Curtis Huntzinger 14, Missing 5/1990 Blue Lake, CA (REMAINS FOUND 2008)

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Missing teen's remains found after 18 years

Posted: 12/10/2008 01:30:19 AM PST

The remains of Curtis Huntzinger, a 14-year-old teen missing since 1990, were unearthed Monday night from a shallow grave on the outskirts of Blue Lake, just off the old State Route 299.

The discovery came less than a week after Humboldt County District Attorney investigators arrested 53-year-old Blue Lake resident Stephen Daniel Hash on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter in connection with Huntzinger's death. At his Dec. 5 arraignment, Hash admitted guilt before a judge and the Huntzinger family.

On Monday afternoon, around 2 p.m., the boy's skeleton was located, entangled in a ball of roots under less than two feet of soil. The grave, which was dug about 35 yards from the road, was surrounded by a dense stand of young redwoods, and blanketed by a thick mat of leaf litter and poison oak.

But in 1990, when Huntzinger is presumed to have been buried, that grave site looked very different.

Chief DA Investigator Mike Hislop said when Hash allegedly dumped the body, the area looked like a “moonscape,” as a result of heavy logging and burning activity.

Despite those major changes to the landscape, Hash was reportedly able to recall the location of the grave well enough to lead investigators within 25 feet of where the body was found, said DA investigator Wayne Cox.

”It must be a vivid memory that's permanently imbedded in his (Hash's) hard drive,” he said.

The same tract of land was searched in 1999 by teams using cadaver dogs, but authorities came up empty. This time, Cox said investigators deployed new methods.

According to Hislop, the body was found by a volunteer who canvassed the area using a high-end metal detector loaned by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. The grave was located when the metal detector picked up a faint signal from a small piece of metal on Huntzinger's remains -- possibly a zipper or a coin.

Members of the Huntzinger family were immediately notified, and brought to the site before the body was exhumed, said District Attorney Paul Gallegos.

As the redwoods grew back after the logging, they lifted nutrients from Huntzinger's grave, entwining the remains in roots. According to Deputy Coroner Roy Horton, the search team excavated the approximately 400-pound root ball, which contains Huntzinger's remains.

Now the Coroner's Office is tasked with the painstaking removal of those remains from the root encasement.

Horton said that while they have not been able to positively identify the remains through DNA or dental records, there are other signs it is Huntzinger. The clothing found around the skeleton -- a black jacket and tennis shoes -- are consistent with the outfit Huntzinger was last seen wearing. And there appear to be signs of blunt force trauma to the skull, Horton said.

Although Gallegos and the DA investigators have declined to release the cause of Huntzinger's death, a criminal complaint in Hash's court file charges him with using a barbell to kill the 14-year-old.

The body was found unbound, and Horton said he believes Huntzinger was dead before he was buried.

Horton said Nancy Huntzinger, Curtis' mother, has called the Coroner's Office frequently over the past 18 years, to inquire about her son whenever there was a new John Doe found in Humboldt County.

”We are just so happy the body was recovered, for her sake,” Horton said. “It finally gives some closure to the family.”

During Hash's Dec. 5 arraignment he asked to plead guilty to charges of voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon -- a crime that carries a maximum 12-year sentence. Judge Bruce Watson declined the plea, and advised him to speak with council before deciding to make such an admission in court.

Hash is expected to return to court today to discuss a possible disposition before a judge. That hearing will be closed to the public.

A timeline of the Curtis Huntzinger case

May 19, 1990 -- Huntzinger, an Arcata High School freshman, is last seen walking home from his sister's home and is reported missing later in the month. It is initially believed that Huntzinger, who had some trouble in school and a recent brush with the law, ran away from home. Then Blue Lake Police Chief Don Trumble said at the time he was confident that Huntzinger was not a victim of foul play.

April 1999 -- Thomas Michael Fox, who was serving life in prison for the killing of 11-year old Danny Williams of Eureka, reportedly confesses to having killed Huntzinger. As a part of the confession, Fox reportedly admitted to shooting Huntzinger and fingered the accomplices who he said helped him bury the boy.

April 24, 1999 -- During a confrontation with Huntzinger's mom, Nancy, family acquaintance Stephen Daniel Hash reportedly admits to killing Curtis Huntzinger, even taking Nancy Huntzinger to her son's burial site. Hash, however, refuses to talk to law enforcement about the case.

Over the ensuing weeks, police investigators search Hash's property, even removing the floor boards of his house and sending its carpets to the Department of Justice Crime Lab for testing. The area where Hash claimed to have buried Huntzinger is scoured by dozens of members of the California Conservation Corps, police and the Huntzinger family. Several bones, including a vertebrae, are found, and believed to be those of Curtis Huntzinger. “This could be over in a few weeks,” then Blue Lake Police Chief Floyd Stokes said. The bones are later determined to be animal remains, and the case goes dormant.

May 2008 -- The Blue Lake Police Department is disbanded after the arrest of Police Chief, David Gundersen, and the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office quickly picks up the Huntzinger case.

Dec. 3, 2008 -- Hash is arrested on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter by District Attorney's Office investigators after reportedly giving a “complete confession” and showing them where Huntzinger was buried.

Dec. 9, 2008 -- Investigators find a body believed to be Huntzinger's located off old State Route 299 between Blue Lake and Korbel in the location Hash had led them to. The body is sent to the Humboldt County Coroner for an autopsy.
http://**/localnews/ci_11183886

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Eureka Times Standard (California)

December 27, 2008 Saturday

A momentous find for a metal detector

For 18 years, the body of Curtis Huntzinger lay buried beneath a stand of young sequoias on the outskirts of Blue Lake. In that time, hundreds of people searched for the missing boy across the county.

But early this month, the body was finally discovered in a shallow grave about 35 yards from a road -- an area law enforcement had searched before -- by Danny Walker, a soft-spoken metal detecting hobbyist from McKinleyville.

"Why me? I don't know. It was just time, I guess," Walker said.

The Huntzinger murder has been one of the most prominent missing persons cases in Humboldt County over the last two decades, and as a life-long Humboldtian, Walker has been aware of the case since the week the 14-year old boy disappeared in May 1990.

Officials with the Blue Lake Police Department began the initial search, but were unsuccessful. As the years went by, new leads and information would bring investigators back to the site.

In 1999, during a confrontation between Huntzinger's mother and Stephen Hash -- the man who has since pleaded guilty to Huntzinger's murder -- Hash reportedly confessed to the murder and took Huntzinger's mother to the burial site.

Over the ensuing weeks, police investigators searched the site with metal detectors and corpse-sniffing dogs. District Attorney's Office Chief Investigator Mike Hislop said even the Huntzinger family, frustrated by the failure to find their loved one, traveled to the site and began digging holes. But despite their efforts, the searchers came up empty handed.

After the Blue Lake Police Department was disbanded in 2008, district attorney investigators began a concerted effort to elicit a confession from Hash. On Dec. 3, those investigators were successful, as Hash reportedly gave a complete confession and brought investigators to the site of Huntzinger's burial.

Hislop began to assemble a search team, and called an acquaintance whom he knew had skills as a metal detector: Walker.

Walker owns a number of metal detectors, which he uses to comb the hills for metallic tidbits like gold nuggets.

"It's not very much (gold)," he said laughing. "It's more of an exercise than an income."

It was not the first time Walker's talents had been sought by area search agencies, but in the past Walker opted out, saying "it wasn't my thing; I didn't want to find bodies."

"This time was different though," Walker said.

Walker agreed to help out in the search, and he headed out early on Dec. 3 to the suspected burial site located in an old logging area between Blue Lake and Korbel, off the old State Route 299.

He was one of dozens that day, using a variety of methods to search the area for traces of Huntzinger's grave.

Walker began the task of waving his detector across the search area -- a large swath of new-growth timber, padded with poison ivy and brambles. Whenever the detector buzzed, Walker dug a hole. By the end of the day, he had dug more than 30 holes and acquired a sizable pile of spent bullet casings and saw blade files.

Then, as he walked across a soft spot, near the road, he heard a faint buzz.

"I dug into the ground, and I knew right then and there that this was it," he said.

The shovel struck something tangled in a ball of roots. Walker scraped the top layer of dirt away, and found what appeared to be a human femur.

"I had to talk myself into it," he said. "I just couldn't believe it."

As he continued to remove the top layer of soil, Walker found part of an old, weathered black jacket. He could no longer suppress his disbelief. The metal detector had pinpointed Huntzinger's calculator watch, still circling the boy's wrist.

The skeletal remains, which had become entangled in the roots of redwoods starved for nutrients in the heavily logged tract, were later removed and transported to the Humboldt County Coroner's Office. There, coroners and volunteers with Humboldt State University's anthropology department completed the painstaking task of disentangling the mass of roots that encased the bones, said Deputy Coroner Charlie Comer.

Using dental records, the coroners were able to positively identify the bones as Huntzinger's, Comer said.

Although he said he is happy the find may give some closure to the Huntzinger family, Walker maintains if he hadn't found the body, someone else would have.

"In a way it was gratifying to know we accomplished what we set out to do, but it wasn't pleasant," he said. "Now, at least, the family has some knowledge of where their son was buried."

http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:903858244&start=2

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DOB: 1975-08-23
Date Missing: 1990-05-19
From: Blue Lake, CA
Age ATD: 14
Gender: male
Race: American Indian

Identifying Characteristics: height: 5'2"weight: 110 eye color: Hazel
hair color: Brown

Circumstances of Disappearance: Curtis was last seen when he left his home to go to his sister's house in the community of Blue Lake in Humboldt County, CA

Investigative Agency: Blue Lake Police Dept.

http://www.carolesundfoundation.com/sections/missing?person=274

Curtis is now home at last....RIP now Curtis, RIP.

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Murdered Calif. boy's body found after 18 years

Saturday, December 27, 2008

The body of a murdered 14-year-old Humboldt County boy has been unearthed after hundreds of people searched the same area fruitlessly for 18 years.

Curtis Huntzinger lay so long in a shallow grave near Blue Lake that his bones were intertwined with the roots of redwood trees that grew up since he disappeared in May 1990.

Relatives and police using metal detectors and cadaver-sniffing dogs had crisscrossed the same area, digging numerous holes without finding a trace. But a searcher with a metal detector heard a faint click from the youth's long-buried watch earlier this month.

Searchers returned to the site at the direction of Stephen Hash, who pleaded guilty to Huntzinger's murder.

Dental records confirmed the boy's identity.

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/12/27/state/n140229S12.DTL

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Hash pleads guilty to manslaughter
Sean Garmire/The Times-Standard
Posted: 12/06/2008 01:27:17 AM PST
Nancy Huntzinger sat with her family in a Humboldt County courtroom on Friday, and watched as Stephen Daniel Hash, wearing shackles and an orange jail jumpsuit, pleaded guilty to manslaughter in the death of her teenage son 18 years ago.

Judge Bruce Watson declined the plea, and advised Hash to speak with an attorney to discuss the ramifications of such an admission. The court then entered a plea of not guilty on Hash's behalf.

That move was anticipated by prosecuting Assistant District Attorney Wes Keat, who said it is typical for a judge to direct a defendant to speak with counsel before issuing a plea in a manslaughter case.

”It's a reasonable step and it's what I expected,” Keat said. “That doesn't mean it's going to be the result.”

Hash will wait in the Humboldt County jail for his next court appearance, scheduled for Dec. 10.

District Attorney Paul Gallegos said after the 53-year-old Hash was arrested Wednesday, he has been completely cooperative with investigators and has “expressed a great deal of remorse” for the murder of 14-year-old Curtis Huntzinger, who disappeared in May 1990.

His “absolute” cooperation is what led the District Attorney's Office to charge Hash with voluntary manslaughter with a deadly weapon, rather than murder, Gallegos said.

According to the California Penal Code, the charge of manslaughter can carry a sentence of 3, 6 or 11 years in prison. The weapons

enhancement allows a maximum sentence of 12 years.
Hash, Gallegos said, submitted to a polygraph test Friday morning, and showed investigators the scene where authorities now believe the body was buried.

The remains of Curtis Huntzinger, however, have not yet been found, Gallegos said Friday afternoon.

Investigators searched an area on the outskirts of Blue Lake, near Korbel, throughout the day Friday. But Gallegos said the task of finding the body after 18 years and 7 months is a difficult one.

”It's been a long time,” he said. “Finding a body in a remote area after a long period of time is difficult to say the least.”

Hash has long been a suspect in the murder of Curtis Huntzinger.

Early in the investigation, Nancy Huntzinger reportedly told authorities Hash had confessed to the killing after she confronted him in his home. In that confrontation, Hash reportedly told Nancy Huntzinger where the boy's body was buried. Investigators searched that area -- the same general location search teams combed Friday -- but were unable to find the remains.

Wayne Cox, an investigator for the DA's Office, said as years went by he saw interest in Curtis Huntzinger's disappearance taper off. About two years ago, he decided to take on the case.

”This case could have been solved a long time ago -- it simply wasn't,” Gallegos said. “There were leads that were not followed up that we merely followed up with.”

Hash's admission has brought some amount of closure to the Huntzinger family, Gallegos said.

The family, including Nancy Huntzinger and Curtis Huntzinger's sister, Sarah, attended the Friday arraignment.

Nancy Huntzinger said it is still too early to comment on her feelings about Hash's confession, but she looks forward to the outcome.

”I'm on pins and needles right now,” she said. “It's gone on too long.”
http://**/localnews/ci_11155086

Interesting comments at the topix forum>
http://www.topix.com/forum/source/eureka-times-standard/TT6T26UA3IAL9O0DM

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Curtis is featured in one version of Soul Asylums'- "Runaway Train" (1993) music video
2:18 - 22 into the video

http://www.dailymotion.com/related/x95j9_soul-asylum-runaway-train_music/video/x1ik1a_soul-asylum-runaway-train_fun

After playing a series of acoustic shows in the early 1990s they were picked up by Columbia Records. In 1992 they released Grave Dancers Union, which became their most popular album. On January 20, 1993, the group performed at the first inauguration of United States President Bill Clinton. The next year, Soul Asylum received the Grammy Award for Best Rock Song for "Runaway Train." The music video for "Runaway Train" featured photographs and names of missing children in a public service video style. At the end of the video, Pirner appears and says "If you've seen one of these kids, or you are one of them, please call this number" before a missing children telephone helpline number appeared. For use outside the USA, the video was edited to include photos and names of missing children from the area the video would be used. The video was instrumental in reuniting several children with their families.

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Man Sentenced To 11 Years For Teen's Death 19 Years Ago
Saturday, January 3, 2009

EUREKA, Calif. -- A North Coast man has been sentenced to 11 years in prison for murdering a teenage boy who went missing in 1990.

Stephen Daniel Hash, 53, pleaded guilty Friday to manslaughter in the death of Curtis Huntzinger.

Huntzinger disappeared in 1990. He was 14 and living in Blue Lake.

Authorities unearthed Huntzinger's body last month in a shallow grave near Blue Lake after Hash confessed to police.

In 1999, a San Quentin prison inmate claimed he shot the boy at Hash's home. Police searched, but made no arrests. Hash was a family acquaintance of the Huntzingers.
http://www.ktvu.com/news/18405682/detail.html

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A timeline of the Curtis Huntzinger case
Posted: 05/11/2009 01:27:19 AM PDT

Early May, 1990 -- 14-year-old Curtis Huntzinger reportedly tells his parents he has been molested by family acquaintance Stephen Hash, then 35, for whom Curtis was working.

May 11, 1990 -- Curtis reportedly recants the allegations when asked about them by then-Blue Lake Police Chief Donald Trumble.

May 18, 1990 -- Curtis, an Arcata High School freshman, is last seen at his sister's Blue Lake home and is reported missing the next day. It is initially believed by authorities that Curtis, who had some trouble in school and a recent brush with the law, ran away from home. Trumble said at the time he was confident Curtis was not a victim of foul play.

May 4, 1993 -- Feeling Curtis' case has not been adequately investigated, the Huntzinger family organizes a protest in front of Blue Lake City Hall that draws hundreds.

May 14, 1993 -- Then Blue Lake Police Chief Ken McKinney announces that he is forming a multi-agency task force to look into Curtis' disappearance and rumors of his death.

Aug. 2, 1993 -- The task force disbands, stating that it was unable to find any evidence that Curtis was the victim of foul play.

Feb. 18, 1999 -- Thomas Michael Fox, who was serving life in prison for the killing of 11-year old Danny Williams of Eureka, reportedly confesses to having killed Huntzinger. As a part of the confession, Fox reportedly admitted to shooting Huntzinger and fingered the accomplices, including Hash, who he
said helped him bury the boy. Fox later recanted, saying he lied in order to draw more attention to the case.

April 24, 1999 -- During a confrontation with Huntzinger's mom, Nancy, Hash reportedly admits to killing Curtis, even taking Nancy Huntzinger to her son's burial site. Hash, however, refuses to talk to law enforcement about the case.

Over the ensuing weeks, police investigators search Hash's property, even removing the floorboards of his house and sending its carpets to the Department of Justice Crime Lab for testing. The area where Hash claimed to have buried Huntzinger is searched by members of the California Conservation Corps, police and the Huntzinger family. Several bones, including a vertebra, are found, and believed to be those of Curtis Huntzinger. “This could be over in a few weeks,” then Blue Lake Police Chief Floyd Stokes said. The bones are later determined to be animal remains, and the case goes dormant.

May 31, 2001 -- Deann Hash, Hash's wife, tells the FBI that her husband has made admissions to her that he killed and buried Curtis.

Aug. 16, 2001 -- FBI agents interview Stephen Hash in Healdsburg. Hash reportedly refuses to make any self-incriminating remarks, but doesn't deny having killed Curtis. He tells the agents he plans to hire a lawyer and turn himself in to the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office.

June 5, 2003 -- Deann Hash files a declaration in family law court stating that Stephen Hash, now her ex-husband, is the prime suspect in the Curtis Huntzinger case and that he has made confessions to her regarding his involvement.

March, 2007 -- DA Investigator Wayne Cox picks up Curtis' case file, and begins reviewing it in his spare time.

Feb. 8, 2008 -- Blue Lake Police Chief David Gundersen is arrested on suspicion of raping his spouse and sergeant, Darcie Seal. Gundersen is later acquitted of the charges.

May 2008 -- The Blue Lake Police Department is disbanded due to Gundersen's ongoing trial, and the Humboldt County District Attorney's Office officially takes on the Huntzinger case.

September, 2008 -- Cox contacts the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, and requests help with the Curtis Huntzinger case.

Nov. 19, 2008 -- Cox talks to Deann Hash, according to court documents, and gets enough evidence to put together an arrest warrant for Stephen Hash.

Dec. 3, 2008 -- Hash is arrested on suspicion of voluntary manslaughter by District Attorney's Office investigators after reportedly giving a “complete confession” and showing them where Huntzinger was buried.

Dec. 9, 2008 -- Investigators find a body identified to be Curtis Huntzinger's, located off old State Route 299 between Blue Lake and Korbel in the location Hash had led them to.

May 15, 2009 -- A burial is planned for Curtis Huntzinger.
May 19, 2009 -- A memorial service, open to the community, is planned to celebrate the life of Curtis Huntzinger.

http://**/localnews/ci_12342005
 

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Eureka Times Standard (California) 
May 12, 2009 Tuesday 
 
Huntzinger case: A team effort

Humboldt County District Attorney's Office Investigator Wayne Cox will be getting a national award today for his work solving the Curtis Huntzinger case, but in his mind, something isn't right.

"I couldn't have done it alone, and I wish the award from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children had all of our names on it," Cox said. "There wasn't a single person on our team who didn't invest a lot of time into this."
When Cox, Chief Investigator Mike Hislop and Assistant District Attorney Wes Keat drove down to Sebastopol to get Stephen Hash to confess to killing Curtis, they didn't go alone. DA investigators Rick Grimm and Billy Honsal went too, getting the less glamorous, but no less important, job of searching Hash's home after the arrest.

But, even before that, others helped too. Cox got the assistance of the Sonoma County District Attorney's Office to conduct surveillance on Hash.

And after getting the confession, Cox said, a virtual army of people chipped in to help find Curtis' remains.

The young redwood grove near old Highway 299 where Curtis was buried was covered in a thicket of poison oak and blackberry brambles. With the help of a couple of California Redwood Co. employees, DA investigators cleared the way for the search, many of them getting a nasty case of poison oak in the process.

Cox escaped unscathed, largely because he was relying on the help of his colleagues and orchestrating the search from the safety of the road, making sure the team had everything it needed.

Ultimately, it was a volunteer metal detector operator, Danny Walker, who found Curtis' remains.

"People have given me lots of credit for bringing Curtis home, and I appreciate that -- but I didn't do it alone," Cox said.

Cox said special thanks are in order for District Attorney Paul Gallegos, Keat, Hislop, Honsal, Grimm, investigators Mike Stone, Mike Losey, Ben Nord and Steve Dunn. Cox also thanked the law enforcement agencies coast to coast who gave their time to help with Curtis' case.

"Each of them put aside their own duties to help me when I needed it," Cox said.
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:970509332&start=5

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Moving a mountain: The Humboldt County DA's Office brings Curtis home
http://www6.lexisnexis.com/publisher/EndUser?Action=UserDisplayFullDocument&orgId=574&topicId=100020825&docId=l:970509358&start=5
Thadeus Greenson/The Times-Standard
 

Editor's Note: This is the last installment in a three-part series looking at the disappearance of Curtis Huntzinger and his family's decades-long journey to find him in advance of a May 19 memorial service to celebrate his life. To view the entire series, visit **/huntzinger.