(NBC NEWS) — Friday on “Dateline,” detectives investigate the 1990 murder of UCLA student Ronald Baker after his body is found in an infamous Los Angeles-area train tunnel.
Here is a preview of Keith Morrison’s report:
It was just after the Summer Solstice. That longest day of the year. It was June 24, 1990.
DETECTIVE RICK JACKSON: My supervisor — uh, called and said, “Hey, I’ve got an interesting case for you and Frank,” and so Frank and I went directly to the coroner’s office to view the body.
Frank was Detective Frank Garcia, Jackson’s partner.
DET. FRANK GARCIA: He had multiple stab wounds, and his throat was slit.
It was a murder, alright. Close up. Personal. Bloody.
DETECTIVE RICK JACKSON: Whoever did this wanted to make sure that it was done. No one was gonna survive this.
He looked to be in his early 20s but had no ID, so they called him John Doe 135. LA’s 135th unidentified victim of the year.
RICK JACKSON: He had a medallion on. And there were two. One was a pentagram. And there was also one that was just a religious cross.
Meaning, something? Possibly? John Doe 135 had been found by hikers in an old train tunnel, that cuts through the rocky hills in suburban Chatsworth.
DETECTIVE RICK JACKSON: Went up to the tunnel the next day.
KEITH MORRISON: What was it like in there?
DETECTIVE RICK JACKSON: Strange. There’s paintings everywhere. Paintings of words involving drugs, LSD, acid.
RET. DET. FRANK GARCIA: We were told that they would do animal sacrifices there. There was writing on the inside of the tunnel. Things about hell and fear. There was pentagrams, all indicating that this was some — some kind of occult activity that was taking place in the tunnel.
Watch “Dateline: Night of the Summer Solstice” on NBC4 at 9 p.m.
