Suburban legends
October, 2002
Saturday morning, 7:30 am. I should have been asleep. But instead I was assigned the honor of driving my 18-year old sister to work.
“Should we take Colima or Hacienda?” I asked Lori. Both routes would get us to the Whittier dealership where she was a receptionist and cashier.
She shrugged.
Her indecision didn’t matter, because a few seconds later we came upon a crime scene on Hacienda Boulevard, the main north-south thoroughfare through Hacienda Heights. Ahead of us, other drivers turned their cars around rather than crash into police tape, LA County sheriffs, their vehicles and a conspicuous coroner’s truck.
It was the first time I had seen one, but I knew whatever had occurred on Hacienda Boulevard that night or early morning was not good.
“I wonder what happened,” I told Lori. She seemed as lost as I was.
Lori and I made our way around Hacienda Heights and five minutes later arrived at the intersection of Hacienda and Colima. Once again, we didn’t need to decide which road to take. Colima Road was also closed off to traffic.
I got Lori to work that day. We took Hacienda Boulevard south to Whittier and pretty much forgot about what we had just seen.
Later that week, Lori called me.
“I heard on the news about what happened last Saturday. Remember when you took me to work?”
She filled in what she knew. A woman had been dragged by a car east through Colima Road and then north on Hacienda Boulevard.
The woman was young, about Lori’s age. The thought of such a gruesome murder in my hometown freaked me out, but I forgot about it.
September 2006
Thanks to Google News and its alerts, I find out about anything newsworthy in Hacienda Heights as it happens. Gloria Gaxiola’s 2002 murder came up as a “cold case” and I go curious. I found more in the Whittier Daily News Archives, such as this story two years after Gloria’s murder.
Two years ago, Gloria Gaxiola was dragged by a car four miles through Hacienda Heights and dumped on a busy street where a passer-by later found her body…
At first, it appeared that Gaxiola was a hit-and-run victim. But the evidence proved otherwise. Officers followed a blood trail.
Detectives believe Gaxiola was killed on Turnbull Canyon Road and Skyline Drive then dragged to Hacienda Boulevard near Colima Road, where she was found facedown Oct. 12, 2002.
They declined to say whether she was already dead when the car started dragging her.
A driver saw a late model, silver four-door car with tinted windows dragging something on Hacienda Boulevard that morning. As he approached the car, the man realized it was a body.
“He honked at the car and said they were dragging someone,’ said sheriff’s Detective Toni Martinez.
A man was driving the silver car, which stopped.
The car’s passenger, a woman, got out, screamed and got back in the vehicle, Angelina Gaxiola said. The silver car then sped away.
Another story addressed the shady reputation of Turnbull Canyon Road as site for devil worshippers to gather. Kids who grow up in Hacienda Heights know this. I knew Turnbull Canyon Road as both the street my church was located on and further south, a windy road through mysterious canyons you wouldn’t want to be in late at night. It seems like I’m not much different from those quoted in the story:
Growing up in nearby La Puente, Steve Chavez said he heard rumors of devil worshippers and occult happenings in the canyon rumors he now takes seriously after the death of Gaxiola.
But the rumors about Turnbull Canyon, which stretches from Whittier to Hacienda Heights, are just as convoluted as the 7- mile road that cuts through it, those familiar with the area say.
“There’s a strong rumor that the (Ku Klux Klan) is there,” said Nancy Armero, a senior at California High School. “There’s this sacrificial rock where they perform their rituals. My brothers have told me this same story, and they are older in their 20s. I’ve never seen the rock.”
Stories of occult rituals and devil worshiping in the snaking ravines of the canyon have been passed down for generations.
The rumors are unfounded, according to those who live and work in the canyon.
The extremity of the crimes committed in the canyon fuel the myth surrounding it, they say.
Gaxiola’s killing is characteristic of the types of violence in the canyon methodical brutality.
“It used to be a good place to execute people, dump bodies off, and for stolen cars,” said Los Angeles County firefighter Forrest Philips, who has worked 13 years out of Station 91 on Turnbull Canyon Road.
Philips remembers two teenage gang members executing a rival gang member in the canyon about eight years ago.
Every few years, a person is killed or a body is dumped down Turnbull’s crinkled ravines.
Since 1995, four murders have taken place at, or have been connected to, Turnbull Canyon, according to statistics from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department.
In some cases, killers take the extra step of torturing their victims, as in the case of one man who gouged out the eyes of an other man before killing him.
But most of the trouble along Turnbull Canyon Road and the dozens of narrow, windy capillary roads branching from it is typical adolescent mischief, like drinking or smoking minor narcotics.
February, 2007
All the creepiness associated with the hills between Hacienda Heights and Whittier came back yesterday when I checked my email and found this:
The burned corpse found after a weekend fire was that of a man in his 20s to 30s, coroner’s officials said Tuesday.
The man has yet to be identified.
Craig Harvey, spokesman for the Coroner’s Office, said the coroner will check to see if the fingerprints are intact enough to identify the man. An autopsy could be conducted as early as today.
Detectives said county firefighters mistakenly identified the body as a burned mannequin after they put out a small fire on the side of Turnbull Canyon Road, south of Blue Sky Road, in Hacienda Heights on Sunday.
A driver had knocked on the door of county fire station 91 and reported a brush fire, according to County Fire Department Inspector Sam Padilla.
Padilla said the fire took about 10 minutes to put out.
County public works employees cleared the road of the fire’s remains and then discovered Monday that they had carted away a burned body.
Turnbull Canyon’s reputation is just an urban legend, but I’m a bonafide miedona (scaredycat). I think I’ll be staying away from those hills, at least late at night.
If I were you, I’d stay as far as possible from Turnbull Canyon!
is ‘gravity hill’ near there? I don’t know that area too well but heard about that.
no you didn’t forget. now i won’t forget, no one will forget… as i reach for… the gun, the knife, my coffee…
i used to live so close to there and until recently never knew about the murder of gloria gaxiola, until one night coming home from knotts berry farm my cousin decided to let me in about the story it was so unreal that someone so careless and heartless would do that to a young girl, my heart goes out to the family.
I work for the Historical Society of Whittier California. Although those unfortunate stories are true most of them are rumors. Unfortunatly Turnbull canyon is dark and secluded and people find this is best to do illegal things. The rumors about ghosts, KKK meetings, acient indian spirits and devil worshiping are false. Although some teens go to conduct devil whorshipping THINKING that these rumors are true and somehow turnbull is a portal for the gates of hell…but like all stupid rumors they just attract young gulible teens. Turnbull is actually beautiful and what most people don’t know is that it is actually a neighborhood with houses and people living in them. The only thing to be afraid of in Turnbull at night is the windy road. Sometimes cars go too fast and fall off the cliffs, but other than that, although some bodies have been found there it is no different from someone being killed anywhere else that just so happens to be dark and secluded.
What is really scary about the Glaxiola murder is that she was an evangelical, and had gone out to preach to a group of devil worshipers before she disappeared. It is therefore likely that she was killed in a satanic ritual – perhaps a black mass, where in its darkest form a “virgin priest” is sacrificed. Two people have told me about devil worshiping activity in the area (I suppose satanism exists in every community). The first is a friend who was being nosy during an open house and looked into a room in house up in the hills that he was not supposed to – he saw a satanic altar set up and quickly shut the door. The owner simply said, “that room is off limits.” The second person is a former satanist who confirmed to me that there was satanic activity in the area, and that Turnbull Canyon and Legg Lake were both used for all sorts of illicit activities, though he refused to be specific. Both persons are hardly curious teenagers…
Oh, and I read somewhere that at the scene of the Glaxiola murder, evidence of a satanic ritual was found i.e., a pentagram drawn on the floor with stakes in the ground.
We drove out there today, to investigate other rumors of dogs running wild out there. Even though the sun was shinning, the place up top really had a weird vibe to it. My son didn’t want me to get out of the car, he was so afraid of “the man with baggy jeans.” I never saw any man. But I stayed in the car, since it is probably wise to not place oneself in possible danger while out in the remoteness of Turnbull.
I drove down while eating my green apple and I chanced to see a dark haired woman in a grey, flowing gown. She looked so out of place and I had to look away for a minute because the road curves like a snake. Next second, I looked back at where she was but she disappeared. Old urban myths run deep in these parts…old fire station 91 has heard them all, and they would appreciate it if people didn’t speed like bats out of hell because those snake curves will catch up to the speeders, especially when it’s nightfall. My advice is to visit during the day, pick up roadside trash to bring back good Karma. Don’t take pictures or videos of the road…..it only serves to create more fright and hysteria.
Drive safely and don’t drink on the Turnbull!
Hello everyone. I’m quite curious about the stories, but I’d like to know the facts opposed to the rumors. What Elle said truly appealed to me, and obviously RiverBoatQueen was speaking fictionally. My friends and I talked about the girl getting dragged down Turnbull earlier this evening, and I did some research to find out the truth. The truth, however, seems to be scattered in numerous directions along with sections of fallacies. Can an eye witness of the account tell us what really happened?
Wow,
so.. my friend told me that there is a white house on turnbull canyon …four stores. Supposedly, KKK’s lived there, and she saw the flag. i really didn’t believe anything she was saying. She also told me that she went with her old sister and some friends driving in a car and there was this old man with a backpack crossing the street, and they followed him and he dissapeared. She wanted to prove it to me, so we decided to go today..which is halloween.. lol.. it was around 8:30, we were going up the hill and we finally got to the “kkk” house, i got the chills. we saw them turn the lights on, so we immediatly tried to get out of there.. it was so hard since those streets are so tiny and curvy. and we saw other scary things.. like..an abondoned house with no furniture inside. its pretty scary.. im never going there again. especially in the dark.
I just wonder, and im not trying to be rude here, but what was she doing at those hours up there? Sadnomore said she was up there preaching, about what? and to who, and why by yourself, take your brother? She wasnt sacrificed, but shot in the head. Then dragged from where she was murdered. Just doesnt add up. Preaching at that time in the morning seems very odd.
me and my friends are going this weekend! wish us luck! any advice? ahha
Gloria was taken to Turnbull Cnyn by three men so they could kill her and dump her body there. They knew it was very isolated and dark. They would be able to carry out the murder without interference. Check. The body would remain undetected for as long as possible. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Her foot got stuck in the seatbelt and her body was dragged 4 mi and dumped on Hacienda Blvd. The three men who murdered her were not devil worshsippers. They have been convicted of murder one.
That canyon’s in the news again. A little disturbing that I come here every time it’s in the news.
people think theese storys arent true or arent scary?? i live by turnbull. ive been there at night and truuuuust me it is scaryy!. another incident just occurred there this past week. damn im glad id never go there alone
ok, well, I used to live in that big “KKK” house on the hill, and I can assure you, it wasn’t KKK. That was a Swiss flag (white, red cross) because of my father’s nationality. The only odd thing about living there was all the noise and vandalism by the teenage kids who were so superstitious and easily scared. what was truly scary was the molotov cocktails that got thrown onto our property and the ones who started fires. So there you go.