They disappeared suddenly and for almost 20 years no one knew what had happened to them.

A young couple, a routine trip to Yoseite, the usual plans for the weekend.

But what was found in 2013 at the bottom of the Merced River showed that this was not a disappearance, but a carefully concealed crime.

In the summer of 1994, 22-year-old University of California, Berkeley student Linda Howard and her 23-year-old boyfriend Jonathan Mitchell planned a trip to Yoseite National Park.

They had been dating for about 2 years, often going on short hikes, and their friends didn’t think anything was unusual.

Linda was a senior biology major and worked part-time at a school lab in Oakland during the summer.

Jonathan worked at a private computer repair company and told his friends that he was saving money to open his shop.

The trip was planned for 3 days.

They plan to stay at a campsite by Yoseite Creek, spend the night there, then hike to Glacier Point, and return early the following week.

They took Jonathan’s car, a Gray Ford Tempo with California license plates for the trip.

They loaded a tent, two sleeping bags, a gas stove, food, clothes, a fishing rod, and a small camera that Linda had used on previous trips into the trunk and the passenger compartment.

On June 30th, 1994, at approximately p.m., a camera at the entrance to the national park recorded their car.

They obtained a root map from the administrator and clarified the location of the campground, which was not crowded at that time.

At p.m., Linda called her mother from a pay phone in the Yoseite Village area.

The conversation lasted less than a minute.

She said they had pitched their tent and were going to build a campfire in the evening.

She also mentioned that they planned to go to Glacier Point the next morning.

According to her, the weather was cloudy.

The air temperature was around 26° C and a northwesterly wind was starting to blow.

This was the last confirmed contact.

The next morning, they failed to appear at the designated meeting point on the trail where they were supposed to meet two of Jonathan’s friends who were also visiting Yoseite for the weekend.

When they did not contact their relatives or friends by evening, this caused concern.

On July 2nd, Linda’s mother tried to call the park administration, but there was no information that the couple had left the area.

The car was also not recorded as leaving.

On July 3rd, Linda and Jonathan’s parents filed a missing person’s report.

On July 4th, Rangers began a search.

They searched all official campsites and parking lots where the car could have been parked, but the Ford Tempo was nowhere to be found.

For 2 weeks, searchers combed the banks of the Merced River, canyons, and lookout points.

Helicopters and dogs were used.

The search yielded no results.

By August, the case was reclassified as a long-term disappearance.

Neither the car nor any personal belongings were found, nor were any witnesses who had seen Linda and Jonathan after June 30th.

The investigation put forward various theories ranging from an accident on the water to an attack.

But without evidence, each remained only a guess.

For 19 years, the families of both missing persons published photos, contacted the press, and asked potential witnesses to come forward.

The FBI archives contained dozens of calls about people who were allegedly seen in other states.

None of the reports were confirmed.

That remained the case until the spring of 2013 when flooding on the Merced River changed its course and exposed what had been hidden all that time.

In early April 2013, after several weeks of heavy rain, the water level in the Merced River rose sharply.

The flood waters washed away part of the old riverbed and exposed large boulders at the bend in the old Lortal Road.

On April 5th, several guides leading a tour group noticed a rectangular silhouette under the water that did not look like a natural object.

They reported this to the park administration, and on April 6th, divers were sent to the site.

The car was about 4 m deep, stuck between two boulders.

Its roof and rear were covered with a layer of silt and sand, making it invisible to ordinary observers.

Only the changed current partially washed away the sediment.

The metal body was badly rusted, but the shape of the car remained intact.

The number four, the letters ABT, and part of the next digit were visible on the rear bumper.

A check revealed that it matched the license plate number of Jonathan Mitchell’s Ford Tempo, which had been reported missing since June 1994.

It took several hours to lift the car.

Divers secured cables and a crane lifted the car onto the shore.

The body was deformed from hitting rocks, but the doors remained closed.

When investigators opened the trunk, they found two skeletons inside.

They were lying side by side, bound with an army belt across their chests and thighs.

The bones were jumbled, but experts immediately noted knife wounds on one of the skeletons.

It was later confirmed that the remains were those of Linda Howard and Jonathan Mitchell.

The car was sent to the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Department hanger.

There, forensic experts recorded all the findings.

Inside the vehicle was a sleeping bag, a flashlight without batteries, an empty plastic canister, and a piece of paper with a trail marked in pen.

The glove compartment was empty except for a grocery store receipt from Fresno dated June 29th, 1994.

The forensic examination confirmed that both skeletons belonged to the missing couple.

Linda’s bones showed multiple stab wounds in the rib and pelvic areas.

Jonathan had a skull fracture consistent with a blow from a blunt object.

Experts concluded that death was violent and that after the murder, the bodies were placed in the trunk of a car, which was then driven into the river.

For the police, this meant only one thing.

The accident theory was definitively ruled out.

They were faced with a double murder committed 19 years ago.

After the car with the remains was recovered and the autopsy confirmed the violent nature of the deaths, the investigation focused on reconstructing the last hours of Linda Howard and Jonathan Mitchell’s lives.

FBI agents and Mariposa County Sheriff’s Department personnel dug up the archives of the 1994 search operation.

The first step was to check all confirmed actions of the couple on the day before their disappearance.

A receipt from a store in Fresno found in the glove compartment of the car was dated June 29th.

The time of purchase was p.m.

According to the cashier who was interviewed in 1994, a young woman and a man bought groceries, bread, two bottles of water, a package of canned food, and matches.

This coincided with what tourists usually purchased before a trip to Yoseite.

The next day, June 30th, a camera at the park entrance recorded the Ford Tempo at p.m.

This was the last official location where they were seen.

At p.m., Linda called her mother from Yusede Village.

Investigators considered this call to be crucial as it confirmed that they had arrived safely at the campground and were planning to set out on the trail in the morning.

Investigators then checked possible witnesses.

The archives contain records of interviews with tourists who spent the night at the campground near Yoseite Creek that day.

Two of them mentioned a gray car similar to Jonathan’s parked closer to the river.

One tourist reported seeing a man and a woman standing by the campfire talking to a third person in the evening.

According to him, it was a tall man in a dark jacket, but the descriptions were too vague to be useful.

The investigation also reconstructed the weather forecast.

On the evening of June 30th, there was a brief rain shower in the Yusede area and the temperature dropped to 16° C.

By nightfall, a northwesterly wind had picked up.

These conditions could have made it difficult to stay in a tent, but they did not pose a serious threat.

The main question for investigators was how the couple ended up in the car, placed in the trunk, and tied with an army belt.

In 1994, a theory was considered that they had been attacked by random tourists or poachers who often appeared in remote areas of the park.

The reports mentioned the names of two men who had been arrested for illegal hunting that same month.

However, no evidence was found linking them to the disappearance of Linda and Jonathan.

In 2013, investigators returned to this theory.

They questioned the surviving poacher, but he denied any acquaintance with the couple.

His testimony was checked and found to be inconsistent.

A new examination of the remains allowed investigators to establish the approximate time of death.

Judging by the condition of the bones and the nature of the injuries, death occurred on the same day or the night after Linda’s last phone call.

This coincided with the conclusions of the initial investigation.

The couple had not stayed at the campground for more than a day.

Thus, the reconstructed timeline was as follows.

June 29th, purchase of groceries in the city of Fresno.

June 30th, during the day, arrival at the park.

In the evening, Linda called her mother.

That same night, or early in the morning of July 1st, the murderer bound the bodies and placed them in the trunk of the car.

After that, the car was deliberately driven into the river.

After confirming the violent deaths of Linda Howard and Jonathan Mitchell, investigators focused on a circle of possible suspects.

In 1994, immediately after the couple’s disappearance, the police had no body, but they did have some circumstantial evidence.

The first line of investigation was people who had been seen in the park at the same time.

Archive reports recorded the arrest of two men for poaching.

Their names were known, Gerard Wells and Ray Dunham.

Both were arrested in midJune for illegal hunting and then released on bail.

When Linda and Jonathan disappeared, the police tried to link them to the poachers, but no direct connection was established.

There were no witnesses who had seen them together.

Gerard Wells died in 2001.

When the case was reopened, Ray Dunham was still living in Nevada.

In 2013, he was questioned.

He denied knowing Linda and Jonathan.

A check of his background revealed several minor offenses, but there was no evidence of his involvement in the murder.

His testimony was checked against circumstantial evidence, telephone records from that time, and family testimony.

No evidence of guilt was found, and he remained only a figure in an old file.

The second line of investigation was random tourists.

Two witnesses mentioned a man in a dark jacket talking to a couple by the campfire.

In 1994, the police were unable to identify him.

By 2013, the search based on these descriptions was pointless.

The description was too vague, and no specific person had been named.

The third version concerned Linda and Jonathan’s immediate circle.

In 1994, the investigation checked the couple’s friends, Linda’s classmates, and Jonathan’s colleagues.

Among them was one person whose name appeared in the reports, a young man close to Linda’s family.

He helped her parents with the housework, often visited their home, and was friends with Jonathan.

At the time, his name was not directly linked to the disappearance.

He had a confirmed alibi for the end of June.

However, 19 years later, after the car was found, the investigation decided to recheck all the alibis.

information emerged that one of them could have been fake.

The police’s attention returned to this family acquaintance.

His handwriting samples were preserved in the archives and experts compared them with the notes found in the car.

The handwriting partially matched.

This was the first sign that the investigation should continue.

At the same time, forensic experts examined the car itself.

Several preserved DNA traces were collected from the seats.

One profile matched Linda’s.

The second matched Jonathan’s, but a third trace was also found that did not belong to either of them.

It took time to identify it as the 1994 database did not allow for comparison.

It was not until the 2000s that technology advanced enough to use old samples to search for matches.

By the fall of 2013, investigators had three main leads: poachers, a random man at the campfire, and a family acquaintance.

Each version needed to be checked, but the matching handwriting and new DNA data gradually led the investigation to a specific person.

It took several months for forensic scientists to examine the remains and surviving samples from the car.

The main task was to extract as much biological material as possible for analysis despite the car having been in the water for almost two decades.

First, experts examined the army belt that had been used to bind the bones.

Traces of blood were found on the inside of the buckle.

Comparison showed that some of it belonged to Linda, but there were also traces of a third person.

This was the first clue that someone else was involved in the crime.

Next, they examined fabric fragments from the seats.

DNA fragments were extracted from the upholstery.

One profile belonged to Jonathan.

The second was unknown.

This profile was sent to the federal COTUS database in October 2013.

The results came back, a match with a man who had previously submitted samples to the database as a suspect in another case.

He was a man named David Harris, an acquaintance of Linda’s family who had often visited their home in 1994.

He was a friend of Jonathan’s and at the same time someone Linda was wary of.

At the time, investigators had no reason to look into him further.

He provided an alibi, claiming that he was in Sacramento helping his uncle repair his garage.

In 1994, two acquaintances confirmed this story, but it later turned out that the confirmation was false.

After establishing the match, experts compared handwriting samples.

In a notebook found in the car, there were short notes written in the margins of a map.

Check gas.

Leave at 7.

The handwriting matched samples of David Harris’s handwriting preserved in his school records.

To confirm this version, investigators questioned the very witnesses who had given him an alibi almost 20 years earlier.

One of them admitted that he had lied because Harris had asked him to confirm his whereabouts.

The second had died by that time.

Thus, by the winter of 2013, investigators had sufficient grounds to believe that Harris was the third person whose traces were found in the car.

His DNA matched samples found on the seat belt.

The blood on the buckle did not belong to Linda or Jonathan, and his handwriting and false alibi further strengthened the prosecution’s case.

After receiving the DNA matches and confirming the false alibi, the investigation moved on to the next stage, the arrest of David Harris.

In January 2014, the police located him in Sacramento, where he was living with his new family.

The operation was carried out early in the morning.

At a.m., sheriff’s deputies, with the support of the FBI, arrested Harris at his home.

He did not resist and was immediately taken to the station.

During his initial interrogation, he denied any involvement in the disappearance of Linda and Jonathan.

He claimed that he had indeed visited Yusede in the summer of 1994, but allegedly by accident.

According to him, he was in the park at the same time to go fishing and spent the night in a tent nearby.

When investigators showed him the DNA test results, Harris said he could have left traces while helping his friends set up their tent.

However, this version contradicted the facts.

His DNA was found not only on the belt, but also on the inside of the trunk.

During the second interrogation, he changed his testimony.

He said that he had indeed seen Linda and Jonathan that evening.

According to him, they had allegedly quarreled and Jonathan had hit Linda.

Harris claimed that he had tried to separate them.

This version also did not match the experts conclusions.

Jonathan had a fractured parietal bone and Linda had stab wounds.

By March 2014, the investigation had enough evidence to file formal charges.

In addition to biological evidence, there was testimony from a witness who recalled seeing Harris in the campground area on the evening of June 30th.

This witness reported that the man was arguing with a couple near a campfire.

Thus, Harris’s defense was crumbling.

The facts indicated that he was not a random witness, but an active participant in the events that led to the murder.

At the court hearings in the spring of 2015, David Harris’s motives were revealed for the first time.

The prosecution presented a coherent version of events.

Harris was a longtime friend of Linda’s family, knew her parents, and often helped out around the house.

At the same time, he had romantic feelings for her, but she always saw him as just a family friend.

When Linda started dating Jonathan, Harris kept in touch with both of them, but Linda’s close friends noted that he was jealous of her relationship.

On the evening of June 30th, 1994, Harris did indeed end up at the same campground.

According to the investigation, he knew about the couple’s plans in advance as he had been in contact with Linda’s parents and could have heard details of the trip from them.

He arrived at Yoseite in his car allegedly to go fishing.

At night, he approached their tent and an argument ensued.

Court documents show that the argument escalated into a fight.

During the fight, Harris struck Jonathan on the head with a blunt object, presumably a metal pipe, which was never found.

Linda tried to defend herself, but he stabbed her several times.

After the murder, Harris tied the bodies together with an army belt that belonged to him.

He placed them in the trunk of Jonathan’s car, closed it, and drove the car to the river.

There, he pushed the Ford Tempo off the bank into the water.

The car got stuck between rocks and remained hidden for 19 years.

At trial, Harris admitted that he was in Yoseite that night, but denied intent.

He claimed that the argument got out of hand and that he accidentally struck her.

However, experts found the opposite to be true.

The nature of the knife wounds on Linda’s bones indicated multiple deliberate strikes.

The defense tried to challenge the evidence, claiming that after nearly 20 years in the water, the DNA evidence could have been contaminated, but experts confirmed that the matches were reliable.

Additional testimony from a witness who saw Harris at the campfire on the night of the disappearance further strengthened the prosecution’s case.

In June 2015, a jury found David Harris guilty of double murder.

The court sentenced him to life in prison without the possibility of parole.

After the verdict was handed down in June 2015, the investigation was officially closed.

The families of Linda Howard and Jonathan Mitchell were able to bury their children.

The remains recovered from the car were handed over to the relatives.

The funerals took place in July of that year.

Linda was laid to rest in Oakland next to her grandmother’s grave, and Jonathan was buried in Sacramento in the family plot.

The ceremonies were held separately, but both sides kept in touch and attended each other’s funerals.

Linda’s parents said at the hearing that they had not known what had happened to their daughter for almost two decades, and now at least had answers.

Jonathan’s mother emphasized that the hardest thing was not having a body and not being able to say goodbye.

Despite the severity of the circumstances, the trial and sentence brought them some relief.

For investigators, this case became an example of how modern DNA analysis methods can solve crimes that happened many years ago.

Without the ability to identify the traces on the belt and in the trunk, Harris could have gone unpunished.

The case files were transferred to the Mariposa County Sheriff’s Department.

They contained materials from the first stage of the 1994 search, interview transcripts, photographs of the campsite, and the results of all subsequent forensic examinations.

The case was officially closed following the verdict, and the defendant’s full confession.

Harris himself remained in a maximum security prison after the verdict was handed down.

He attempted to appeal the decision, but the appeals court rejected his appeal in 2017.

That was the end of the story.

The Howard and Mitchell families were able to find closure, although their loss remained irreplaceable.

For them, it took almost 20 years of waiting, searching, and uncertainty before it became clear what exactly happened in Yoseite in late June 1994.