California police now know the real name of "Jane Doe No. 59" but who her killer was remains a mystery. Was it a member of the Manson Family? Charles Manson gave investigators no answers when they talked to him about the 46-year-old cold case last year. The victim's name was Reet Jurvetson, a Canadian who was 19 when she went to Los Angeles a short time before she was stabbed to death. Jurvetson's sister, Anne, wrote on a memorial page that she was "a lovely, free-spirited and happy girl." Jurvetson also was naive and trusting of others, Anne Jurvetson wrote, and the teenager loved adventures.
Canadian Reet Jurvetson was stabbed to death in 1969, but wasn't identified until last year.
One day she sent a postcard from Los Angeles to her parents in Montreal. Reet Jurvetson said she was happy and had an apartment. On November 16, 1969, her body was discovered in brush just off Mulholland Drive. She had been stabbed a reported 150 times in the neck and upper body. Investigators thought there might be ties to the Manson family murders that year. Like actress Sharon Tate and other victims of the killings in August, Jurvetson's death was savage. Her body wast a few miles from where supermarket executive Leno LaBianca and his wife, Rosemary, were murdered in their home.
Manson Family murders; From left, Susan Atkins, Patricia Krenwinkel and Leslie Van Houten.
In October 2015, two Los Angeles police detectives went to Corcoran State Prison to interview Manson. Det. Veronica Conrado said Wednesday that investigators wanted to see whether he had any information about Jurvetson's death. "Their encounter with Manson did not produce anything fruitful," police said. Conrado said there are no plans to interview Manson again. Manson, who is serving life for his role in the murders, was arrested in October 1969, before Jurvetson was killed. He and others went on trial for the killings almost a year later.
Making a connection
