So glad to hear that this case is on the road to being solved and the killer will be served his sentence. We lived in Sonoma County at the time, and it was a staggering crime especially to the coastal folks in the area. I would think he was familiar with Driftwood Beach as it was called back then. I’d been down there 2-3 times, before the murders. It’s not an easy beach to get to I couldn’t imagine walking down to it at night. There are few areas on the path where if you slipped up you wouldn’t walk away from the beach below. It’s such a random place, to imagine Gallon just drove over there with his rifle in hand and walked down there, that’s just hard for me to believe. I recall it was reported that Cutshall and Allen had driven through Guerneville, Forestville area on their way to going to the coast. I would think somewhere along their travels they ran across Gallon since he lived out there, and he followed them. I hope during the trial the details of how it all unfolded can be found. The guy is definitely a creep. I can see why he was always a person of interest to the Sonoma County Sheriffs Dept.

BayArea60s

Hope they do a real good analysis job on this weirdo and his upbringing / past. Might give a possible insight into the type of guy who killed Robert Domingos and Linda Edwards.

I wouldn’t doubt if he was (sexually) abused at some point in his life. He brought up pedophiles a few times on his Facebook account. Something f-ed him up, that’s for sure.

Tahoe….

Very possible. He certainly was a messed up person. He’d been arrested like 13 times since 2002. Apparently no father mentioned as being in the household at the time suspect shot his brother. Weird FB page….

BayArea60s

He was 38 years old, so no father around makes sense…although many that age with issues still live at home. His father was a firefighter–retired I think. Anyone read what S.G. did for a living?

His father, David H Gallon died May 2, 2013. I found one of those Tributes listings for his obit which didn’t really have a regular obit, just a space for condolences. There was one from a woman who said she worked with David Gallon at Korbel Champagne Cellars in the deli. This could have been a job David had in his retirement years.

I was not able to find anything in past articles regarding what Shaun Gallon did for employment but with his criminal background and his apparent looniness he likely would have had a hard time getting and keeping a job. It’s possible he was on some kind of state aid.

Seagull…

Well Korbel would fit….It’s located in Guerneville, which is on the way to Forestville (very close) if you’re heading to the coast…I recall reading that authorities knew that Cutshall and Allen had stopped for gas in Guerneville, I don’t recall the stations name, so they knew they had travelled through that region on their way to the coast. It would be the long way to go if you were heading to the coast, but them being unfamiliar with the area. They would have been heading north on 101, and probably took the River Rd. exit, heading west, which would lead you into Guerneville, and then through the outskirts of Forestville, and then to the coast.

BayArea60s

A new Press Democrat article gives a little information about what lead to Gallon being named as the killer of Lindsey and Jason. He still has not been officially charged, LE is going slow and steady, building an ironclad case against him. Since he is jailed for the murder of his brother there is little to no chance he’s going anywhere thus allowing LE time to dot the I’s and cross the T’s in the Jenner case.

http://www.pressdemocrat.com/news/69748 … artslide=0

Jenner beach double murder investigation turns on jailhouse note

JULIE JOHNSON, RANDI ROSSMANN AND PAUL PAYNE
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT | May 12, 2017, 7:49PM

Soon after Shaun Gallon was jailed as a suspect in the March killing of his brother, detectives told him they wanted to talk about another crime — the killing 13 years earlier of a young Midwestern couple camping at a Jenner beach.

Gallon, 38, didn’t talk then. But weeks later, the Forestville man handed a Sonoma County jail guard a note, according to sources knowledgeable about the case.

The note set in motion a series of interviews between Gallon and detectives about the 2004 shooting deaths of Lindsay Cutshall, 22, and her fiancé, Jason Allen, 26, as they slept on the sand at Fish Head Beach.

What had been a stalled investigation shifted into high gear. On May 1, a team of search-and-rescue volunteers began searching a dense thicket off a west Sonoma County road, eventually finding evidence linked to the killings, just as Gallon said they would, sources said.

By May 5, Sonoma County Sheriff Steve Freitas was behind a lectern announcing Gallon “had information about the killings that no other person could have known and we have located evidence that corroborated his statement.

“We feel confident we have Jason’s and Lindsay’s killer in custody,” Freitas said.

Gallon has yet to be charged with the killings, despite strong statements by Freitas and other sheriff’s officials pointing to him as the shooter. It likely will take months before detectives finish their investigation and seek formal charges, said Lt. Tim Duke, who oversees the sheriff’s violent crime investigations unit.

There is no legal pressure to move faster.

Gallon was already being held without bail. He’s charged in the shooting death of his younger brother, Shamus Gallon, 36, in March in a spate of gunfire at their mother’s Forestville home.

Public Defender Kathleen Pozzi said Gallon is being housed in a special jail unit for inmates with mental health issues. He may have been too distraught over his brother’s death to give accurate statements to detectives, she said.

“Perhaps he’s given them information that is simply untrue,” Pozzi said.

What is known is that Allen and Cutshall were camping on the Sonoma Coast beach during a break from their work as counselors at a Christian adventure camp in the Sierra Nevada.

They were found dead Aug. 18, 2004, in their separate sleeping bags from gunshot wounds to their heads. They had been shot at close range with a .45-caliber rifle.

Early on, Gallon was on a list of suspects in the double murder.

But as other suspects came and went over the next 13 years amid a changing cast of detectives, Gallon’s name remained a constant.

Gallon had grown up along the Russian River and quickly caught the attention of detectives in the Jenner case. He was arrested six days after the deaths on weapons and stolen property charges, which later were dropped. Over the years, he’d been arrested and crossed paths with deputies 13 times, been to jail and had a stint in prison for a 2010 conviction for firing an arrow into an occupied car. His continuing criminal exploits helped keep him on the suspect list.

More than 10 suspects were on that list, Duke said. Alibis and other information helped eliminate some. But not Gallon.

“As we narrowed the suspect pool, this individual remained in the pool all the way up to the end,” Duke said.

Throughout the years, the case has been worked by different detectives, with help from federal agents and local agencies. Now, work done in the first few years is providing a foundation for the case today, Duke said.

He was the lead investigator when the bodies were found on the isolated beach and now oversees the ongoing effort to build a case against Gallon. While the veteran detective said he wished they’d finished the investigation sooner, the regret is somewhat eased by knowing “we did everything possible we could,” he said. “I couldn’t be prouder.”

Sheriff’s officials have declined to discuss whether Gallon confessed or what specific evidence has come to light.

“Something clicked in his mind and he wanted to talk about it,” sheriff’s spokesman Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

Once that happened, Gallon was brought across the street from the jail to the Sheriff’s Office to meet with detectives. He was read his rights, waived them and talked, Crum said.

The information Gallon provided kick-started the cold case, which remains active with interviews still to be conducted, and evidence documented, corroborated and packaged for prosecutors, Duke said.

“We’re going to take our time and give the District Attorney’s Office the best possible case,” Duke said.

The May 5 press conference naming Gallon was held sooner than planned, because word was leaking that Gallon was a suspect in the 2004 homicides.

Brian Staebell, a spokesman for District Attorney Jill Ravitch, said his office will decide on appropriate charges after it receives the investigative reports and thoroughly reviews them.

Also, prosecutors will announce whether they intend to seek the death penalty under a special circumstances allegation for a double murder.

“We are going to act as expeditiously as we can to make the right decision,” Staebell said.

In the meantime, Staebell said Gallon remains charged with the murder of his brother. A preliminary hearing in that case is set for July 23. He could not say if it would be postponed in light of pending charges.

Although Pozzi said it was “unjust” for detectives to question Gallon about the Jenner killings without his lawyer present, any information they received could still be used against him at trial, a legal expert said.

W. David Ball, associate professor at Santa Clara University School of Law, said Gallon’s constitutional right to counsel in his brother’s slaying does not extend to a separate case. That’s especially true if Gallon knowingly and voluntarily waived his right against self-incrimination, Ball said.

“I mean, someone writing a note to police on his own initiative, someone who just thought it over and said, ‘Yeah, I’ll talk about it,’ I would think that would go in favor of admissibility,” Ball said.

The i’s have been dotted and the t’s have been crossed. Shaun Gallon has been officially charged for the murders of Jason and Lindsey.

https://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/Y … 56221.html

Year After Arrest, Man is Charged in 2004 Jenner Beach Slayings

The Sonoma County District Attorney’s Office has charged a Forestville man with the murders of a Midwest couple on a secluded beach near Jenner in 2004.

Shaun Gallon, 39, was charged Friday with killing Lindsay Cutshall, 22, of Ohio, and Jason Allen, 26, of Michigan, around Aug. 18, 2004. The Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office had announced his arrest in the case on May 5, 2017.

The Sonoma Coast beach murder charges are included in a first amended complaint that also charges Gallon with the shooting murder of his brother Shamus Michael Gallon, 36, in Forestville on March 24, 2017, and the attempted murder bombing of John Robles and/or Paroneh Level in Guerneville on June 10, 2004.

The complaint states an assault rifle was used in all three slayings. Detectives talked to Gallon after his arrest for his brother’s murder, and he told them information only Cutshall’s and Allen’s killer would know, according to the sheriff’s office.

Cutshall and Allen were in California working at a Christian youth whitewater rafting camp in El Dorado County in August 2004. They went on a three-day sightseeing trip in Northern California that included a visit to Fish Head Beach near Jenner. Their bodies were found in their sleeping bags on Aug. 18.

In the earlier case from 2004, Robles and Level were in a relationship, and it’s believed the bomb was intended for Robles. The device exploded when Level moved the package containing the device after it was left on top of a vehicle, prosecutors said. Level suffered hand, arm and facial injuries.

Shamus Gallon was shot and died in the family’s home in the 9800 block of River Road. The brothers’ mother reported the shooting to the sheriff’s office and informed them Shaun Gallon was driving a Ford Aerostar minivan. Gallon was taken into custody at a convenience market.

The three murders and the attempted murder were consolidated in one complaint because they are the same class of crimes and the evidence in the murder cases are "cross-admissible," Chief Deputy District Attorney Spencer Brady said Wednesday morning.

"It was not our goal to have separate trials," Brady said.

Gallon appeared in court Monday but did not enter a plea. His next Sonoma County Superior Court date is June 19 for plea and setting of a preliminary hearing on the charges.