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Apartment 14 Ghost

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Case File: Apartment 14 Ghost
Location: Chico, California
Date: January 2000
Description: Apartment 14 is located in the Walden Garden Apartments on Parmac Road in Chico, California.

Case[]

History: Jodi Foster is a mother and grandmother who shares her name with famous actress and director Jodie Foster. She was born in Orange County, California. In 1997, she gave birth to her daughter, Hannah, and became a single mom. In January 2000, they moved from Montana to Chico, California. At the time, Jodi was thirty-three, and Hannah was three. Jodi had fond memories of the town. She spent a summer there taking care of her grandmother. She describes it as quaint and beautiful. She says it is a small town but big enough to raise a family. To her, it felt like home.
When Jodi first arrived in Chico, money was tight. While searching for a reasonably priced apartment, she saw a "For Rent" sign at the Walnut Gardens apartments on Parmac Road. To her, it looked like a regular, nice apartment complex. It had flowers and a pool, and it was in a good neighborhood.
During a quick tour of the building, Jodi was overcome with a strange feeling about the place. She brushed it aside, assuming it was related to the stress of searching for a new home. At the end of the tour, she asked for an application. One week later, on January 31, she and Hannah moved into apartment number 14.
Jodi says the apartment did not feel peaceful. Instead, it felt dark, and it had a bizarre smell. She thought it was a chemical smell from a carpet. She also felt like someone was watching her. She wondered why she was feeling like that. She told herself she would start living a peaceful and happy life for herself and Hannah. But then, strange things started happening.
The first odd occurrence involved a pair of Hannah's pink shoes. Jodi always kept them by the door so Hannah could put them on when they were ready to leave. Hannah remembers that one day, Jodi was trying to get her ready to go out when she started looking for the shoes. They were not in their usual spot. She found them in the middle of Hannah's bed. She asked Hannah if she put them there, but Hannah was adamant that she did not.
Jodi says this happened day after day – the shoes kept being placed in the middle of the bed. After that, things got progressively stranger. She remembers waking up and finding salt-and-pepper shakers at the edge of the dining room table, even though she did not put them there. Other objects would disappear or move to different places in the apartment. At that point, she thought she was going crazy. Hannah says the things that were happening were scary. At the time, she did not understand why these things were happening.
Jodi also began experiencing strange dreams. Her first one was about a young couple in 1970s clothing who were searching for someone. She felt something "predatory" about them. In the next dream, she saw them walking down the hallway to her apartment. She then saw them trying to take Hannah. As Jodi screamed for them to stop, Hannah turned into an unfamiliar young woman with auburn hair. She then bolted awake, giving herself a panic attack. It was 3:37am. When her friend Idie visited the apartment, she felt a cold, "palpable" presence.
In another dream, Jodi saw the young woman walking down a street in Chico. She then saw the couple driving a blue or gray car. They were apparently stalking the woman. They drove up to her and asked if she wanted a ride. She got in the car. They then drove to Jodi's apartment complex. The man got out, went up to Jodi, and asked to use the bathroom. Terrified, she woke up – once again at 3:37am.
Jodi became so anxious and afraid of her dreams that she did not want to sleep. She was chronically exhausted. In one dream, she watched as the man came behind the young woman and put something over her mouth. The couple then drove off with her. After that, Jodi woke up covered in sweat and shaking. She wondered why she was having these dreams.
But Jodi was not the only one having strange experiences. One morning, while making breakfast, she heard Hannah say, "Hi!" She asked Hannah who she was talking to, and Hannah said, "That girl right there, Mom!" Jodi asked if someone had walked by their apartment window, but Hannah insisted that the girl was "right there", pointing into her bedroom. She said the girl had a white shirt on. But according to Jodi, no one was there.
Another morning, Jodi was brushing Hannah's hair when Hannah said she saw "her friend" in the mirror. Jodi, however, did not see anyone. Hannah drew the girl she was seeing. One drawing depicted her being hung and abused by a couple. Hannah remembers calling the girl "Myliz" and saying she was her "guardian angel". She also vividly remembers seeing her. She remembers her eyes, her hair (which was dark brown and worn in a flip), her clothing, and everything else about her.
Hannah thought Myliz was a friend of Jodi's and a real, living person. She saw and talked to Myliz regularly. She says Myliz would visit her in her bedroom and kiss her on the forehead. She even had dreams where they would visit and talk with each other.
One night, Jodi, Hannah, and a family friend named Misty went out to dinner. When they came back, Misty felt as though someone was watching her. They noticed that the receiver for the wall phone was not there. They found it in the back bedroom. All of the toys in Hannah's room were in a pile. Hannah's "Sing & Snore" Ernie doll was on top of the pile with a shoestring tied into a noose around its neck. It kept saying, "I feel great!"
Shaken, Jodi grabbed Hannah and ran out the front door. She called the Chico police and told them what she had found in the apartment. They took a report, but Jodi says they did not seem to take her seriously. Shortly after she went to bed, Jodi bolted awake again. The room was shaking, and lights were flashing on and off. The Ernie doll kept repeating, "I feel great!" Jodi, Hannah, and Misty ran out of the apartment. Before leaving, Jodi looked at a wall clock and saw that it was 3:37am again. She screamed into the apartment and told the ghost to leave.
Hannah says she cannot imagine what Jodi went through, having to take care of her and deal with the bizarre things that were happening. Jodi says doors would slam shut on their own, clocks would read the wrong times, the heat would turn on by itself even when the air conditioner was running, the lights would go off and on, and light bulbs would explode. She had an electrician come and see if there was an electrical problem, but he confirmed that nothing was wrong.
Jodi says the strange events culminated in one night in February 2000. She woke up in the middle of the night and heard white, staticky TV noise. She found the TV on. She did not understand how that happened because you had to turn the dial on the TV itself to turn it on. Then, the cupboards started flapping open, and the burner on the stove turned on high. The Ernie doll started saying, "I feel great!" over and over.
Jodi took the doll's batteries out because she thought they were dying. She then put it back in the closet. All of a sudden, it started talking and singing again. Hannah remembers the doll being scary. She says it would go off in the middle of the night, which would freak Jodi out because it had no batteries.
Later that night, all of the lights turned on at the same time. Jodi did not understand what was happening. She went to her neighbor, the apartment manager, and told her something was wrong. The neighbor grabbed her dog and went into Jodi's apartment. The dog jumped from the neighbor's arms and started barking loudly.
Jodi noticed that a cord attached to one of the lamps was swinging in the air like a jump rope. They all started screaming. The neighbor grabbed her dog and ran out of the apartment. Jodi and Hannah quickly followed. By that point, it was about 6am. Jodi remembers sitting by the pool, crying. An older man who had lived in the apartment complex for about twenty-five years approached her and said, "You know, Jodi, nobody lives in that apartment very long."
Confused, Jodi asked the man what he meant. He told her that previous tenants had also experienced hauntings. And a young woman who had once lived in Jodi's apartment had been missing for years. However, he could not remember the woman's name.
Jodi knew that the things happening in her apartment were not in her mind. She believes some people are born with certain spiritual qualities and are more sensitive or empathic than others. She thinks both she and Hannah are sensitive to paranormal energy.
Jodi says that when she moved into the apartment, she had an "impending doom" feeling, like something terrible was about to happen. As time passed, her dreams got progressively weirder. She saw the young woman in the back of the couple's car with her wrists bound. The woman tried to scream, but the man put a "torture helmet" over her head. Jodi next saw them in the root cellar of a house. She says it looked like a dungeon. She saw chains, torture devices, a big logging hook, and one light.
In one dream, Jodi saw that the couple had put something around the young woman's arms and in her mouth. They shackled her wrists over her head and hung them from the ceiling. They then started doing sadistic, weird, and "sexually creepy" things to her. The man fondled and whipped her, then shot her in the stomach. During another dream, Jodi saw the woman pleading for her life. She saw the man grab a knife, pull the woman's head back, and cut her neck. As the woman bled, she looked into the mirror, locked eyes with Jodi, and begged for help.
Later in that dream, Jodi saw the man take a gold watch from the woman's wrist. He then bit off her nipple and placed it, the watch, and a lock of her hair in a small wooden box. He walked upstairs, where his wife was crying and rocking back and forth on the couch. He told her to go downstairs and see what he would do to her if she did not listen to him. She went downstairs and saw the woman hanging from the ceiling.
Still in the dream, Jodi saw the couple take the woman's body down from the ceiling, wrap it in a blue blanket, and put it in the back of their car. They drove along a dirt road with a sign that said "A17". Then, the man got out and buried the woman in a shallow grave.
Again, Jodi bolted awake. And again, it was 3:37am. Her window's blinds shot up and down, and the lights in the room flashed. Hannah remembers Jodi telling her about the weird dreams. Jodi was anxious and had a lot of questions about them.
Jodi feared that something was going to happen to Hannah. So, she decided to move out of the apartment. She thought, "I don't want to have anything to deal with this anymore". The apartment complex owners offered her an apartment in a different complex on the condition that she not talk about the hauntings. She took the offer. She says it was a "lifesaver" for them. On April 1, 2000, she and Hannah moved out of Apartment 14. They had only stayed there for about three months. To Jodi, it seemed like forever. She says that after they moved out, things became normal – for a while.
Then, about a year later, Jodi started having dreams again. She became upset because she thought they were behind her. In her dreams, she saw the couple again. The man was tall, and the woman was short. It was dusk. She says they were stalking or looking for someone. She would always hear the number "35.76". Then, she would see a capital "A" and "17" as she was flying in her dream. She had no idea what the letters and numbers meant. She was not sure if they had to do with a location or something else.
In another dream, Jodi was in a meadow. There was a large lava rock in front of her. She could see snow-capped mountains in the distance and smell farm animals. She heard the sounds of a stream nearby. She also saw a marker that said "A17".
Jodi later began dating Joel Wiley. After hearing her story, he found a book called "Perfect Victim" by Carla Norton. After reading it, he told Jodi that a woman had gone missing from her old apartment: nineteen-year-old Marie Elizabeth Spannhake. After hours in the library searching through microfiche, he found an article about her disappearance that included her address. He also noticed that she had a nickname: Marliz.
Jodi remembered that Hannah had called the girl in the apartment "Myliz", which sounds very similar to Marliz. Jodi told Hannah about Marliz and showed her a picture of her. Hannah told Jodi that Marliz was the girl in the apartment. Hannah's drawings of Myliz also matched Marliz. Hannah had drawn her in a white sweater and jeans, the same clothes Marliz wore when she disappeared. After seeing Marliz's picture, Jodi realized she was the young woman from her dreams. She freaked out when they made the connection. She now wanted to find out what happened to Marliz.
On Saturday, January 31, 1976, Marliz and her boyfriend, John Baruth, went to a flea market in the Eagles Hall at East 20th and Mulberry Streets in Chico. While there, they got into an argument. She decided to walk the four miles back to their Parmac Road apartment instead of riding with him. He last saw her at 4pm walking on Mangrove Avenue away from the flea market. No one has seen or heard from her since. When John returned to their apartment, he found that none of her belongings were missing. On February 2, when she still had not come home, he reported her missing to the Chico Police Department.
Marliz's sister, Martha, says that Marliz was only in Chico for about two months before she disappeared. They were from Cleveland, Ohio. There were seven children in their family. Martha was the oldest daughter, and Marliz was three years younger than her. Martha says Marliz was beautiful, outgoing, and friendly. She had an interest in sculpture and music.
In 1975, Marliz and John met while working together. He was from California and was six years older than her. Her mother described him as a "hoodlum". Despite this, he and Marliz soon fell in love. That December, he planned to return to California to attend Chico State University. He asked Marliz to come with him, and she agreed. Martha believes that Marliz's ultimate dream was to become an actor. She was happy about moving to California, and Martha was excited for her. Martha says it was a big step for her.
After arriving in California, Marliz got a part-time job as a model at a local camera shop. She wrote to Martha a couple of times. She said she did not like it in California, and it was not what she had dreamed it would be. Martha believes Marliz and John were having issues in their relationship. And Marliz had nobody to run to or talk to about it. She later told Martha that she would return home in April 1976 and planned to attend college once she got back. But she never came home.
After Marliz was reported missing, the police extensively questioned John. They considered him a suspect because he was her boyfriend and the last person to see her. Multiple people had said she had grown tired of the relationship and wanted out. Marliz's mother believed he was into the "drug culture". While a detective was at their apartment, John received a hang-up call. He said that had happened often since Marliz disappeared. He agreed to take a polygraph, which he passed. They later cleared him as a suspect.
Since Marliz had only lived in Chico for two months, there was almost no one else for the police to question. Her family flew to Chico to search for her. They did not believe she voluntarily vanished, as she had never run away before. She never touched her bank account. They did not believe she was despondent or stressed.
The search for Marliz spread nationwide. The FBI became involved. Missing person flyers were sent around the country. Her family even hired a private investigator and a psychic. But no trace of her was found. By 1977, her case had gone cold.
In her research, Jodi learned that Marliz's disappearance was potentially connected to a couple in Red Bluff, California, forty-seven miles north of Chico. On November 7, 1984, eight years after Marliz's disappearance, Detective Al Shamblin of the Red Bluff Police Department was told by his supervisor to respond to the Church of the Nazarene in Red Bluff.
When Detective Shamblin arrived at the church, he saw the pastor with a woman named Janice Hooker. He noticed that she was extremely upset and emotional. She confessed to her pastor and Detective Shamblin that in 1976, her husband, Cameron Hooker, had kidnapped and killed a young woman in Chico – Marliz Spannhake. She discovered Marliz's name after seeing her driver's license. Janice told them that she came forward because she was afraid of Cameron. She said she had a lot of guilt built up for what had occurred over the years.
Detective Shamblin realized that some of this information could be incriminating to Janice herself, so he read her Miranda rights. After that, she decided not to talk without an attorney. Shamblin called the District Attorney's office and told them about the situation. The D.A. agreed to grant Janice immunity in exchange for her cooperation.
After immunity was granted, Detective Shamblin interviewed Janice in detail. She told him that she had met Cameron in 1973, when she was sixteen and he was twenty-two. They married two years later. She said he was interested in bondage, violence, and torture. He had taken her to the woods on several occasions and hung her from a tree with leather wrist straps. When he started violently whipping her, she told him to stop. But, she said, he still had "cravings".
Cameron and Janice came to an agreement that he would not hurt her, she would have his baby, and he would be allowed to have a "slave girl" for sexual purposes. During a shopping trip to Chico on January 31, 1976, Janice and Cameron saw Marliz walking along Mangrove Avenue at around 4pm. Cameron circled Marliz a couple of times in his two-door Dodge Colt. At that point, Janice knew that he was going to kidnap Marliz.
Cameron pulled over and offered Marliz a ride. Since Janice was with him, Marliz thought it was safe. So, she got in the car with them. While driving, he asked her questions like, "What's your name? Where are you from? Where are you going?" Author Carla Norton notes that Marliz did not have family nearby, and no one knew where she had gone. She believes Cameron was looking for a woman who did not have any ties to the community.
According to Janice, they stopped at an intersection near Marliz's apartment. As Marliz started to get out of the car, Cameron grabbed her by the wrist, put a knife to her throat, and dragged her back in. He placed a "headbox" over her head and handcuffed her. The twenty-pound box was constructed of wood and Styrofoam. It covered her entire head, making her unable to see. The Styrofoam prevented her screams from being heard. Cameron created it to prevent his captive from alerting the neighbors. Norton believes it made Marliz so disoriented that she had no idea what was happening.
After placing the headbox over Marliz's head, Cameron and Janice drove about forty miles north along Highway 99 to their house on Oak Street in Red Bluff. Before arriving home, they stopped at a Jolly Cone to get something to eat. When they arrived at their house, they pulled into the garage behind it. Cameron got out, closed the garage door, and went inside.
Janice said Marliz was hysterical. She tried to calm her down and told her everything would be okay. She then went inside the house. When she returned a few minutes later, she saw Marliz standing beside the car in a disoriented state. She was no longer wearing the headbox. Smelling ether in the air, Janice asked Cameron what he had done. He said that he had sprayed starting fluid into a rag and placed it over Marliz's mouth to make her lose consciousness.
Cameron and Janice then carried Marliz into the basement. He suspended Marliz by ropes hanging from hooks on the rafters. She screamed and begged them to release her. She swore she would never tell anyone what happened.
According to Investigator Kevin Hale of the Tehama County District Attorney's Office, Cameron was fascinated with torturing and dominating people, but he did not like to hear them scream. He had read that if you cut a person's vocal cords, they will no longer be able to yell or scream.
Cameron took Marliz upstairs to the bathroom. According to Norton, Cameron was invested in making Marliz a "sex slave" and keeping her utterly cowed and terrorized. But he made a mistake with her. Janice initially refused to help him cut Marliz's throat. He threatened Janice, saying that he would do the same thing to her if she did not help him.
Janice ultimately agreed to help. She sat next to Marliz on the bathroom floor while Cameron started cutting one side of her throat, attempting to reach her vocal cords. But, according to Investigator Hale, Cameron did not know what he was doing. Marliz began bleeding heavily, so he "freaked out". Realizing he would not be successful, he stopped cutting her. He picked her up and brought her back to the basement, where he once again hung her from the rafters. He then stripped her naked and sexually abused her.
At one point, Cameron asked Janice for a piece of paper and a pencil. Marliz wanted to say something, but she could not speak. She wrote, "I'll give you anything you want if you let me go." He then shot her twice in the stomach with a pellet gun.
A short time later, Janice returned to the basement and found Marliz dead. She was hanging by her neck with a noose attached to a ceiling beam. A pillowcase was over her head, and she was nude. Janice believed Cameron had strangled Marliz with the rope and then hung her on the beam.
At around 2am, Janice and Cameron wrapped Marliz's body in a blanket and placed it in the trunk of their car. They drove thirty miles north along Interstate 5 to Redding. They then took Highway 44 east towards Lassen Park. After that, they turned onto a dirt road. Janice remembered it was snowing, and the ground was muddy.
At one point, Cameron stopped the car, got out, and dug a shallow grave about three feet deep. Janice helped him carry Marliz's body to the grave. After that, he burned her clothing and belongings in a barbecue pit. The only thing he kept was her watch, which was later destroyed. From start to finish, the kidnapping, torture, and murder took about twelve hours.
During Detective Shamblin's initial interview with Janice, she talked about the kidnapping of another victim, Colleen Stan. On May 19, 1977, one year after Marliz's disappearance, Colleen was hitchhiking from Eugene, Oregon, to a friend's house in Westwood, California. On that day, Cameron and Janice picked her up while she was standing on Antelope Boulevard in Red Bluff. Janice was holding their infant daughter.
When they stopped at a gas station for snacks, Colleen said her instincts told her to run away. But she decided to stay. A short time later, Cameron pulled over on a dirt road. He pulled out a knife, threatened her, and put the headbox on her. They then took her to their home. Norton noted that Marliz's and Colleen's cases mirrored each other. Marliz was nineteen, and Colleen was twenty. They both had long hair. They both had no association with the surrounding area.
Janice told Detective Shamblin that Cameron had kept Colleen as a "sex slave" for seven years. He kept her naked and handcuffed in a wooden, coffin-sized box under his water bed for twenty hours a day. He hung her from the basement ceiling with handcuffs (similar to how Marliz was hung), whipped her, slashed her, shocked her with electrical cords, stretched her on a torture rack, burned her, and raped her. He described her as a "good slave:. He alternated between sexual torture and mind control.
Shortly after the abduction, Cameron presented Colleen with a "slave contract" (similar to what he wanted to do with Marliz). He gave her the name "K" and told her that she must obey her "master" (Cameron) or else a group called "The Company" would take her and torture her to the brink of death. This threat made her too afraid to escape.
Colleen says that if she tried to fight with Cameron, he would get excited and torture her more. She realized that if she could tolerate the pain as best as possible and let him do whatever he wanted, he would lose interest, and it would be over more quickly.
Janice and Colleen were rarely allowed to speak with each other. In August 1984, Janice told Colleen that she planned to leave Cameron. Norton thinks that Janice had a spiritual crisis. She was afraid of Cameron and knew he was capable of murder. Over the nine years they were together, she did what he wanted her to do because she did not want to get in trouble. So, it was dangerous for her to try to leave.
Norton believes that Janice was mentally at her "last rope". When she told Colleen that she was leaving, Colleen begged her not to go because she feared what would happen if she was left alone with Cameron. So, Janice and Colleen kept it a secret until Cameron went to work the next morning. Once he left, they packed their belongings and went to Janice's parents' house. Colleen then took a bus home and was reunited with her family.
For a while, Janice stayed with her parents. Colleen did not contact the police because she promised Janice she would not, as Janice wanted to give Cameron a chance to "reform". Colleen told her family some of what happened, but it was not until Janice confessed to Detective Shamblin in November 1984 that Colleen said anything to law enforcement.
Colleen says that when the police called, she talked to them for several hours and gave them her statement about what had happened to her. They told her that everything she said matched what Janice had said. They then asked Colleen if she knew anything about Marliz. She told them that Cameron had a picture of a woman. She described the photo, and they confirmed that it was of Marliz. At one point, he apparently referenced Marliz when he said to Colleen, "Go ahead and scream. I'll cut your vocal cords. I've done it before".
In her confession, Janice recalled Marliz's nickname and place of birth. She also described the clothes Marliz was wearing when they abducted her. Detective Shamblin contacted the Chico police and told them about Janice's confession. But he knew that for them to charge Cameron with Marliz's murder, they needed Janice's cooperation since they did not have Marliz's body or any other evidence. Without her, they would not have a case.
Detective Shamblin wanted Janice to show them where she and Cameron had buried Marliz's body. They went on several trips to Lassen Park. They drove east of Redding on Highways 44 and 299, checking all the side roads to see if Janice could locate the one they had taken.
Unfortunately, the area around the park is large and desolate, with many places to hide a body. The police took Janice on several trips, but they were unable to find the burial site. The District Attorney's Office felt there was not enough evidence to pursue homicide charges. The D.A. did not want to risk losing the case at trial since they would not be able to retry him.
Cameron denied any involvement in Marliz's disappearance. Detective Shamblin says the homicide case was the most important to them, but since they could not take it to trial, they pursued Colleen's kidnapping case instead to ensure he went to prison.
On November 18, 1984, Cameron was arrested and charged with seventeen counts of rape, kidnapping, sodomy, and false imprisonment. When the story broke, everyone focused on Colleen. She became known as "The Girl in the Box". After Cameron's arrest, the police searched his home. In the basement, they located the places where Colleen and Marliz were hung from the rafters. They also found pictures of random women.
According to Norton, Cameron liked to document his crimes. He built a dark room in the basement so he could develop his own film. He took pictures of both Colleen and Janice suspended by cuffs. Investigator Hale says the pictures were graphic. They depicted nude women. There were pictures of Janice naked and bound to objects in a forest. He had reportedly tortured her there.
Colleen remembers Cameron taking a lot of pictures. Even though she was blindfolded, she could still see the camera's flashes. She says that when Detective Shamblin searched the house, he found a hidden stack of pictures. Some of the pictures were of her in bondage. Others were of Cameron and Janice's daughters' birthday parties. Norton says Cameron's hubris and ego led him to document his crimes and then forget to destroy the evidence. She says, in a way, he was his own worst enemy.
Colleen wonders how Cameron could do those things to her and Marliz and not feel bad about it. She says he is more than capable of torturing someone. She knows that because he did it to her. She also says he is more than capable of murdering someone.
In October 1985, Cameron went on trial for the crimes against Colleen. She testified about her abduction at knifepoint and subsequent torture. Janice testified as well. She said she helped Cameron because he told her she would "burn in hell" otherwise.
Norton says the details that came out during the trial were staggering. But none of it had to do with Marliz. The prosecutor wanted to introduce Marliz's case to show that Cameron had an M.O. and a history of this behavior. But everything about her was kept out because it was considered "too prejudicial", and there was no evidence to prove he killed her.
Cameron and his defense attorneys admitted that he kidnapped Colleen but claimed she fell in love with him and was a "willing participant" in the other crimes he was charged with. They said he allowed her to go out in public, get a job, and even spend time with her family – yet she never tried to escape. Colleen maintained that he brainwashed her and made her too afraid to escape. Janice confirmed this and claimed he treated her like a slave as well.
The trial lasted for six weeks. In November, Cameron was convicted on ten counts, including kidnapping, rape, and sodomy. At the sentencing hearing, the judge said, "I consider [Cameron] to be probably the most dangerous psychopath that I've ever dealt with". He also said to Cameron, "I feel you'll always be a danger to women as long as you're alive. I'm going to give you as much time as I can". He sentenced Cameron to 104 years in prison.
While Colleen's case was closed, Marliz's case remained open. However, the police labeled it "inactive" because there was no new information or avenues for them to follow. Marliz's sister, Martha, was upset that they did not find her body. She says everyone knew Marliz was gone. She was angry that Marliz's case was not brought up during the trial. She was also upset that Cameron was not serving time for what he did to Marliz.
After learning the details surrounding Marliz's disappearance and presumed murder, Jodi realized that many of the details from her dreams matched up with Janice's confession. She wondered if she had information that could help find Marliz. All of a sudden, she got a feeling. She said to herself, "Stop what you're doing and call the Red Bluff Police Department". In July 2008, Investigator Hale received a call from Jodi. She told him that she had lived in Marliz's apartment and wanted to provide him with information that she thought was related to Marliz's murder and a potential gravesite.
Investigator Hale asked Jodi, "Why are you calling right now?" He told her that they were in the middle of reopening Marliz's case that very day. He says he was "freaked out" by that. The two later met at a coffee shop. He questioned her for hours. They talked about her dreams. She told him how she had seen Marliz, Cameron, and Janice in her dreams.
Investigator Hale says he is always skeptical when people claim to receive information about a criminal case in a dream. Jodi was nervous during the meeting. She was afraid she was going to be criticized. But she realized it did not matter if they thought she was crazy; she still needed to give them this information.
Because it is an open case, Investigator Hale was not allowed to tell Jodi anything. She told him she saw "A 17", which she believed was a road Cameron took to Marliz's gravesite. Investigator Hale says there is a road that connects Interstate 5 and Highway 44 called A17.
During the cold case investigation, Investigator Hale wanted to conduct a more thorough interview with Janice and see if they could pinpoint Marliz's burial site. He and another investigator first talked to her in 2010. During the meeting, they reminded her of the immunity agreement. They told her they were not there to arrest her, but they did want to try and get some answers in Marliz's case.
During the interview, Investigator Hale felt they got a better description of the road that Janice and Cameron turned down off Highway 44. She gave them better descriptions of some structures they passed on the road. He felt she gave good information.
Investigator Hale says the area where they believe Marliz is buried is vast and that pinpointing her exact location is difficult. However, they feel they have narrowed it down to a good, approximate area. He says Marliz's case is still open and under investigation by the Red Bluff Police Department. They consider it a homicide case.
On August 1, 2021, forty-five years after Marliz's disappearance, Jodi and Investigator Hale met again to discuss the case. Before the meeting, he and the D.A. talked about discussing the case with Jodi. They wondered if it would potentially damage the case in a future court hearing. They decided it would not. They hope that talking about it now will lead to its resolution.
During their meeting, Investigator Hale told Jodi they were searching a specific area for Marliz's body. He reminded her of the number she envisioned: "35.76". She felt it was the distance from Cameron's house to the gravesite. She believed it was in a northeasterly direction.
Investigator Hale says they used mapping software and pinpointed the house and the location where they thought Marliz's body was. Incredibly, the distance that came up was "35.77". He says that a nearby road matched Janice's new description. He also confirmed that Jodi was right about several details that she had seen in her dreams.
For years, Jodi wondered if the information she gave was helpful. Investigator Hale says it reinforced their belief that they are searching in the right area. He hopes that this information will help lead them to Marliz's body.
Since Jodi left Apartment 14, the hauntings have continued. She has been contacted by at least ten people who have had similar experiences in the same apartment or other parts of the complex. Some of the witnesses, mostly children, reported seeing a vision of a woman.
To this day, Jodi has trouble talking about her paranormal experiences because she has post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). She says she has always sensed there was something "bigger" than herself out there. She wants to be known as a caring, empathetic person. She says if she has a "gift" that can help another person, she wants to use it. She believes Marliz's spirit was trying to get in touch with her. She wants Marliz to be found and for her soul to find rest. And if she can help with that, she will.
Detective Shamblin retired from the Red Bluff Police Department in June 2007. He says the only cold case that is still active is Marliz's. Investigator Hale says that any time there is a cold case, they want to try to get closure for the family and justice for the victim. He says there will always be an effort on law enforcement's part to try and close these cases.
Although Cameron was sentenced to 104 years in prison, he has since become eligible for parole. Norton says that in some cases, people who should not be set free are set free, and then they repeat their crimes. According to Investigator Hale, in September 2021, Cameron was released on parole. He was immediately placed in the Alameda County Jail to start mental health evaluations. Investigator Hale believes Cameron will be held in a mental hospital for several years. But, at any time, he could be released. Currently, he is awaiting release, pending a review of his "sexually violent predator" classification.
Martha recently visited Marliz's Chico apartment. She says Marliz was going to start a new life there. She had hoped that Marliz would realize her dream there. Martha says she sometimes saw movie actresses that looked just like Marliz. For a while, she hoped Marliz was alive somewhere. She says Marliz's story never got told. And it was never finished.
Martha says Cameron went to prison for what he did to Colleen. But Marliz is still out there, waiting for justice.
Background: None
Investigations: None
Extra Notes:

  • This case was first released on November 1, 2022, as a part of the third volume of the Netflix reboot. It was released in the third part of a three-week Halloween event.
  • It was also profiled on Paranormal Witness.
  • Jodi wrote the book Forgotten Burial: A Restless Spirit's Plea for Justice about this case.
  • Netflix contacted Jodi to do this story. She was reluctant at first because she did not want to think about that "scary" time in her life. However, she eventually overcame her anxiety and agreed to do it.
  • Cameron did not respond to requests to be interviewed. Janice, now known as Janice Lashley, also refused requests to be interviewed. She is now a social worker.
  • There are similarities between this case and the Harden House.
  • According to some sources, Marliz planned to leave Chico the day after she disappeared. Her mother bought her a plane ticket to fly home, but she never picked it up.
  • Some sources state: Jodi moved into the apartment in 1999; her dreams started the night they moved in; Marliz was eighteen when she vanished; she and John were engaged; she was attending college in Chico; John was attending Butte College; she was a store clerk; she told a friend things were going well with John, and they were getting married; she and John were working a booth at the flea market; she was last seen walking at East 20th and Mulberry Streets; and she was hitchhiking when Cameron and Janice picked her up.

Results: Unsolved
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