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Nearly a quarter of a century after Tina Faelz’s lifeless body was found in a drainage culvert on a pathway behind Foothill High School, her family and Pleasanton police are still trying to figure out who could have killed the high school freshman.
“It was a real big deal at the time,” said Lt. Darrin Davis of the Pleasanton Police Department.
Faelz, 14, was last seen alive at 2:35 p.m. April 5, 1984. The Foothill freshman often took the bus home from school but had recently started walking home to avoid being teased by other students riding the bus, according to her mother, Shirley Orosco. Faelz took a back route from the high school, walking on a path that connected through Aster Court to Lemonwood Way and through the Interstate 680 underpass to her Valley Trails home. But that day, she only made it part way when police believe she was approached and subsequently stabbed to death.
Fellow high school students who had also walked the same path found Faelz’s body at about 3:25 p.m., only 10 to 15 minutes after investigators believe she was killed, Davis said. Police also received a call from a trucker who reported seeing her body from the freeway just minutes prior to the students who discovered her
The route was a popular one shared by students who lived in the Valley Trails neighborhood. The shortcut was often discouraged by high school administration. The tunnel and the culvert are gone now, built over by homes.
A reward was offered shortly after the news hit, initially starting at $1,000 and eventually climbing to $25,000 after donations from the City Council ($5,000), Faelz’s stepfather ($5,000), Dublin-San Ramon Services District ($5,000), Police Chief Bill Eastman ($1,000), Pleasanton Rotary Club ($1,000), Alameda County Supervisor Don Excell ($1,000) and other various donors from the community, according to news articles published at the time.
“Police got a large volume of tips, but most of them didn’t pan out,” Davis said. “Students had claimed they were the ones who did it, but it was Friday night party talk.”
Hair samples and blood were collected at the bloody crime scene, which Davis described as huge, but there were no fingerprints to collect. While investigators gathered cigarette butts and old knives, none of them could be linked to the crime.
“The thing that stands out the most to me is that it’s as cold a crime scene as I’ve ever seen before, as far as evidence was concerned,” said Bill Eastman, who was Pleasanton’s chief of police from 1981-2000. “There was no place to leave fingerprints, just no physical evidence really–just the wounds to Tina. It happened down in a ravine where it was out of sight of surrounding areas. I’d always thought somebody laid in wait, but who is the mystery.”
Eastman said he remembers the shock in the community.
“It was sobering to the community that it happened to such a young girl and that it was so close to Foothill High and in broad daylight,” he said. “We had just about everybody on it the first 24 hours or so and followed what leads we had.”
Foothill held a memorial service for Faelz a few days later and planted a lilac tree in her honor that is at the south edge of the school next to the student parking lot. A stone placard in front of the tree has her name inscribed and a tribute was made to her in the school’s yearbook that year.
Orosco said she is hoping any publicity on her daughter’s murder will lead to solving the case, the closure she and her son Drew Faelz, now 32, have longed for for over two decades.
“She was a real mature girl, very nice and pretty inside,” she said. “We had a good relationship. She had some money in a trust fund and she wanted to go to college and get a car and be a secretary.”
After marrying her husband in 2006, Orosco, who still lives in her Valley Trails home, said “this is about the only thing I have left in my life that’s incomplete.”
There was something about the day before Faelz was killed that Orosco said she believes played a role in her murder, but she’s not quite sure exactly what or how.
The quiet, shy freshman came home from school at 4:30 p.m. a day earlier, well after school got out. When Orosco asked her where she’d been, Faelz said she was at the mall.
“But usually she wouldn’t have done that, she would have come right home,” Orosco said.
Faelz had attended her first karate class, which Orosco said she believed she went just for fun, not for self defense.
While Faelz began regularly walking through the shortcut, Orosco said she did sometimes drive her to and from school when she could. The day she was killed, her daughter had detention right after classes ended at 2:30 p.m., but Faelz didn’t show up.
“On the way to school that day, I said ‘do you want to change schools?’ and she said, ‘no, I’ll wait until the end of this year,'” Orosco said.
Over the years, there have been some false hopes. Faelz was one of four women in her age range who had been murdered within a fairly close timeframe. Police investigated 35-year-old Michael Ihde, who was later charged with one of the women’s murders–that of Lisa Monzo, 18, of San Lorenzo in 1994. Ihde, who was already serving a life sentence in Washington state for the death of another woman, was convicted and sentenced to death three years later. He has not been eliminated as a “person of interest” but police have little to link him to the crime.
The case was opened again in 1998 after James Anthony Daveggio was charged with the kidnapping, assault and murder of a 22-year-old Pleasanton woman whose body was found in the Sierras, but DNA evidence ruled him out as Faelz’s killer.
Because the case is unsolved, police are cautionary on how much information they give. Releasing too many details can hamper interrogations or encourage copycats to come forward claiming responsibility.
Davis said currently there are four or five “persons of interest,” which he said he wouldn’t definitively call suspects. All are men who were school age to young adults at the time Faelz was murdered. Some are in prison, have been released and some live out of the state.
Over the years, police have filed hundreds of pages of reports that fill five binders on the case, No.84-1496. There are 14 pages that list the names of people police have interviewed. Davis estimated that 350 people were questioned after the incident and another 250 people have been interviewed since then, with some of the people being re-interviewed.
“These people would be teachers, students, acquaintances, visitors to Faelz’s home and their acquaintances,” Davis said, anyone who ever had anything to do with her.
What made investigating the incident so difficult was that the crime scene was remote, there were no witnesses and the stabbing occurred later in the day when fewer students were heading home from school, Eastman said.
While not discounting it, Eastman said there wasn’t enough evidence to lead toward a preliminary conclusion that the motive was robbery or revenge. Faelz was fully clothed when she was found and police don’t believe there was a sexual assault. No money was stolen from her purse.
“It was extraordinarily frustrating and while I was (police chief), I think we reopened the case four times to get fresh looks at it and never got past what we had in the first month of the investigation,” Eastman said. “Tina was a pretty quiet kid, too. She didn’t have a cadre of friends, where she might have said something that would indicate some problem with somebody.”
Eastman, who had two daughters attending Foothill at time of the murder, said while in a professional sense, he didn’t like to think he took it personally, he did.
“But, had I not had any children there, I (still) would have felt personally committed about it because of the revolting nature of the case and the despicable being who did it,” he said.
Murders are rare in Pleasanton, and that’s why the police department doesn’t have a separate homicide unit that bigger cities with more crime have.
Davis, a veteran with the police force, began working on the case about a year after the investigation began. Since then, he, like Eastman, has seen the case reopened a handful of times. In 2003, he traveled to the East Coast to follow one particular lead, but came back empty-handed.
“The trips were definitely worthwhile and it’s not that you’re ruling (anyone) out, but it’s not enough to go on,” he said.
Just last year, DNA tests were conducted but no news has come out of that.
Although it’s an unsolved homicide, Davis said these cases are never really closed; they just become inactive at times when the investigation hits a standstill.
Anyone who has tips is asked to call the Pleasanton Police Department at 931-5100.
Unsolved mysteries in Pleasanton
Including the Tina Faelz case, there are three unsolved murders in Pleasanton dating back to 1977.
Alfred “Fat Freddy” Gutierrez
Tina Faelz
Found stabbed to death April 5, 1984 in a ditch off of Foothill Road.
“Baby Doe”
A baby was dumped in a garbage bin and discovered at Pleasanton Garbage Service’s headquarters on Busch Road in 1995. Police tested DNA on the baby but couldn’t locate any suspects.
The Pleasanton Weekly continues to sensationalize crime against Pleasanton citizens. There was no constructive point to this article.
The only possible reason to print an article on this crime would be to honor the child. If that were the case, there would be a full picture of the child’s face, not half her face. The headline wouldn’t be ‘Who Killed…” but “Remembering Tina Faelz.” I’m sure her family would appreciate it if the article were about the life of their child.
There could still be a plea to contact the police if someone had any information.
Wouldn’t you prefer that if it had been your child that was killed? Or would you rather have a large photo of your child’s face, cut down the middle, and “Who Killed…?” next to half your child’s face?
So much for how well this forum software works when a new thread is created. We’ve got a dupe running here.
As I stated in the thread I opened one hour before Mark’s, my 2nd home here in town was in Valley Trails. No one ever mentioned Tina’s loss in the 6 years I lived there, but I can only imagine her Mother’s heartache.
May she finally get some closure and Tina some justice!
When a cold case is reviewed, new information sometimes comes forth and old information might be viewed differently. Hopefully, publishing this story might help solve this tragic case.
Often, the only way to catch the attention of the public is to sensationalize a story.
Gatetree I think another human life was taken from/near that area. I remember when I was in high school a lady was kidnapped as she was either walking or standing at a bus stop near Lucky’s. They found her up in the mountaints somewhere and I remember a man and a woman being arrested. So along with this, Tina, and Eileen’s, I know of 3 from here in the Tri Valley; there could be more.
So much for Pleasanton being “pleasant” and crime-free. It appears stories like these are ones that many forget in their complacency and misguided belief that we live in a nice, safe little town.
Compared to some other surrouding cities, we do live in a nice safe little town and there is nothing wrong with wanting to keep it that way and feel safe….Everyone is so hellbent on wanting to say “see Pleasanton isn’t so safe”, see, see…I am sure our little safe town won’t be that way in 10 years, so can we please just enjoy it now!
Hi Chris…I must confess that we don’t agree on much but on this one you’re right! HOORAY!
I’d like to see if any of her former classmates have a record, it might be worth looking at.
This happened very close to my home. I recall coming home from work and seeing all the police vehicles on Muirwood. Our neighborhood was devastated. Everyone was wondering how this could happen during daylight hours and no one saw anything suspicious. Although none of us knew her, those of us living on our court at the time this happened still have a sad memory of what happened to this young girl.
There was a rumor floating around many years ago that authorities suspected someone but had no proof. That person was said to be in prison at the time the rumor was circulating. No other info was given, it was simply a rumor. Nothing more.
If it’s done in a respectful manner, I have no problem seeing articles such as this. As Cholo said, it might jog someone’s memory and be helpful in solving this devastating crime.
I was in her class. I didnt know her that well but it was very shocking. I always thought it was a classmate who lived very close to where she was murdered. That guy was always a trouble maker and showed up to school drunk the day it happend. I remember the police investigated him quite a bit but nothing ever came of it. I do hope they figure out who it was with the dna eveidence and the family can get some justice.
After moving away from pleasanton years ago my mother told me about this story and website. I must say after reading about all the people who think pleasanton is dangerous and unsafe, get real! As a kid pleasanton is the only place I’ve ever been pulled over for loud music, clear fog lights (not amber) and had one cop inspect my headers to make sure they were smog legal lol! Its a shame that pleasantons become so snobby. Before the mall, and stop signs and stop lights on foothill rd pleasanton residnets werent like that.
Agreeting with Cholo as well on this, when a cold case is reviewed the memory can job alot of things and no one should forget what happened to this girl until someone is arrested for it. I can relate, as I had someone taken from me in 1985 in a similar fashion in San Jose, haunts me to this day and it is still a cold case, it does not get revisited as there is so many cold cases down there….but being a family member i always wonder who is around me and is that person in my own backyard, so to speak….hopefully Tina’s mom will get some closure in her life on this…someday.
Readers;
Please do not take my intent wrong. I fully believe in pushing and reinvestigating cold cases. Had that not happened, Michael Skakel would still be running around shouting he is a “Kennedy” after having murdered Martha Moxley many years ago in Greenwich. I really do hope the perpetrator of the crime involving Tina is brought to justice, just as Michael Skakel was.
My only point in making my “So much for Pleasanton being “pleasant” and crime-free” comment was this — much of what happens in Pleasanton gets swept under the carpet to the detriment of many. I am not “so hellbent on wanting to say “see Pleasanton isn’t so safe.” In fact, compared to many cities it’s size, P-town is VERY safe — but it does have it’s ugly secrets.
Again I say, I hope Tina’s Mother finally gets the answers and peace she deserves. I also pray Tina gets the justice that is so rightfully hers.
Tina was a friend of mine. We grew up on the same street. I don’t view this story as sensationalism. It answers some questions I’ve had. I’ll never lose hope.
Tina’s Friend — You should NEVER lose hope.
As a relatively new resident to Pleasanton, I appreciate the story. I hope they find the person who committed this horrible crime. I am no detective, and I did not live in Pleasanton at the time, but it sounds to me (entirely my opinion) that this was not a random attack, and the police really should look into the Foothill students of back then. There is a post above of a former student who says she suspects a certain person who was a trouble maker. The police should reopen the investigation. A crime like this should not go unpunished, and I hope someone comes up with some sort of information that leads to solving this horrible and senseless crime. As for the safety of Pleasanton… until you have lived elsewhere in the Bay Area, you cannot possibly appreciate how safe and nice P-town really is.
I don’t think it was random either. I saw what Tina went through first hand, and suffered from it myself that school year. I had a rough time in junior high, but I cannot put words around the psychological turmoil I endured my freshman year, and what Tina went through was so much worse. There was a whole gang of kids in our neighborhood and beyond who set out to make our lives miserable, but Tina was their focus. When Tina was at my house, they would stand outside and yell out threats. After Tina died, I lived in fear that I would be next, and it’s never completely gone away. In fact, I wonder if it’s wise for me to even post this missive, but I’m hoping Tina’s killer, who ever he or she is, is too retarded to know how to use the Internet.
It’s too impossible to try to capture it on this forum, but the police have heard my story, many, many times. I don’t believe the person was acting alone. There was a certain sense of entitlement displayed by this whole gang of kids, like they seemed to think they were doing something worthwhile stalking us after school, as if we deserved it. What they told us one day, shortly before homecoming, when two girls jumped out of the bushes in the park at us, was: “We have a whole gang of girls ready to kick your a**es. The choice is yours. Do we kick your a** today, or do you want the gang.”
“Get the gang, get the gang,” I said. I was shaking as I spoke, but somehow, they interpreted my involuntary, nerve wracked response as a smart a** comment, which nearly got us a beating. They asked their friend, who was leaning against the fence, if he had a knife. He said he didn’t want to be a part of it. I think that’s what spared us that day. They told us to take even the longer way home, because they didn’t want to look at our ugly faces.
Tina and I had a falling out that December, during lunch time in the locker room, where we always met. She had this new friend from out of state, a lot more fun than I was, because I was very much a goody-goody, I’d say. I drove Tina nuts. The first thing I’d do is run and tell my parents about all this stuff, something Tina had no patience for. She said I was very immature, that I needed to grow up. You didn’t go telling people about your problems, she said.
Well, they didn’t want to hang out with me that day, they said. They had certain things to do, they said, and I couldn’t be there. I felt hurt and humiliated.
The next day, I walked by her house, on our way to the bus stop farther from our street (the one nearby was too dangerious). Tina walked out our door behind me, and she said, “Fine, be that way,” which is what she’d always say when I was mad at her, and somehow, I wouldn’t be mad at her anymore. She had that way. But I wasn’t going to let her win this time. This time, I was going to let her know just how mad I was, and then she was supposed to run after me and just once say, “I’m sorry,” but she didn’t. She let me go, I never looked back. And she never rode the bus again.
The Monday before she died, I was walking home from the bus, and she was walking home from school (from the tunnel from under the freeway). She was wearing large, hideous ski sunglasses, which I thought was funny. She was such a funny, funny girl, with a slapstick sense of humor. She snorted at me, which I also thought was funny. I had to try not to laugh. I was sick from school the rest of the week, but Thursday, my sister told me there were police cars in front of her house. I called our friend from junior high who lived in Dublin, and we spent the rest of the day on the phone, talking about the good ol’ days (the 8th grade), worrying about details that were slowly coming together. Our parents, whom I guess had already been told, wouldn’t tell us anything. Our friend told me they’d started taking karate (or something like that) lessons together, and that Tina was so funny, a physical comedienne, though that word wasn’t in our vocabularies at the time, but that’s what Tina was. She’d make us laugh and laugh. We loved that about her.
So our friend told me that Tina said she thought I might like the class, too.
“Do you think she wants to be friends with me again?” I said.
“I think so,” she said. “She misses you.”
I was on the phone, in the hallway on my house, it was dark out, our friend and I’d been on the phone for hours. My mom let me keep on talking, which was a first. There was a knock on the door, a message from a neighbor, my mom wouldn’t open the door all the way, she talked in muffles, there was something about flowers, and all I remember after that is crying into the phone, and seeing Tina’s face on the ten o’clock news.
Maybe I shouldn’t even send this. Tina would not appreciate it. I look at Tina’s face, now from the eyes of a near forty-year old. She was so pretty. My mom said when we got older, the boys would be fighting over us, just wait. I love my mom.
Tina was so misunderstood. She would reach out to people in ways that seemed like practical jokes, and they didn’t always go over that well, but what she wanted, more than anything in the whole world, was to be loved.
One thing I can tell you is that if Tina read this, she’d have a field day. She had no patience for my cries for help, and this is one of them. I think she’d want me to just shut up about it and grow up already, but I can’t stop.
tinas friend,
We must have been in the same class 87? I remember Tina got teased alot, but like you said seeing that picture now its hard to believe. I dunno why but kids say and do the meanest things. I new her a little bit at wells but ran with a different group of friends at foothill. Shoot me an email if you want, I knew a few girls from valley trails way back in the day it would be interesting to compare notes. sprinkit @ yahoo . com
I grew up in Valley Trails and was in Junior High at Wells when this happened. I didn’t know Tina, but I remember this very well. If I’m not mistaken, Tina played soccer and although she was a 2 years older than me, we scrimmaged against each other at practices.
A classmate of mine had a brother in her class who was one of the ones to come across her in the creek. I remember her telling me he thought it was her mother lying there.
Tina’s death really haunted me as a child. Strange, I know for someone who didn’t know her. To this day, when I hear a certain Phil Collins song, I think of her and have even told my husband of the story. It was just so sad to me. I live on the east coast and have for over 12 years now. I found this story by mistake looking for something else back home.
To Tina’s friend: I think you “grew up” just fine.
I also grew up in the area and was attending Wells when this happened. Tina did play soccer and she was a team of mine a year or two before this happened.
I completely understand how you feel about be “haunted” by this event. I didn’t know Tina well but I certainly knew her from soccer. Your story is very similar to mine – didn’t know her well but was affected in a strange way.
I have since moved away, living in Colorado, and our mailboxes are at the beginning of an overflow creek/retention pond area. It’s full of plants and cat-tail foliage with some standing water. Its fun to walk the path to the playground in the day light but you won’t catch me going to get the mail after dark – Tina’s tragedy is in the back of mind.
I find it odd that so many years later I am affected by something that happened (although very tragic) to someone that I wasn’t close too.
Guess that’s the blessing and the curse of growing up in the close knit community of Pleasanton.
TO: “A neighborhood kid” or any other poster… feel free to email, it’s interesting to compare stories.
StephRicker @ comcast . net
To Cholo: I can see the connection, but I don’t think it that applies here. The first paragraphs of that first article do resonate.
To Stephanie: your name rings a bell. I don’t know a person who wasn’t affected by it. How can anyone not be. We can all empathyze.
To read these responses here is comforting. It shows people give a damn.
Has the FBI ever investigated any of the kids that were in the gang that bullied Tina? Who are they and where are they now? Are they all alive?
Are any in prison? Addicted to alcohol or drugs. Do any of them have histories of criminal activity? It seems reasonable to name them now that they are all adults and for a grand jury to question them.
Also, I would never rule out a possible clergy connection.
The first two things police look for in investigating a murder are motive and opportunity — some members of this ‘gang’ need to be reinvestigated.
When Tina was at my house, they would stand outside and yell out threats. After Tina died, I lived in fear that I would be next, and it’s never completely gone away. In fact, I wonder if it’s wise for me to even post this missive, but I’m hoping Tina’s killer, who ever he or she is, is too retarded to know how to use the Internet.
It’s too impossible to try to capture it on this forum, but the police have heard my story, many, many times. I don’t believe the person was acting alone. There was a certain sense of entitlement displayed by this whole gang of kids, like they seemed to think they were doing something worthwhile stalking us after school, as if we deserved it. What they told us one day, shortly before homecoming, when two girls jumped out of the bushes in the park at us, was: “We have a whole gang of girls ready to kick your a**es. The choice is yours. Do we kick your a** today, or do you want the gang.”
I’d have to agree w/ Tina’s friend … If there were some kids ‘bragging’ about it and some of them were in the ‘gang’ …
that ought to be enough to re-open this.
Jas…you are absolutely right! Each and every gang member that can be named and located needs to be held accountable. The anti-social behavior that they engaged in might be viewed differently today. Recent incidents recorded on utube re: girl gang violence is horrific and demonstrates how unchecked gang violence harms the entire society. What are their names, any photos to publish on utube? If the police are unable to solve the tragic murder, perhaps John Walsh would retell the story about Tina on TV. It’s worth a try.
Like Oprah said, a $50,000 reward might help capture the murderer. I’m ready to write a check. What a tragic tragic story.
Who are the gang members? Do any live in Pleasanton today?
To Jas and Cholo, these are very good points. I have told the police my story on three separate occasions, but this was twenty years ago.
I actually called the Pleasanton police earlier this year, spoke with someone, left my number, and they never called me back. I’ve been apprehensive about calling again, fearing the same reaction, but I will call again, rest assured.
Don’t forget Nancy Grace/TV show. She revisits cold cases. Make the call to the police and then call John Walsh and Nancy Grace. If the police don’t care to pursue the information that you present, you might also want to give Mark Klas a call. One of the above might be very interested in Tina’s story enough to tell it again on TV or they might make suggestions that you would find very helpful.
When thousands of students and other activist’s disappeared in Argentina, mother’s marched in public with pics of their disappeared families for decades. Everybody had to slip away or disappear. Many of the families that slipped out of Argentina are still afraid to return. Keep Tina’s story in the light and something positive will happen.
Cholo – You weren’t living in the tri valley area at this time. You have know right to speak……
I repeat: call Nancy Grace, John Walsh and anybody who will listen to you. There will someday be justice for Tina.
Can it be….Cholo does have a soul?
Say it’s not so!
Isittrue…I prefer to be known as jefe Coyote. I changed my online handle because the name Cholo upsets too many Plutonians…tee hee hee, tee hee hee…
Steve Carlson.
I hope the PW passes this tip on to the PPD.
unknown,
If you seriously have information, please contact the PPD. You can do this anonymously if you desire. This young lady’s family needs closure and the person needs to be taken off the streets before this happens again…
hopefully some day they will find out who did this…. i grew up in highland oaks… we always felt safe but i always knew that crime happens EVERY WHERE … unfortunatly., pleasanton sucks it was snobby before but its really bad now….
I remember Tina’s case very well. My family and I were living in the Highland Oaks neighborhood at the time; we’d moved there from Valley Trails just a couple of years before. I was a couple of years older than Tina and attending Amador Valley High School, though my siblings and most of my friends went to Foothill. The reason I went to Amador instead is that the culture at Foothill was just so incredibly “persecuting” and even violent. I’d gone to Wells Junior High for a semester before transferring to Fredrickson because I didn’t feel I could survive (emotionally or whatever) another day at Wells, and I knew that a lot of those terrible kids would be going to Foothill. So, it was Amador all the way for me, which really was a better environment; still some bullying, etc., but nothing like what I heard went on at Foothill.
What was it about the culture back then? Seemed like so much propensity for real violence among the kids of our generation in Pleasanton. Really strange. I remember my brother and me getting attacked by some bullies in the same place where Tina was murdered (quite a few years earlier; I think I was 12) and they just about drowned my brother in the drainage before finally letting us go, after maybe half an hour of tormenting us. Lots of stories like that from those days…
When Tina was killed, it sure sent shock waves through the community, and especially haunted everyone who was of school age at the time. There was mention that a homeless guy may have been spotted in the area for a day or two leading up to the murder, but it seemed like most of the rumors coming out of Foothill and the neighborhood kids at the time leaned toward the “gang of bullies” (mostly girls) hypothesis. No doubt the rumors referred to the same gang mentioned in this thread. Were these girls (and any guys they associated with) thoroughly investigated at the time or seriously considered suspects? Not from what I heard at the time… It seemed (and still seems) like the police just assumed that it was a male, young adult, maybe a rapist or just some serial killer nut; you know, the statistically standard profile for this kind of crime.
But, honestly, all these years later (in my 40’s now), I’m still a little haunted by the youth culture in Pleasanton in those days, and I can imagine (not as a scared, imaginative kid, but as a grown man with a business and a family of my own) one or more school kids back then being capable of committing the most heinous of acts… Maybe it’s not like that nowadays in the Valley (I suspect it’s not), but it was a bizarre time back then…
I agree with one of the earlier posters: Maybe a call to Nancy Grace wouldn’t be the worst idea!!
Tina was a sweet little girl on my street. As teens my siblings and I all took that same route to Foothill High School. I had hoped they had found her killer by now. I’m still as sad today as the day it happened.
I was seven years old and in the same 2nd grade class as Tina’s brother, Drew, at Donlon when this happened. Even though I can’t remember most things from 2nd grade, I will never forget this. Remembering back, it really seemed like a piece of my innocence was lost at this time. Suddenly our safe little community was turned upside down, and the concept of death became suddenly all too real. It is unfortunate that somebody has gotten away with this, and I hope one day he or she is brought to justice. I still think about Drew from time to time, and hope that he and his family have found some form of closure and peace to such a horrible event in their lives.
My friend Jay&I were the ones’ who found Tina that day. They actually narrowed down the time that she had been killed to about 15minutes before we arrived. At first I thought that it had been a girl who had done this horrible deed. I had heard someone at school early that day talking about how she was going to “kick her ass after school” so naturally when we found Tina my first thought was “OMG she friggin’ did it!!” I was in shock. The scene was soo surreal, like right out of a slasher film, only this was reality. I knew Tina from seeing her around school, but I didn’t really “know” her. The one time we did cross paths, I think she called me an asshole or something?? not sure why. I knew she was picked on, and a loner. looking back, I feel sorry that her life was so bad. I really was in a rage when I found her lying there face down that day with multiple stab wounds all over her body, and a big hole cut into the side of her abdomen!!I didn’t know it was Tina right at that moment,only some poor girl who had just been brutally murdered!! I thought “Who would do such a F**KED up thing to another human being!!?? I felt for a pulse on her neck, but I knew she was gone, there was so much blood and she was so still.My friend turned and threw-up. I ran up the hill and saw a guy mowing his lawn and told him to call 911 because there was a girl down the hill that was stabbed really bad!!He thought I was joking!!?? Really?? Why would I joke about something like that?? I told him. I was 16, and a sophmore and so was my friend Jay. The paper came out to interview us and put our names and ages in the paper, which is illegal since we were minors, and also what if the killer had thought that we had seen them!!?? So not cool. To this day I believe that Steve Carlson killed Tina(sorry steve) Here’s why; On that day I know for a fact that “Crazy” Carlson as the police refer to him cut school, and stole a moped and was cruising around all day. Two guys that I hung out with told me that they went to a house that day and raided the liquor cabinet. They said to Steve “Your parents are going to be pissed that we drank all of their booze!!” to which he replied; “This aint my house!” he had broken into someones’ house that day unbeknownst to the two other guys. Here’s the reason I think he did it; during the drinking,the two others I’ll just call them Rob&Brent were teasing Carlson. They said to him;”you are such a loser I bet you couldn’t even get laid by Tina Faelz!” That day Tina was found by Jay&I after detention…. Coinsidense?? The cops interviewed tons of people and even gave Carlson a lie detector test to which he passed, so I’ve heard. In 2009 I Googled Tinas’ name because I had told my mother-in-law about it and there was an article about how even 25yrs later they still didn’t have closure for this case. I called the pleasanton PD and asked them about any suspects, that’s when the officer referred to “Crazy Carlson” and how even though he’d been interviewed numerous times, still passed questioning.
I was at Foothill during that time period when Tina was killed, I was in her class. I had 5th period ceramics class with Jay and Steve Carlson. It was weird to sit at the table with someone who found her and the other, that everyone knew he was the one who did it. Jay would tell us what she looked like and how he responded when he found her body, and Steve would just quietly sit there and listen (this was before the whole school suspected Steve). I always thought it was weird because it was such a big deal, but Steve never said anything or asked Jay any questions like the rest of us did. Pretty soon Steve just stopped coming to class. I was never sure if it was because he was sick of hearing it, or because he was too busy smoking pot and getting drunk like most of the students in the school. I hung out with Rachel Scarlett at the time, not the best person to hangout with because she was actually a bully, very disrespectful and just mean to a lot of people. Recently, it has been discovered that Rachel was arrested for trespass and burglary, and has at least 14 years of criminal arrests on her record in Arizona. She now goes by the name of Rachel Davile. The reason I bring Rachel into this is because she was questioned by the Pleasanton police several times, as well as years after we had all graduated. She was seen throwing rocks at Tina the day she was murdered, forcing her to miss the bus and walk home through the field where she was murdered. I always wondered if someone was waiting for Tina, how would they know she would be walking through the field that day if she normally took the bus. This would not be her regular pattern. But since have been reading these blogs, it seems as though she did take that route to walk home. Someone on this blog had written to check for criminal history for any suspects. I’m almost 100% sure Rachel did not commit the crime, but I do think it’s an excellent idea to check Steve Carlson’s past history with the police department, if he has any. Years ago, my car broke down by Stoneridge Mall. A Pleasanton police officer stayed with me until the AAA tow truck came. We started talking about the case. He said he was a brand new cop on the force at that time, and it was one of his first cases. When I mentioned Steve Carlson, he just shook his head, yes. I really hope they keep this case open and re-visit ANY suspects to one of Pleasanton’s biggest unsolved murder cases.
I heard that Rachel Scarlett/Davila was the one that had threatened to kick Tina’s ass after school that day. I went to Junior High at Fredericksen that year. I was the prime target for bullies as well. My parents had moved us to Dublin from San Jose in the middle of 6th grade. I was a simple kid in a stuck up town with girls that wore $100 pairs of jeans and shoes and my stupid parents still ordered my threads out the Montgomery Wards catalog once per year. I became an instant target! I often feared for my life. There was always an intense rivalry between the girls at Wells and the girls at Fredericksen, regular, weekly group brawls. I didn’t know Tina, but I knew what she went through, and I heard about the murder when it happened. Later, I ended up at Valley High School with Rachel Scarlett/Davila and I although I had finally made some friends, won some fights and was no longer a target for bullies, I can tell you she was one mean bitch. Even though I didn’t have to worry about being beat up anymore, she made sure let her presence be known to me. She was the last bully I ever had. She had a cold dark heart. Some of my Valley High School friends and I had recently been chatting about her on Facebook (in February this year) and one of them Googled her and found a mug shot of her that she had been arrested that very morning that we had all been randomly chatting about her…it was REALLY weird. Yes, she had been arrested (again) in Phoenix on a felony burglury. From what I understand, many states including Arizona and California will take a mandatory DNA sample from anyone arrested for a felony. I would like to see her DNA matched to what was left at the scene. You know, they didn’t have the DNA matching technology back then. That really wasn’t introduced until 1993 or something like that. I would think that the Pleasanton PD would be doing right by Tina to run killer’s DNA through CODIS maybe every 6 months and hope for a match someday. One final thing…a friend of mine and I spoke about this the other night and he told me that the Pleasanton PD had pretty much ruled out any high school kid in this crime because Tina was so brutally stabbed that there was no way a teenager could have the strength and force to stab someone that brutally. But I can tell you, my bullies had some great strength and unbelievable hate. I completely believe that anyone of them could have done this me at anytime. God Bless Tina and her family.
Y’know, you guys (and i know a few of you commenters personally) saying that “Creepy” or Rachel had something to do with Tina’s death are seriously messed up! You guys picked on Creepy almost like Tina at times. I’ll guarantee he didnt have anything to do with this, he was stupid and crazy, but not mean/violent like that…and to say Rachel, yeah, you all may have had issues but that is a long shot away from killing someone! You are all jumping to conclusions nobody has any firm reasons to make those accusations…and it isn’t cool, it’s hurtful and stupid high school rumors.
The Mercury News just posted an updated story:
“The suspect is 43 years old and was a 16-year-old Foothill student at the time. According to police, his name is not being released now because he was a juvenile at the time of the crime. Once he is referred to the adult court, which should be within 48 hours, his name will released, police said.”
http://www.mercurynews.com/breaking-news/ci_18639189
this was before my time in pleasanton but it appears they have a DNA match ona habituial loser. maybe the same guy referenced above ?. SFgate.com chronicle has the story
hopefully they nail this guy to the wall.
RIP Tina. may your parents and family get closure
Someone posted elsewhere that this Steve Carlson is now listed in the inmate directory online as arrested yesterday for murder. If all of you who were around at that time knew he did it, and sounds like the cops suspected, too, why has it taken so long to test his DNA in this case? Very weird.
Steve Carlson was arrested for her murder
It is Steve, did an inmate search on his name….it’s him.
Tina Faelz killer was arrested, he is enroute to Santa Rita as we speak. Guess who it is? Steven John Carlson.
Type in his name and you will see for your self. This was also just on the Chanel 2 news.
http://www.acgov.org/sheriff_app/inmateSearch.do
Ya I see the samething on the inmate search.
I remember this very well too, growing up in Valley Trails. My neighbor was Jay. (I forget his last name) As kids, we thought he did it, since he had found the body. Later just thought it was some crazy guy out there that had done it.
I agree with some of the other people on here about Foothill. It was one of the worse place to go. I HATED that school. Something about our generation and violence. There was a lot of it. Lot of drug use, sex, crime and alcohol. More than what the “average” teenager is doing now a days. It was really a crazy time. I know some of the parents never believed us, but there was some crazy kids there.
Valley Trails was a great place to grow up. There was a few bad apples here and there, but I never remember any gangs. I do remember not wanting to go on the South side. We usually stayed on the North side and around the small basketball court in the park.
Jay was a nice guy to me and my friends. After the whole Tina thing, we never saw him at all. Then they moved. It was a strange and scarey time for us.
Hope this is some closer for her family. RIP Tina.
Trails local….guess you were wrong.
Guess Carlson was a registered sex offender. Here is the link:
http://www.meganslaw.ca.gov/cgi/prosoma.dll?searchby=offender&id=1869503201015
Wow!
Yep, Creepy Carlson and anyone who really knew Steve also suspected him as the murderer of Tiny for over 25 years now…and so did the Plesanton police dept. RIP Tina
This is a truly interesting story, and I’d like to write perhaps a screenplay about it. Anyone who has stories and would like to contribute would be much appreciated.