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Woman Shermantine Claims Dumped In Stockton Unknown To Police

STOCKTON (CBS13) - In his second letter to CBS13, convicted killer Wesley Shermantine mentions a black woman killed in Stockton.

But the details he's providing highlight just how difficult identifying the victims will be. He claims in the letter the victims number in the 70s and the murders were committed by Loren Herzog and a third man never caught. Herzog and Shermantine were convicted of four murders in 2001. Charges against Herzog were later reduced but he killed himself in January while out on parole.

Concerns have always lingered for Stockton investigators that victims could be from their city.

In the letter, Shermantine writes: "In that well they will find a pregnant black woman that was dumped for or by gang members out of Stockton."

But Stockton police don't know the woman Shermantine was writing about.

Even knowing a city and a description doesn't make it easy to determine who fell victim to Shermantine and Herzog, the "Speed Freak Killers."

Some victims may have been dumped in wells more 25 years ago.

For police departments such as Stockton's, it's not as easy as just pulling up a computerized list of all the people who went missing in the 1980 and '90s when Herzog and Shermantine went on their drug-induced killing spree.

"A lot of files … are on microfiche, some were in existence before computer ages and paperless like they are now," Stockton Police Officer Pete Smith said.

The department is considering hiring a retired investigator for the specific task of searching through thousands of files to see which unsolved cases fit the profile preferred by the killers.

"What kind of victims they targeted, age, race, gender," Smith said. "You're going to have to dig your feet in and it will be a lot of work."

Smith says the files may not be easy to access but they are all in the department's archives.

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