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Liberal Homosexuals -- How badly Do They Hate Religion and Religious
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Young Couple's Dreams Ended on Isolated Beach
Sat Aug 21, 7:55 AM ET
By William Wan and Donna Horowitz Special to The Times
JENNER, Calif. - They came from a small town in Ohio with no
stoplights, no stores, only a few houses and three churches. It was
the life outdoors and a chance to help others that drew them to
California.
Over the summer, Lindsay Cutshall and her fiance, Jason Allen, had
found both and planned to return to Ohio next month to get married.
But before the trip home, they set out for one last trek into the
wild, hiking down to a rugged beach and sleeping on the sand. They
never woke up.
Cutshall, 23, and Allen, 26, were shot in the head sometime this week
on a remote beach near this coastal town in Sonoma County. The bodies
were found side by side Wednesday, still in sleeping clothes and
zipped tight in separate sleeping bags, police said. Beside them lay a
Christian book, camping gear and wedding literature.
Authorities have no suspects or possible motives. Nothing was stolen,
and no weapon was found. "The case doesn't lend itself to an easy
motive," said Sonoma County Sheriff's Lt. Dave Edmonds. "That's why it
was so troubling."
The couple worked as river guides this summer at a Christian camp
northeast of Sacramento and were last seen Aug. 13. They told
co-workers that they were going to visit friends. Last Saturday, a
credit card bill placed them in San Francisco, buying a souvenir set
of hot sauce, investigators said. Later that day, they stopped for gas
in Guerneville, 13 miles from Jenner.
They were supposed to be back at the Rock-N-Water camp in Coloma on
Sunday. When they failed to show up, the camp reported them missing.
The couple didn't tell camp leaders exactly where they were going, so
no one knew precisely where to search.
El Dorado County sheriff's deputies scoured the area around the camp
with no luck. Cutshall's and Allen's parents flew in to help. And the
couple's church back in Ohio held an emergency prayer meeting.
Then on Wednesday, the California Highway Patrol found their car, a
red 1993 Ford Tempo, parked on California 1 near the beach.
Another break came later that day, when a helicopter crew was rescuing
a 17-year-old boy clinging to the edge of a cliff near Jenner.
The pilot spotted the couple lying on the driftwood-covered beach
below a steep cliff. The site is accessible only by a steep 15-minute
hike from California 1. The helicopter swooped in low, and when the
couple didn't respond to the engine's noise, the pilot called in
detectives.
The killings have been mourned both in Fresno, Ohio - where Cutshall
and Allen lived - and in Jenner, another rural hamlet unaccustomed to
such violence.
"It's scary," said Virginia Benight, postmaster for Jenner, a town so
small that the 200 residents have to pick up their mail at the post
office. Many in town still keep their houses' windows and doors
unlocked, she said, adding that homicide "is not something that
normally happens here."
The bartender at River's End, a restaurant with four rental cabins,
said the couple might have slept on the beach because they couldn't
find a room.
"They came in Monday night, and we were booked," said Joe Lucey.
The couple also stopped by the Jenner Inn down the road.
"They came in and booked a room, then they canceled," said manager
Gail Andersen. "They said, 'We decided to go camping instead.' "
The killings have reignited fears of some residents about transients
who sometimes build makeshift huts out of driftwood on the beach.
Detectives have interviewed some of those drifters but said they had
no evidence the transients had anything to do with the killings.
In the couple's town this week, the prayers that Lindsay and Jason
would be found alive gave way to grief.
"We watched her grow up," said Ned Horsfall, 49, who lives a few miles
up the road from Cutshall in the town of 150 people. "She was just a
sweetheart, and Jason, he just always had a smile on his face."
The two met at Appalachian Bible College in Bradley, W.Va., where she
studied for two years and he earned a degree in Bible and camping.
After dating six weeks, Allen nervously called Cutshall's father,
Chris, to ask his permission to marry her.
"That's the way we work things in Ohio," Chris Cutshall, 49, said
Friday. "We're a little old-fashioned that way."
Allen moved from Michigan to Fresno to be closer to his fiancee and
plan the wedding.
The couple's parents, who arrived earlier this week in Placerville to
help with the search, spoke Friday about the pain of their loss and
the joy their children brought them in life.
The couple had traveled to Rock-N-Water hoping to bond and to
influence youths while guiding them down rollicking rivers.
"They were a team," said Allen's mother, Delores, 52.
The couple had intended to get married Sept. 11. Cutshall was supposed
to fly back this week to work on the final details with her mother,
Kathy. It was to be an outdoor ceremony at a church friend's barn
surrounded by flowers, said the mother, her eyes tearing up.
There were plans to spend a month rafting on the Gauley River in West
Virginia and then honeymoon in Costa Rica.
Now their parents are planning a funeral in Ohio.
"Most of all, we want to get a completely insane, cold blooded killer
off the beaches and off the streets," said Chris Cutshall. "Whoever
did this is the exact opposite of Jason and Lindsay, the worst of the
worst."
But their Christianity has helped ease the families' pain, he said.
"Our faith is strong. We know where Jason and Lindsay are," Cutshall
said.
Allen's father, Bob added, "We know it's not the last time we'll see
them."
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Liberal Homosexuals -- How badly Do They Hate Religion and Religious
People?
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