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Terry Childs
A Serial Killer
Terry Childs was a California serial killer who was convicted of five murders committed between 1979 and 1985. His crimes occurred in California and Nevada, including several locations in and around Santa Cruz County. Childs later claimed responsibility for additional killings, although many of those claims were never substantiated. Childs was eventually sentenced to multiple life terms in prison. He died in custody in February 2023.
Family Background
Terry Childs was born September 22, 1955. In Santa Clara County, California. He grew up in Aptos in a large family with six siblings. He was the third born, with two older brothers and four younger siblings, including two sisters. Terry was a resident of Aptos and graduated from Aptos High School in 1974.
His father was Gary Childs, nicknamed Tiny, born Albert Preusser Jr. He worked as a bail bondsman in Santa Cruz, a profession that brought the family into regular contact with people involved in the criminal justice system.
His mother is much less documented in public forums. However, she does become relevant in the later investigation into Linda Ann Jozovich’s murder. When Childs eventually confessed to killing Jozovich in 2007, he told investigators that on the night she disappeared in 1979, he had been arguing with his mother before leaving the family home. He subsequently encountered Jozovich and abducted her.
Confirmed Victims
Rulan McGill, 32McGill was murdered in Sparks, Nevada, in 1979. Her death was later connected to Childs through his confession and subsequent prosecution.
Linda Ann Jozovich, 19Jozovich disappeared from Santa Clara County in November 1979. Her remains were eventually discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Lexington Reservoir. Years later, Childs confessed to her murder and was convicted.
Joan Leslie Mack, 28Mack was murdered in 1984. Her body was found at Beer Can Beach near Aptos. The case remained unsolved for decades until Childs confessed to the killing. He later pleaded guilty.
Christopher HallHall was found shot to death in San Lorenzo Park in Santa Cruz in 1985. Childs later admitted killing Hall, reportedly in connection with a drug-related dispute.
Lois “Jeanine” Sigala, 17Sigala was a teenage runaway who was living in the Santa Cruz County area when she disappeared in 1985. Her body was discovered in the Scotts Valley area. Childs was convicted of her murder in 1987. Her case was the first murder for which Childs was successfully prosecuted.
Other Claims
Childs was convicted of the killing of five people. However, he also claimed that he had killed additional people, at one point claiming as many as twelve victims in total. Investigators examined several of these claims, but they could not be confirmed. Because of this, the exact number of people Childs actually killed remains uncertain.
One of those claims involved alleged victim Penny Rickenbaker, a woman who was engaged to Childs’s father and died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in their Aptos home in 1974. Childs later claimed to officers that he was responsible for her death, but authorities never established that allegation as fact. Childs would have been 18 years old at the time of Rickenbaker’s death.
Childs also informed Porter that this was, in fact, true, and that he was directly responsible for Rickenbaker’s death.
The Investigative Research
Paranormal investigative researcher, Maryanne Porter became intrigued with the Terry Childs case after reviewing a 2007 news article announcing that Jozovich’s ghost had reportedly been appearing in his prison cell, staring at him and causing him psychological and physical distress. Childs reportedly stated that confessing was a way to free himself from that torment.
It was a strange detail, especially considering that Childs had already spent years in prison for murder.
Porter wanted to know more.
The Murder of Linda Ann Jozovich
Linda Ann Jozovich was only 19 years old when she disappeared in November 1979. She was working at Mervyn’s department store in Santa Clara and stepped outside during a break to her car. She never returned.
Years later, Terry Childs confessed that he had encountered Linda that night, forced her into her car, and driven her into the Santa Cruz Mountains near Lexington Reservoir. According to his confession, he beat, strangled, and stabbed her before leaving her body in the mountains.
For more than fifteen years, Linda remained missing, then in January 1995, a person searching for mushrooms in the hills near Lexington Reservoir discovered human bones. The remains were eventually identified as Linda’s. Not all of her remains were recovered.
Her murder remained unsolved for years until 2007, when Childs confessed while already serving time for other murders. His confession finally gave Linda’s family answers about what had happened to her. There was one disturbing detail that came later.
Childs claimed that Linda’s spirit haunted him while he was in prison. Whether that was guilt, a psychological disturbance, or simply another part of his story is impossible to know. What is known is that Linda’s remains were left hidden in the Santa Cruz Mountains for more than a decade before she was finally identified.
A Curious Coincidence?
Porter’s curiosity about a serial killer being haunted by his victims led her to wonder whether other serial killers had experienced something similar. A glimmer of guilt, perhaps. However, if Childs confession was merely an attempt to absolve himself from the torturous haunting of one victim... then why only this particular victim?
Perhaps she was, in fact, haunting him.
The Rearview Mirror
Porter decided to pursue the story a little further. Eventually, some of her inquiries began to pay off. Childs occasionally frequented Rio Del Mar in the Aptos area, sometimes visiting the Sea Breeze Pub. A local, who requested to remain nameless, remembered Childs as an acquaintance. In fact, he recalled purchasing a vehicle from him one evening for an extremely cheap price, in exchange for illegal substances that he refused to name. As memory served him, he believed the vehicle was a dark green Buick Skylark.
But what stood out most in this man’s memory was what happened when he drove it. On more than one occasion, after dark, he would look into the rearview mirror and swear he saw a young woman sitting in the back seat.
“It happened more than once,” he claimed.
One evening, he stated, while traveling toward the Hollister area on a back road, he saw her again. The sight gave him such a fright that he inadvertently lost control of the vehicle, went up an embankment, and rolled the car onto its roof.
Needless to say, he stated that he wasn’t seriously injured, although he recalled having a minor cut on his forehead. His only means of escape was to kick out the windshield and climb through it in order to escape the crushed car. After that, he claimed he simply walked away from the vehicle, down the dark, lonely road, and never looked back. Still to this day, he claimed he hated the memory of that car.
He never saw her again after that day.
2018 — An Unrelated Turn of Events
In, 2018, Porter and former Federal Officer Tim Loe, with Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters, participated in a one=week paranormal documentary at the Brookdale Lodge with Don Phillips of American Supernatural from the United Kingdom. The lodge was located 15 miles from Lexington Reservoir, where the remains of Linda Ann Jozovich had been found in 1995.
By then, Porter had already been communicating with Childs for years. But this investigation had nothing to do with him. The team was there solely to investigate the reported paranormal activity at the lodge.
Until one strange occurrence changed the direction of the night.
Don Phillips, a gifted medium with many layers, was attempting to communicate with the spirits and using a digital recorder for clarification. Suddenly, he became overwhelmed with emotion. Tears streamed down his face. We thought something was wrong with him.
Then Phillips began describing a murdered young woman. He motioned at his face as if he was being repeatedly struck with a fist, then began reenacting a stabbing motion, as though acting out the violence she had endured. He spoke of an older, brightly colored car—possibly red—and referenced a body of water.
When he finally composed himself, he asked, “Sweetheart, what is your name?”
Upon playback, three syllables were heard with the final one clearly identifiable:
Jozovich.
The event was witnessed by three people, in addition to Porter. To the U.K. team, the name meant nothing. Neither was it recognizable to Tim Loe.
But Porter knew exactly who it was.
For years, Porter had been researching Linda Ann Jozovich and corresponding with her killer, Terry Childs, who had confessed to her murder in 2007 and claimed that Jozovich was haunting him. However, no one within her company that night was aware of this, except Porter.
Now, during a completely unrelated investigation, the name Jozovich had seemingly come through the recorder.
The color drained from Porter’s face, as she explained the heart wrenching story of who Linda Ann Jozavich was and what happened to her.
How it started - The Letters
Years prior to 2018, Porter decided to take a chance and write Terry Childs at the Soledad Correctional Facility in Salinas.
At first, Childs did not seem receptive to her letters. But eventually, Porter won him over. She explained that she was not a threat. Her interest in his haunting was genuine, but there was another reason for her curiosity as well—one involving a decedent she was not yet prepared to discuss.
The two began corresponding frequently and spoke on the phone a couple of times.
Childs was pretty forthcoming. In fact, he did mention the suicide of his then-future stepmother and his father Gary Childs’s fiancée, Penny Rickenbaker, who died on June 11, 1974, at the age of 30. Childs claimed that he was actually responsible for her death and that it had not been a suicide. The police, however, believed otherwise. At the time of her death, Childs would have been approximately 18 years old.
When Porter asked what drove him to kill people and why, Childs told her that he had been sexually abused and carried a great deal of hate and anger inside of him. He would not name his abuser. He said it had happened when he was young and involved more than one person. But his rage at the time seemed to be focused on a male babysitter. Porter inquired about what happened to the babysitter, Childs claimed;
“I killed him.”
Porter asked how old he was when he killed him and what the circumstances were. Childs claimed;
“I was 13. I beat him to death, and I used an axe to cut up his body. I put the pieces in a black plastic trash bags and dumped the bags in Pinto Lake.”
Taken aback by the admission, Porter asked again, “You were 13—you must have had help to do something like that?”
Childs replied;
“I was strong.”
He would not say whether anyone had helped him.
Porter looked into the possibility of unidentified skeletal remains having been recovered from Pinto Lake, but to date, nothing has been revealed that could be connected to this description. Childs also never provided the name of the alleged babysitter.
If true, this would have been his first known killing, years before the murders for which he was eventually convicted. But there was no way for Porter to establish the claim.
Porter then spoke with retired Sheriff’s Officer Paul Tashiro to see if any of Childs’ story rang true. Although Officer Tashiro was familiar with Terry Childs from his time as a young officer, he could not confirm any of Childs’ claims. When Porter broached the possibility of searching the lake, Officer Tashiro told her that such an effort was unlikely to be successful. Pinto Lake is large, and the bottom is filled with heavy mud and silt. An underwater recovery under those conditions, he believed, would be extremely difficult, if not futile.
Porter also followed up with Childs after the 2018 investigation in Brookdale; she inquired if he was familiar with the Brookdale Lodge.
He stated:
'yes, very.'
When Porter asked if he ever brought Jozovich to the Lodge. Childs grew quiet - he did not respond.
The Haunting
Porter and Childs spoke about the hauntings he experienced involving whom he claimed to be as, Linda Ann Jozovich.
According to Porter, Childs confirmed that it was true—he claimed Linda had been haunting him for years. Childs divulged that a priest came to his cell and blessed it. Sage and holy water were used in an attempt to clear the cell and himself. Childs informed Porter that another inmate also claimed to have seen Jozovich in his cell. He further claimed he had become a follower of Christ.
Childs seemed desperate to be rid of her. Yet, at the same time, he reportedly acknowledged that he deserved it for what he had done. Childs further told Porter about other things he had been experiencing while incarcerated, many of which Porter describes as very disturbing.
End of Life
During their encounter, Childs claimed he was going to be transferred to another facility in Southern California and the two lost contact - for a time. Porter later learned that he had returned to Soledad State Prison and once again, they occasionally corresponded.
Then, on February 11, 2023, Porter received a call from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She was told that Childs was on his deathbed with Stage 4 cancer. It was the first she learned of his illness. Childs was riddled with an unknown origin of metastatic lung, liver and bone cancer. Porter was apparently on his visitors list, and she was asked if she wanted to come see him before he passed.
Childs died before Porter could consider it.
No family came to collect his remains.
Terry Child's, A Serial Killer, was cremated and his remains scattered at sea.
A Serial Killer
Terry Childs was a California serial killer who was convicted of five murders committed between 1979 and 1985. His crimes occurred in California and Nevada, including several locations in and around Santa Cruz County. Childs later claimed responsibility for additional killings, although many of those claims were never substantiated. Childs was eventually sentenced to multiple life terms in prison. He died in custody in February 2023.
Family Background
Terry Childs was born September 22, 1955. In Santa Clara County, California. He grew up in Aptos in a large family with six siblings. He was the third born, with two older brothers and four younger siblings, including two sisters. Terry was a resident of Aptos and graduated from Aptos High School in 1974.
His father was Gary Childs, nicknamed Tiny, born Albert Preusser Jr. He worked as a bail bondsman in Santa Cruz, a profession that brought the family into regular contact with people involved in the criminal justice system.
His mother is much less documented in public forums. However, she does become relevant in the later investigation into Linda Ann Jozovich’s murder. When Childs eventually confessed to killing Jozovich in 2007, he told investigators that on the night she disappeared in 1979, he had been arguing with his mother before leaving the family home. He subsequently encountered Jozovich and abducted her.
Confirmed Victims
Rulan McGill, 32McGill was murdered in Sparks, Nevada, in 1979. Her death was later connected to Childs through his confession and subsequent prosecution.
Linda Ann Jozovich, 19Jozovich disappeared from Santa Clara County in November 1979. Her remains were eventually discovered in the Santa Cruz Mountains near Lexington Reservoir. Years later, Childs confessed to her murder and was convicted.
Joan Leslie Mack, 28Mack was murdered in 1984. Her body was found at Beer Can Beach near Aptos. The case remained unsolved for decades until Childs confessed to the killing. He later pleaded guilty.
Christopher HallHall was found shot to death in San Lorenzo Park in Santa Cruz in 1985. Childs later admitted killing Hall, reportedly in connection with a drug-related dispute.
Lois “Jeanine” Sigala, 17Sigala was a teenage runaway who was living in the Santa Cruz County area when she disappeared in 1985. Her body was discovered in the Scotts Valley area. Childs was convicted of her murder in 1987. Her case was the first murder for which Childs was successfully prosecuted.
Other Claims
Childs was convicted of the killing of five people. However, he also claimed that he had killed additional people, at one point claiming as many as twelve victims in total. Investigators examined several of these claims, but they could not be confirmed. Because of this, the exact number of people Childs actually killed remains uncertain.
One of those claims involved alleged victim Penny Rickenbaker, a woman who was engaged to Childs’s father and died from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in their Aptos home in 1974. Childs later claimed to officers that he was responsible for her death, but authorities never established that allegation as fact. Childs would have been 18 years old at the time of Rickenbaker’s death.
Childs also informed Porter that this was, in fact, true, and that he was directly responsible for Rickenbaker’s death.
The Investigative Research
Paranormal investigative researcher, Maryanne Porter became intrigued with the Terry Childs case after reviewing a 2007 news article announcing that Jozovich’s ghost had reportedly been appearing in his prison cell, staring at him and causing him psychological and physical distress. Childs reportedly stated that confessing was a way to free himself from that torment.
It was a strange detail, especially considering that Childs had already spent years in prison for murder.
Porter wanted to know more.
The Murder of Linda Ann Jozovich
Linda Ann Jozovich was only 19 years old when she disappeared in November 1979. She was working at Mervyn’s department store in Santa Clara and stepped outside during a break to her car. She never returned.
Years later, Terry Childs confessed that he had encountered Linda that night, forced her into her car, and driven her into the Santa Cruz Mountains near Lexington Reservoir. According to his confession, he beat, strangled, and stabbed her before leaving her body in the mountains.
For more than fifteen years, Linda remained missing, then in January 1995, a person searching for mushrooms in the hills near Lexington Reservoir discovered human bones. The remains were eventually identified as Linda’s. Not all of her remains were recovered.
Her murder remained unsolved for years until 2007, when Childs confessed while already serving time for other murders. His confession finally gave Linda’s family answers about what had happened to her. There was one disturbing detail that came later.
Childs claimed that Linda’s spirit haunted him while he was in prison. Whether that was guilt, a psychological disturbance, or simply another part of his story is impossible to know. What is known is that Linda’s remains were left hidden in the Santa Cruz Mountains for more than a decade before she was finally identified.
A Curious Coincidence?
Porter’s curiosity about a serial killer being haunted by his victims led her to wonder whether other serial killers had experienced something similar. A glimmer of guilt, perhaps. However, if Childs confession was merely an attempt to absolve himself from the torturous haunting of one victim... then why only this particular victim?
Perhaps she was, in fact, haunting him.
The Rearview Mirror
Porter decided to pursue the story a little further. Eventually, some of her inquiries began to pay off. Childs occasionally frequented Rio Del Mar in the Aptos area, sometimes visiting the Sea Breeze Pub. A local, who requested to remain nameless, remembered Childs as an acquaintance. In fact, he recalled purchasing a vehicle from him one evening for an extremely cheap price, in exchange for illegal substances that he refused to name. As memory served him, he believed the vehicle was a dark green Buick Skylark.
But what stood out most in this man’s memory was what happened when he drove it. On more than one occasion, after dark, he would look into the rearview mirror and swear he saw a young woman sitting in the back seat.
“It happened more than once,” he claimed.
One evening, he stated, while traveling toward the Hollister area on a back road, he saw her again. The sight gave him such a fright that he inadvertently lost control of the vehicle, went up an embankment, and rolled the car onto its roof.
Needless to say, he stated that he wasn’t seriously injured, although he recalled having a minor cut on his forehead. His only means of escape was to kick out the windshield and climb through it in order to escape the crushed car. After that, he claimed he simply walked away from the vehicle, down the dark, lonely road, and never looked back. Still to this day, he claimed he hated the memory of that car.
He never saw her again after that day.
2018 — An Unrelated Turn of Events
In, 2018, Porter and former Federal Officer Tim Loe, with Santa Cruz Ghost Hunters, participated in a one=week paranormal documentary at the Brookdale Lodge with Don Phillips of American Supernatural from the United Kingdom. The lodge was located 15 miles from Lexington Reservoir, where the remains of Linda Ann Jozovich had been found in 1995.
By then, Porter had already been communicating with Childs for years. But this investigation had nothing to do with him. The team was there solely to investigate the reported paranormal activity at the lodge.
Until one strange occurrence changed the direction of the night.
Don Phillips, a gifted medium with many layers, was attempting to communicate with the spirits and using a digital recorder for clarification. Suddenly, he became overwhelmed with emotion. Tears streamed down his face. We thought something was wrong with him.
Then Phillips began describing a murdered young woman. He motioned at his face as if he was being repeatedly struck with a fist, then began reenacting a stabbing motion, as though acting out the violence she had endured. He spoke of an older, brightly colored car—possibly red—and referenced a body of water.
When he finally composed himself, he asked, “Sweetheart, what is your name?”
Upon playback, three syllables were heard with the final one clearly identifiable:
Jozovich.
The event was witnessed by three people, in addition to Porter. To the U.K. team, the name meant nothing. Neither was it recognizable to Tim Loe.
But Porter knew exactly who it was.
For years, Porter had been researching Linda Ann Jozovich and corresponding with her killer, Terry Childs, who had confessed to her murder in 2007 and claimed that Jozovich was haunting him. However, no one within her company that night was aware of this, except Porter.
Now, during a completely unrelated investigation, the name Jozovich had seemingly come through the recorder.
The color drained from Porter’s face, as she explained the heart wrenching story of who Linda Ann Jozavich was and what happened to her.
How it started - The Letters
Years prior to 2018, Porter decided to take a chance and write Terry Childs at the Soledad Correctional Facility in Salinas.
At first, Childs did not seem receptive to her letters. But eventually, Porter won him over. She explained that she was not a threat. Her interest in his haunting was genuine, but there was another reason for her curiosity as well—one involving a decedent she was not yet prepared to discuss.
The two began corresponding frequently and spoke on the phone a couple of times.
Childs was pretty forthcoming. In fact, he did mention the suicide of his then-future stepmother and his father Gary Childs’s fiancée, Penny Rickenbaker, who died on June 11, 1974, at the age of 30. Childs claimed that he was actually responsible for her death and that it had not been a suicide. The police, however, believed otherwise. At the time of her death, Childs would have been approximately 18 years old.
When Porter asked what drove him to kill people and why, Childs told her that he had been sexually abused and carried a great deal of hate and anger inside of him. He would not name his abuser. He said it had happened when he was young and involved more than one person. But his rage at the time seemed to be focused on a male babysitter. Porter inquired about what happened to the babysitter, Childs claimed;
“I killed him.”
Porter asked how old he was when he killed him and what the circumstances were. Childs claimed;
“I was 13. I beat him to death, and I used an axe to cut up his body. I put the pieces in a black plastic trash bags and dumped the bags in Pinto Lake.”
Taken aback by the admission, Porter asked again, “You were 13—you must have had help to do something like that?”
Childs replied;
“I was strong.”
He would not say whether anyone had helped him.
Porter looked into the possibility of unidentified skeletal remains having been recovered from Pinto Lake, but to date, nothing has been revealed that could be connected to this description. Childs also never provided the name of the alleged babysitter.
If true, this would have been his first known killing, years before the murders for which he was eventually convicted. But there was no way for Porter to establish the claim.
Porter then spoke with retired Sheriff’s Officer Paul Tashiro to see if any of Childs’ story rang true. Although Officer Tashiro was familiar with Terry Childs from his time as a young officer, he could not confirm any of Childs’ claims. When Porter broached the possibility of searching the lake, Officer Tashiro told her that such an effort was unlikely to be successful. Pinto Lake is large, and the bottom is filled with heavy mud and silt. An underwater recovery under those conditions, he believed, would be extremely difficult, if not futile.
Porter also followed up with Childs after the 2018 investigation in Brookdale; she inquired if he was familiar with the Brookdale Lodge.
He stated:
'yes, very.'
When Porter asked if he ever brought Jozovich to the Lodge. Childs grew quiet - he did not respond.
The Haunting
Porter and Childs spoke about the hauntings he experienced involving whom he claimed to be as, Linda Ann Jozovich.
According to Porter, Childs confirmed that it was true—he claimed Linda had been haunting him for years. Childs divulged that a priest came to his cell and blessed it. Sage and holy water were used in an attempt to clear the cell and himself. Childs informed Porter that another inmate also claimed to have seen Jozovich in his cell. He further claimed he had become a follower of Christ.
Childs seemed desperate to be rid of her. Yet, at the same time, he reportedly acknowledged that he deserved it for what he had done. Childs further told Porter about other things he had been experiencing while incarcerated, many of which Porter describes as very disturbing.
End of Life
During their encounter, Childs claimed he was going to be transferred to another facility in Southern California and the two lost contact - for a time. Porter later learned that he had returned to Soledad State Prison and once again, they occasionally corresponded.
Then, on February 11, 2023, Porter received a call from the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation. She was told that Childs was on his deathbed with Stage 4 cancer. It was the first she learned of his illness. Childs was riddled with an unknown origin of metastatic lung, liver and bone cancer. Porter was apparently on his visitors list, and she was asked if she wanted to come see him before he passed.
Childs died before Porter could consider it.
No family came to collect his remains.
Terry Child's, A Serial Killer, was cremated and his remains scattered at sea.
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