Woman Looking for Biological Parents Helps Crack 40-Year-Old Cold Case

Pamela Dianne Duffey and William Everette Lane were murdered in 1980.

Pamela Dianne Duffey was only 21 years old when she died; photo source.

In November 1980, an archaeologist made a grisly discovery of a male and female buried in a shallow grave in the Mojave Desert in California. The bodies were naked, and it was clear that both had suffered a violent death. An autopsy revealed that the cause of death was a combination of gunshot wounds and blunt force trauma. The coroner estimated that the bodies had been in the grave for six to eight months.

With no way to identify the victims and with no witnesses who could provide helpful information, the investigators had no choice but to watch this double homicide case grow cold.

Forty years later, the identity of the murdered couple was finally revealed — all due to a woman’s quest to find her birth parents.

Background

Christine Marie Salley always knew she had been adopted. Her mother gave her up when she was 2 months old, and Christine was raised by her half-uncle. Throughout her life, Christine remained close with her mother’s family. Her mother had run away at a young age and lost contact with them, but they shared as many details of her life as they could remember. In 2018, the 41-year old…