The Sweetheart Murders of 1980
On December 20, 1980, college sweethearts Sabrina Gonsalves and John Riggins went missing on their way to Sabrina’s sister’s birthday party. Thirty-six hours later, their van was found abandoned about 30 miles from UC Davis, where they attended college.
After searching the surrounding area, law enforcement found the bodies of Sabrina and John in a ravine. Both had been brutally murdered, their faces wrapped in duct tape and their throats slashed. There was evidence that Sabrina had been sexually assaulted, and John suffered a head wound while trying to protect her.
Inside the van was a quilt that Sabrina planned to give her sister for her birthday. The quilt would hold a piece of evidence that would eventually bring Sabrina and John’s killer to justice 30 years later.
Sabrina, 18, dreamed of becoming a physical therapist. John, also 18, aspired to become a doctor. The two met months before while working at a local recreation center.
Sabrina’s sister Andrea has said that John was Sabrina’s first real boyfriend.
“She fell in love with him. John was so much fun… He was funny and lighthearted and he loved sports… They were perfect together.” – Andrea Gonsalves-Rosenstein
In 1989, police arrested Doug Lainer and David Hunt after theorizing that they killed the teens to stage a copycat murder similar to one committed by David’s half-brother Gerald Gallego, believing it would help get Gallego out of jail. The two men were held in prison for three years while awaiting trial.
Just before the trial in 1993, DNA testing from semen found on the quilt proved Hunt and Lainer’s innocence but led investigators to another dead end, and the case went cold yet again.
Finally, in 2002, a hit on the DNA led them to Richard Hirschfield, a man accused of sexually assaulting women and children. He had been convicted in 1975 of rape. Authorities claim that Hirschfield knew people who lived close to Sabrina and abducted her because he found her attractive.
A day after being questioned by investigators, Hirschfield’s brother Joseph took his own life but left behind a note that included:
“I have been living with this horror for 20 years. Richard did commit those murders, but I was there. I didn’t kill anyone, but my DNA is still there.”
Joseph’s DNA was not found in the van, and investigators do not know what role Joseph played in the murders.
Eight years after his arrest and 32 years after the murders, Hirschfield was brought to trial, convicted, and sentenced to death. It wasn’t easy to defend a man whose DNA on the quilt was a one-in-240-trillion match.
“The terrifying methods used to subdue and kill these two young innocent persons are so horrendous, so evil, the weight of this factor alone is simply overwhelming.” – Judge Michael Sweet.
To this day, Hirschfield continues to maintain his innocence. He remains on death row in San Quentin while his sentence is being appealed.
‘We will never know the gifts that John and Sabrina would have given society, but we do know Hirschfield’s contribution, humiliation, pain, and death.’ – Richard Riggins (John’s father)
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