Lucinda Lynn Schaefer

• Missing Since 06/24/1979
• Missing From Torrance, California
• Classification Non-Family Abduction
• Sex Female
• Race White
• Date of Birth 07/09/1962 (61)
• Age 16 years old
• Height and Weight 5'4, 115 pounds
• Clothing/Jewelry Description A size 7 or 8 white blouse with black Mexican-style embroidery, dark blue size 8 jeans, and beige size 6 sandals.
• Associated Vehicle(s) Silver 1977 GMC cargo van
• Distinguishing Characteristics Caucasian female. Blonde hair, blue eyes. Lucinda's nickname is Cindy. Her ears are double-pierced and she has a scar on her chin.

Details of Disappearance

Lucinda was abducted from Torrance, California, on June 24, 1979. She was last seen walking back to her grandmother's house from a Christian youth meeting at St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Torrance.

When she was missed and people searched for her, they only found one of her shoes alongside the road. She left $220 behind in her savings account and has never been heard from again.

Later in 1979, Lawrence Sigmund Bittaker and Roy Lewis Norris were arrested and eventually convicted of murdering Lucinda and several other young women, including Andrea Hall. Photographs of the two men are posted with this case summary.

Norris and Bittaker had driven around California in their silver 1977 GMC cargo van, which they nicknamed "Murder Mac," and abducted, raped and killed a large number of women. They admitted to kidnapping and raping Lucinda and to dumping her body in a remote gorge, but each man blamed the other one for strangling her. She was their first known victim.

Norris testified against Bittaker in exchange for a life sentence; Bittaker was sentenced to death. He was never executed, however; in December 2019, after forty years on death row, he died in San Quentin State Prison at the age of 79. In February 2020, Norris died in prison at the age of 72.

Lucinda and Andrea's remains have never been found.