Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
Don't have an account?
Register
Advertisement
Register
Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
Unsolved Mysteries Wiki
1,936
pages
in: California, Sweden, 1983,
and 4 more

Marie Lilienberg and Maria Wahlén

Edit
Marie lilienburg and maria wahien

Real Names: Marie Lilienberg and Maria Birgitta Wahlén
Nicknames: No Known Nicknames
Location: Redwood City, California
Date: July 22, 1983

Swedish hitchhiker map

Case[]

Details: On September 26, 1991, a bizarre, anonymous phone call came into the Swedish consulate in San Diego, California. The caller went on to describe a double murder that had taken place a full eight years earlier. This was the first solid lead in the case since 1983. It all began on July 24, 1983, behind a gas station near Interstate 5 in the City of Commerce, a Los Angeles suburb. A station attendant went to dump trash in the station’s dumpster. When he looked inside, he saw a couple of backpacks. Checking further, he found clothing, diaries, rolls of film, passports, and wallets. Many of these items are ones that you would expect tourists to have collected in a several-month tour of the United States.
The items in the dumpster belonged to two Swedish nationals, twenty three year old Marie Lilienberg and twenty five year old Maria Wahlén. They had failed to pick up their luggage or show up for their return flight to Sweden that day. On July 31, their families reported them missing. On August 5, the fathers of both women came to California, hoping to find their daughters by means of widespread media attention. During the next three weeks, more than fifty sightings of Marie and Maria were reported. All were checked out, but none of them could be confirmed. Marie’s father, Ove, was especially concerned because she always stuck to plans and promises and would not have missed her flight.
Then, on August 18, 1983, in Los Padres National Forest, about twenty-five miles east of Santa Maria in Santa Barbara County, a missing person's case became a murder investigation. Two deer hunters were in the forest near Highway 166 and the Pine Canyon ranger station when they noticed a skeletonized arm on the ground. It is believed that a coyote pulled it off and dragged it out into the open. Checking further, they found two nude, badly decomposed bodies; one was in a ditch about forty feet off of the highway, and the other was beneath some brush nearby. Based on jewelry and dental records, police identified them as Marie and Maria. An autopsy showed that they both had been sexually assaulted and stabbed to death. They may have also been strangled.
Sheriff’s detectives learned that Marie and Maria had met in January 1983 at a resort hotel in Vail, Colorado, where they both worked as chambermaids. Marie was from Danderyd and was studying to become a physical education teacher. She had visited the United States twice before. Maria was from Alingsas and worked as a preschool teacher. This was her first time in the United States. When the ski season ended, they decided to travel together throughout the United States. They visited Hawaii and then headed to the West Coast for the summer.
Marie and Maria decided to hitchhike around California before heading back home to Sweden. They thought that it was safe to hitchhike. Marie told Ove that she felt the United States was a "friendly country" and felt at ease there. They had been cautioned by Swedish friends and Americans that it was not safe to hitchhike. However, they felt that they would be able to “size up” people who were giving them rides and sense whether they were in a dangerous situation or not. Maria also carried a small knife with her and felt that she would be able to defend herself in any type of situation where she was threatened.
John Norton, Consular for Sweden at San Diego, noted that young Swedes come to the United States from a culture which is entirely homogenous and middle class. There are only eight million people in Sweden. It is a more open and “trusting” environment compared to the United States. When Swedes come to the United States, they remain as trusting as they were in Sweden. As a result, they sometimes run into trouble, as was the case with Marie and Maria.
When the gas station attendant found the backpacks in the dumpster, he also found a travel diary written by Maria and two rolls of undeveloped film. Working from the photographs, as well as the diary, investigators established the women’s itinerary and contacted several truck drivers who had given them rides. Mark Hanson, a trucker from San Diego, remembered them well. He noted that many truck drivers have daughters, and if they see young women hitchhiking, they try to pick them up and take care of them.
Mark talked with Marie and Maria during their ride and told them that they should not be hitchhiking. He told them that it was not safe, and that the United States was a lot different from Sweden. He mentioned that most women do not hitchhike in the United States anymore. However, they did not seem concerned. They felt safe being together. He drove them from San Diego to Compton, just south of Los Angeles. He arranged another ride for them at a truck stop. The second truck driver dropped them off in Oakland, just across the bay from San Francisco.
Marie and Maria last talked to their families on July 16, 1983. During the call, Marie promised Ove that they would not hitchhike anymore. On the evening of July 21, Maria wrote her last diary entry. At around 7am on July 22, they left a friend's house in Redwood City. They were last seen hitchhiking beside the Bayshore Freeway in the Redwood City area. They only had about $50 on them. They were heading back to Los Angeles so they could pick up their luggage and then catch their flight to New York two days later. Once there, they planned to go to Connecticut to visit friends, then head back to Sweden.
On July 24, the very day Marie and Maria were scheduled to depart for New York, their backpacks and personal effects were found in the City of Commerce. Soon after, their clothing and other items were discovered adjacent to Highway 166 near Twitchell Bridge in Santa Maria. Four weeks later, the hunters discovered their bodies near Santa Barbara.
For eight years, the investigation into the murders of Marie and Maria remained at a standstill. Then, on September 26, 1991, the anonymous phone call came into the Swedish consulate. The caller said that he knew a man named “Loren” eight or nine years ago who he had seen on a regular basis. Loren was from Canada, but he came down every winter in his van to go through San Diego to Mexico.
On one occasion in 1983, Loren had come through the area and mentioned to the caller that he had met two Swedish girls who had tried to con him. The caller said that Loren was well known for hating women. The caller also described Loren’s van; it was a white van with a green canoe on top. It was very recognizable, and a number of people knew he drove this distinct van. The caller described Loren as over 6’0”, slight build, 175 pounds, thinning red hair, long pointed noise, protruding watery eyes.
Norton does not believe that the call was a hoax. He believes that the caller is afraid to come forward. He hopes that the caller contacts them again to give them more information, even anonymously. He believes that it could be very helpful. Sgt. Bruce Correll of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff Department said that it is very frustrating that they have been unable to find the killer. He also fears that the killer may be responsible for other murders across the country. He thinks that the “moral” of this story is simple: it is very dangerous to hitchhike, and, in the case of women hitchhiking, they could very easily end up like Marie and Maria.
The anonymous caller said that Loren usually wore second-hand clothes and a golfer’s hat. His white van, most likely a Chevrolet, had a rough, non-professional paint job. The caller believed that Loren’s primary source of income was a pension from Canada, perhaps because of a mental disability.
Suspects: The man known as "Loren" is considered a potential suspect in Marie and Maria's murders. In 1991, eight years after the murders, an anonymous caller contacted the Swedish consulate in San Diego, claiming that Loren was responsible. He claimed that he knew Loren and saw him on a regular basis around the time of the murders. Loren was from Canada (possibly Vancouver), but every winter, he came through San Diego on his way to Mexico. On one occasion in 1983, he came through the area and told the caller that he had met two Swedish girls who had tried to "con" him.
The caller described Loren as over 6’0”, with a slight build, weighing 175 pounds, with thinning red hair, a long-pointed noise, and protruding, watery eyes. He said that Loren was well known for "hating women". He also said that Loren usually wore second-hand clothes and a golfer’s hat. He believed that Loren’s primary source of income was a pension from Canada, perhaps because of a mental disability.
The caller described Loren's van as white with a green canoe on top. The van was most likely a Chevrolet and had a rough, non-professional paint job. According to the caller, the van was very recognizable, and several people knew he drove this distinctive van.
Authorities would also like to speak to the anonymous caller again to see if he as any more information on Loren or the murders.
Sgt. Correll theorizes that a serial killer may be responsible for the murders.
Fingerprints were found on some of their belongings, but they have not been matched to anyone.
Extra Notes:

  • This case first aired on the April 8, 1992 episode.
  • For reasons unknown, the FilmRise release of this episode does not mention "Loren" by name.
  • It was also featured on "The Trail Went Cold" podcast.
  • Some sources spell Maria's last name as "Whalen" and "Walhen" and Marie's last name as "Littenberg" or "Lilienburg". Some sources refer to the suspect as "Leon".

Results: Unsolved. After this story aired, the show received a tip that led Santa Barbara sheriff’s investigators to the identification of Loren. Authorities were also able to identify the anonymous caller to the Swedish consulate, who provided additional information about the suspect. Police searched Loren’s apartment and found evidence which they believed might further implicate him in the crime. The sheriffs continued to investigate Loren but apparently did not find enough evidence to charge him in the deaths. It is not known if he is still a suspect. As of a 1999 article, the case remained unsolved.
There is speculation that "Loren" may have been serial killer Loren Herzog. He and Wesley Shermantine were dubbed the "Speed Freak Killers." They were suspected of murdering up to fifteen people. Herzog died of suicide on January 16, 2012, and Shermantine is currently on death row.
Links:

Community content is available under CC-BY-SA unless otherwise noted.
Advertisement

Fan Feed

More Unsolved Mysteries Wiki