Posted on 04/05/2025 2:25:47 PM PDT by nickcarraway
CHP investigators have confirmed that the two men found in the back of a pickup truck in the Santa Cruz Mountains last week were murder victims.
Both victims are from Boulder Creek, and the family has confirmed the identity of both men.
Family members identified 54-year-old Colter White as one of the victims.
White was found with his friend who has been identified as 45-year-old Sean Pfeffer, according to his sister, who spoke with Action News 8 by phone from Texas.
"It's awful just knowing that he was in the back of an abandoned truck, and that's not where obviously the murder was. So somebody had to put him in the back of the truck, you know, was he alive? I don't know. I don't know. It's just terrible," Nicki Dorris, Pfeffer's sister, said.
The bodies were originally ruled suspicious, but CHP investigators have now classified the case as a homicide. The pickup truck was towed away on Tuesday afternoon.
"That's pretty crazy. I don't know the guys personally or anything, but it's definitely pretty shocking," said Zach McKay, a Boulder Creek resident.
The Santa Clara Medical Examiner disclosed the cause of death for both men on Monday. They also confirmed the names of the victims.
White died of gunshot wounds to the torso and left upper and lower extremities. Pfeffer died of a gunshot wound to the left chest.
"Well, especially the way it happened, found in the back of a truck that very odd up here," he said. "I might have seen something similar 30 years ago. Very odd," Doug Spilman, a Boulder Creek resident, said.
A key piece of evidence may be a social media post Pfeffer made just two days before his body and that of his friend were found off Highway 35, several miles from Castle Rock State Park.
In that post, Pfeffer might have predicted his fate and identified a possible suspect. The name has been blurred out as investigators have not publicly named a suspect.
Pfeffer's family is hoping for answers.
"Nobody deserves this. If Boulder Creek is a close-knit little community, somebody knows something; this needs to be solved so we can have some closure," Dorris said.
” If they were shot, that wasn’t natural causes.”
Bullets constitute natural causes in Detroit, DC and few other cities. In general, the cops release almost no information on an active case if they can get away with it. This is for a variety of investigative reasons. They go talk to a suspect and if the suspect says something that has not been released in the press, then, BINGO. And, yes, suspects are often dumb as fence posts.
Quite frequently, murder victims have been threatened and have a good idea they are in danger. If I recall, the vast majority of murder victims actually know their killer.
Screwed with the wrong drug dealers.........Happens all the time.
After a couple days in the back of a truck, I can understand why it was difficult to determine the cause.
It would take a couple days to cool off the bodies and clean out the larva.
> Screwed with the wrong drug dealers......... <
Or maybe just in the wrong place at the wrong time.
A friend of mine likes hiking alone in the woods. Well, one summer’s day he’s following a trail and he turns a corner. And standing there is some rough-looking guy holding a shotgun.
Shotgun guy: “You don’t want to go this way, do you?”
My friend: “No, sir.”
My friend turned and walked rapidly away. What was shotgun guy protecting? A moonshine still? A marijuana patch? Something worse?
Although probably a cartel hit, you can’t assume that.
Your friend said the right thing. I count him as lucky. He already ‘knew’ things, location and description of that guy.
Could’ve ended differently.
Your point is taken, but probably not that. There in the mountains behind Santa Cruz on the coast, temperatures are mild year round and the forecast high for tomorrow is 73 with lows in the 40s. More likely, bear in mind that is hard core real heavy redwood forest with all of our little woodland friends present. More likely the fauna snacked on them, than decomposition
Bodies tend to bloat quickly in warm weather and disguise gunshot wounds on scene.
> Your friend said the right thing. I count him as lucky. <
Yes, indeed. I never mentioned it to my friend, but I sometimes wonder why shotgun guy let him go.
This happened deep in the woods of western Pennsylvania. Lots of places there to hide a body.
Call it covid and case closed!
I would have reported that to law enforcement.
“”The bodies were originally ruled suspicious,””
Really? I would hope anyone would recognize a body - nothing suspicious about them...A body is a body...Yeah - I know what that meant but apparently the writer didn’t know how to write!! Nothing new in today’s journalism!!!
You are probably closer to the real issues.
But when I wrote cool off, I was thinking lower the temp to stop additional deterioration and cut back on the natural scent of the decomposition.
Not that they were especially warm due to California’s lovely weather.
A friend of mine likes hiking alone in the woods. Well, one summer’s day he’s following a trail and he turns a corner. And standing there is some rough-looking guy holding a shotgun.
________________
Same thing happened to me today, except it was a bear. /s
Was the bear bearing arms?
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