at Davis High School. “While I do not consider myself one to harbor a grudge, I find these feelings persist some 30 years later.
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“Undoubtedly, the greatest tragedy is that the killer(s) robbed two model kids of their lives. Much less obvious is the fact that the killer(s) also took a little piece out of the rest of us.”
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Osburn\’s feelings about the murders are common. Especially for those who knew this couple — city recreation leaders who were so chaste and beloved that their lack of typical teen shenanigans actually hurt the investigation.
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The two were last seen holding hands as they walked in the dense fog to Riggins\’ van after ushering at a performance of the “Davis Children\’s Nutcracker” at the Veterans\’ Memorial Theater.
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“I was with John and Sabrina that evening and remember saying goodbye as they left,” recalls John Hance, 47, a Davis High senior at the time. Two days later, playing mudball with friends on campus, he heard the news that the couple were found dead.
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Adds John Hershey, 48, Riggins\’ closest friend: “I clearly remember driving around the country roads in the dark fog that evening looking for the cream and white van with the \’3SMUM\’ license plate. … It wasn\’t until one of the TV stations broke in with news that the van had been found in Sacramento with two unidentified bodies that those worst fears were realized.”
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The tragedy was a macabre coda to a lousy year in many people\’s lives. It\’s never easy being a teen, but to process these murders in December 1980 — a year of recession, political turmoil and violence — was especially tough.
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“The murders contributed to December 1980 being the worst month of my young life — and still holds the record,” notes former Davis High cheerleader Marta Knight, 47. “First, John Lennon was murdered on the 8th, then Sabrina and John kidnapped and killed on the 20th, then my dad died in a plane crash on the 29th. A trilogy of tragedy.
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“I … hate December, especially when it\’s dark,” Knight said.
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That the crime happened in Davis, chosen by George Gonsalves for his three coed daughters over Berkeley because it was safer, may be the biggest irony in a case with no shortage of them.
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“When it happened, I think we were all in a state of denial. I mean, nothing bad happens in Davis,” notes Jeff Kitchen, 47.
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He is the son of longtime Davisite Charles Kitchen, who has joined what the victims\’ families call their “court watchers,” a group of friends and relatives, mostly retired, who have steadfastly attended Hirschfield\’s hearings. Some of the hearings, such as the latest “continuance of the continuances” on Dec. 3, last fewer than 10 minutes.
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Davis residents Dale and Jane Wierman are among the most loyal court attendees. Jane Wierman is a former co-worker of John\’s father, orthopedic surgeon Richard Riggins, who lives in Shell Beach with his wife, Kate.
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“We come because (the Rigginses) are special people,” Jane Wierman says. “I used to baby-sit their kids, including John.”
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Given her resemblance to her slain niece, there is no mistaking El Dorado County resident Ginger Swigart\’s smile anytime she appears on behalf of the Gonsalves family.
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“It\’s family bonds,” Swigart said following Hirschfield\’s latest court appearance. “I think it makes a difference that we come here.”
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Indeed. While media coverage has been intense at times, the court watchers are often the only spectators at the proceedings. They keep a sharp eye on the pony-tailed Hirschfield, who, despite being in wheelchair from a broken hip suffered in a jailhouse scuffle, appeared trimmer and less scruffy at his latest hearing.
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The court watchers were frustrated enough to organize a letter-writing campaign in the spring, noting concerns about constant court delays. The effort impressed Sacramento Superior Court Judge Steve White, presiding judge at the time, whose candid reply acknowledged both the case\’s glacial pace and the thinning resources with which to try it.
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“I understand and share your frustration with a system unable to bring a case to trial six years after the charges were filed,” Judge White said in a form letter to the scores of people who wrote the court. “Unfortunately, the simple fact is funding for courts and related agencies such as the district attorney, public defender and sheriff has been drastically cut. …
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“The passage of time in \’cold hit\’ DNA cases poses additional problems in locating witnesses, reports and related evidence from decades ago. Finally, if the defendant faces the death penalty, the Constitution and statutory law impose unique requirements, such as the appointment of a second counsel (for the defense) and enhanced investigative resources.”
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The letter, combined with Hirschfield\’s insistence on thousands of pages of discovery from Yolo County\’s futile prosecution of four suspects — known as the Hunt group — from 1989 to 1993, practically guarantees a resolution to be years away. But the families have neither given up hope, nor let the case consume their lives.
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“Out of this tragedy has come a small core of people that are incredibly determined to see that Sabrina and John are not impersonalized and lost in the giant bureaucracy of the criminal justice system,” Kate and Dick Riggins wrote in an e-mail. “Although it has been 30 years, they still faithfully attend each court session, starting in Woodland in 1989 and now in Sacramento, where Richard Hirschfield will stand trial.
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“Their presence shows the court that these young people have not been forgotten and retribution for their murders is still demanded.”
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Forgetting is impossible, especially for anyone who knew John and Sabrina. Despite the original theory that they were abducted at the then-Lucky shopping center at Covell Boulevard and Anderson Road, evidence now points to the kidnapping happening in the darkened, fog-shrouded parking lot of the Covell Boulevard condominium Sabrina shared with her sister Andrea. It is a complex where Riggins acquaintance Ben Bruening lives today with his wife and child.
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“John and I were in the same fifth-grade class,” says Bruening, a 48-year-old UCD computer technician. “This event shattered my illusion that, somehow, we in Davis were special, safe from any real harm. Really bad things don\’t happen to people you know. People you know don\’t get kidnapped and murdered. John was much stronger than I was. If he could be overpowered so easily, I had no chance.
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“John and Sabrina\’s murder traumatized me far more than 9/11,” he adds. “I don\’t know how many years went by before I did not think about the murders at least once a day.”
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Bringing things full circle, Bruening adds, “I am now older than Dick and Kate Riggins were in 1980. At the time, I identified with John and Sabrina. Now, with a young son of my own, I identify with the parents, and I see John and Sabrina as two frightened kids I wish I could jump back in time and protect, but I can\’t.”
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John Riggins and Sabrina Gonsalves would both be 48 now. All one has to do is look at the success stories of their acquaintances and families to see what a gaping hole their murders left.
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“It was a crushing, surreal blow,” recalls Keith Adams, 48, a former Riggins neighbor who now owns a successful organic cheese business in Minnesota. “It contradicted all my faulty notions of immortality, and, looking back, took the last bits of my childhood innocence. First John Lennon, then John Riggins.
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“Nothing made sense; morality seemed like a horrible sham. I don\’t believe I\’ve ever been, nor ever will, be able to fully reconcile it.”
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— Joel Davis is a Sacramento writer. Reach him at joel_waits81@yahoo.com
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on Dec 19 2010.
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