Lynda Kanes was a student at Pacific Union College, the same college that Cecelia and Bryan attended, when she went missing on Feb 26, 1971. She had been on her way to work and she never arrived. Her body was found after an extensive search on March 5, 1971. Bryan Hartnell was among those who had searched for her. A man known to the locals as Willie the Woodcutter was eventually arrested for her murder and he was convicted. Many people in the Napa Valley did not believe that Willie had done the crime and that he was set-up. Prominant people in the St. Helena area and beyond put up money to see that Willie had a good attorney.

Lynda’s murder is on Graysmith’s list in the Yellowbook. I do have a number of articles about her disappearence and murder up to the point of Willie’s preliminary hearing. I have not found the articles about the trial because I don’t know when exactly it happened but I will continue to look. Here are some of the articles that I feel will give a good picture of what happened.

The first one is the article written March 7, 1971 in the Press Democrat about finding Lynda Kanes body.

Willie is arrested.

Press Democrat March 17, 1971

Press Democrat March 18, 1971

San Francisco Chronicle March 18, 1971

San Fancisco Chronicle March 26, 1971

The account of the preliminary hearing.
[/]Press Democrat March 28, 1971

The article was big and all on one page in the newspaper. It took two pages of copying to get it all. Each of the three columns on the first page is continued on the second page.