On the morning of April 12, 1981, the quiet mountain community of Keddie, California, a rustic, wooded resort town tucked deep in the Sierras, awoke to a scene that would haunt Plumas County for decades. Inside Cabin 28, three people were brutally murdered and a young girl was missing. The crime was savage enough to shake seasoned investigators, yet the deeper mystery came later: conflicting suspects, evidence that vanished, leads ignored or dismissed, and decades of unresolved questions that left families and locals convinced that what happened in Keddie was far more than a simple homicide. It was a case malformed by fear, silence, and what some believe was deliberate mishandling.
The victims were Glenna “Sue” Sharp, a 36-year-old mother raising five children on her own; her 15-year-old son, John; and John’s 17-year-old friend, Dana Wingate. They were found bound with medical tape and electrical cords, beaten with hammers, and stabbed repeatedly. The brutality struck investigators immediately. Blood spattered the walls and ceiling. Furniture was overturned. A steak knife lay bent at a sharp angle, an image so striking it became emblematic of the crime. Yet three younger children sleeping in a back bedroom were left unharmed. Twelve-year-old Tina Sharp was missing.
From the start, the investigation devolved into contradictions. The Plumas County Sheriff’s Office conducted initial interviews, collected physical evidence, and canvassed the area, but witnesses later said statements were lost or never filed. Potential suspects slipped through cracks. Leads went cold. Cabin 28 was not secured properly, and people entered before all evidence was documented. The sense of disarray seeped into every later review of the case.
Two suspects quickly emerged: Martin Smartt, a neighbor known for his temper, and his close friend “Bo” Boubede, a man with a shadowy background and rumored connections to organized crime. Smartt gave a statement to authorities claiming he was home that night, later adding that he had been angry with Sue Sharp. In a subsequent letter to his wife, he wrote: “I’ve paid the price of your love and I’ve bought it with four people’s lives.” His wife later testified she gave this letter to law enforcement, but according to her, investigators dismissed it as irrelevant. Some officers have disputed that recollection; others privately admitted the handling of evidence was inconsistent.
Boubede raised his own questions. A drifter with a long, complicated history, he had been staying with Smartt at the time of the murders. Some witnesses claimed he openly bragged about involvement. Others said he fled town quickly afterward. Neither man was ever charged. Both died before the case could be reexamined with modern forensic tools.
The disappearance of 12-year-old Tina Sharp compounded the horror. For three years, her whereabouts remained unknown until a fragment of her skull was discovered in 1984 near Feather Falls—roughly 50 miles away. How her remains traveled so far from Keddie remains unexplained. The discovery reignited concerns that a second crime scene, accomplices, or postmortem transport were involved.
Decades later, a cold-case review revealed additional lapses. A recording of a man calling the sheriff’s office in 1984, identifying the remains believed to be Tina’s, was never documented as evidence. Hammer-like objects matching the murder weapons surfaced near the scene but sat untested for years. A counselor reported that Smartt privately confessed to killing Sue because she was “interfering” with his marriage, a key statement that wasn’t properly followed up at the time. The accumulation of these discrepancies fueled speculation that the investigation was derailed, whether through incompetence, oversight, or something more deliberate.
New forensic efforts in the 2010s identified DNA on tape used to bind the victims, DNA connected to known suspects. Additional interviews unearthed statements from people who claimed Smartt had admitted his involvement to them. Some investigators now believe multiple attackers were present and that both Smartt and Boubede played roles. Others remain convinced that additional individuals were involved, possibly people close to law enforcement.
Yet even with new evidence, the case has resisted resolution. Cabin 28 itself was demolished in 2004, leaving only a bare patch of ground where one of California’s darkest unsolved crimes occurred. To this day, families of the victims continue to push for renewed investigation, seeking transparency about the evidence mishandled, leads ignored, and voices that went unheard.
The Keddie Cabin murders endure not only because of their brutality, but because they sit at a crossroads between fact and institutional shadow. The deeper one looks into the case, the more it reflects a fractured investigation, fractured community, and fractured trust. Nearly half a century later, the killings of Sue, John, Dana, and Tina remain a wound carried by those who remember the little town of Keddie before the night Cabin 28 became a legend.
Editor’s Note: This article synthesizes verified investigative records, cold-case reports, coroner’s findings, and witness statements. Certain narrative elements are reconstructed from documented testimony to provide clarity, while all factual components reflect established evidence in the historical record.
Sources & Further Reading:
– Plumas County Sheriff’s Office case summaries and cold-case documents
– California Department of Justice forensic reports (selected releases)
– Testimony from the 1981 and 1984 investigative interviews
– “Keddie 28 Homicide Investigation” archival materials
– Interviews with surviving Sharp family members and investigators
(One of many stories shared by Headcount Coffee — where mystery, history, and late-night reading meet.)
