The Following is an Article that ran in the Stockton Record Newspaper, Wes Shermantine gave a four hour interview to Rob Nelson. You need to read this article very carefully, the article is very shocking and heartbreaking.
'Tired of being used'
S.J. murder suspect points to old friend
The Record Friday, May 7, 1999
By Rob Nelson
Record Staff Writer
A man charged with two murders and suspected of at least five more steadfastly maintained
his innocence during an
interview Thursday at the San Joaquin County Jail.
During a four-hour interview with The Record, Wesley Shermantine, 33, repeatedly disavowed
any knowledge
of the various unsolved murders he's suspected of committing, including the high-profile
kidnapping and killing
of Cyndi Vanderheiden, who was last seen pulling into her family's Clements driveway after
a night of
barhopping Nov. 14.
Shermantine and Loren Herzog, 33, who were seen talking with Vanderheiden at the Linden
Inn bar the night of
her disappearance, were charged with the kidnap, rape and murder of the 25-year-old woman
in March.
Shermantine insists Herzog is solely to blame for the killing and hints he knows where the
bodies of Vanderheiden and
other victims may have been stashed. Herzog's attorney characterizes Shermantine's version
of events as a desperate ploy
to deflect blame.
Shermantine also claims to know nothing of at least six other murders authorities believe
he may have committed in a
14-year killing binge stretching from San Joaquin County to the mountain ranges of
northern Utah.
Prosecutors have already charged Shermantine with the kidnapping and murder of Chevelle
"Chevy" Wheeler, a
16-year-old Stockton girl who vanished in 1985 after telling friends she was going to the
mountains with Shermantine.
The bodies of Wheeler and Vanderheiden have never been found.
During more than 17 hours of questioning by San Joaquin County sheriff's detectives,
Herzog implicated Shermantine in
five other unsolved Northern California killings, as well as the shooting death of a
hunter in Utah in 1994.
"The more I've heard about all the stuff I'm supposed to have done, the madder I get.
I'm tired of being used and
manipulated by Loren," Shermantine said. "If Loren can give details about all
these murders, it must mean he's the one
that did them. I'm innocent. I've done nothing wrong to any of these people."
Shermantine was shown a copy of the videotaped interview by his attorney, Doug Jacobsen.
Herzog's attorney, Deputy
Public Defender Peter Fox, confirmed Shermantine's accounts of what Herzog, his former
best friend, said in the
videotapes.
Herzog was charged with a string of four unsolved murders in San Joaquin and Alpine
counties in 1984 and 1985, court
records show. In his interview with detectives, Herzog gave graphic accounts of the
killings of two men who were found
shot to death beside a car on Roberts Island in November 1984; the drive-by killing of a
motorist who had pulled off to
the side of the road in Alpine County in September 1984; the stabbing death of a Stockton
teenager whose nude body was
found lying in a ditch in Linden in September 1985; and the November 1998 slashing of
Vanderheiden.
Herzog told authorities he had only watched as Shermantine committed each of the murders.
Under California law,
prosecutors were able to charge Herzog with murder in connection with the mid-1980s
killings based on his own
admissions, court officials said. Without more evidence, however, the San Joaquin County
District Attorney's Office has so
far been unable to charge Shermantine with any additional crimes.
In all, Herzog has been charged with five counts of murder, Shermantine two. Families of
the victims in several of those
incidents insist the count should be even.
"I want to start laughing," said Vanderheiden's sister, Kim Wrage, 30, after
being told of Shermantine's remarks. "Does he
really think the public is that stupid?"
On Thursday, Shermantine suggested one or more bodies might have been hidden in an
abandoned mine shaft at a rock
quarry in eastern San Joaquin County. As children growing up in Linden, Shermantine and
Herzog often explored eerie
gold-mine shafts near a quarry pond off Shelton Road, Shermantine said. During drunken
conversations years later,
Herzog would cryptically remark that the shafts would make a "great place to hide a
body," Shermantine said.
"He'd get to drinking and crying and telling me about all the things he'd done wrong
in his life," Shermantine said of
Herzog. "Then he'd start telling me the places he'd put people."
Both Herzog and his mother declined requests for interviews Thursday. On videotape, Herzog
said Shermantine had
bragged over the years of committing as many as 24 murders.
"I don't think you can believe a word Wes Shermantine says," said Fox, Herzog's
attorney. "Loren has never stashed any
bodies anywhere."
Herzog told detectives that Shermantine either pulled the trigger or wielded the knife in
every murder the pair are charged
with. On Roberts Island, Herzog and Shermantine were riding together in a truck when they
passed a parked 1982
Pontiac, Herzog told detectives. The friends turned around, pulled shotguns from their
truck and approached the car.
Shermantine fired first at the driver, killing Howard Michael King, 35, as he sat in the
car, Herzog said. Shermantine then
dragged Paul Raymond Cavanaugh, 31, from the passenger door and shot him at point-blank
range before cutting open
his pockets with a knife, Herzog said.
Two months before, Shermantine and Herzog were in a truck on Highway 88 near Hope Valley
when they passed Henry
Howell, a 41-year-old Santa Clara resident who was drunk and parked along the side of the
road. Shermantine stopped,
got out of the truck and shot Howell with a shotgun, Herzog said.
In September 1985, the men picked up 24-year-old Robin Armtrout at a park near Del Mar
Avenue in Stockton, Herzog
said. Intending to go drinking together, the three ended up in a country pasture just east
of Shermantine and Herzog's
homes in Linden. Shermantine "got carried away," Herzog told detectives,
beating, raping and eventually stabbing
Armtrout more than a dozen times before leaving her naked on the bank of Potter Creek.
On the videotaped interview, Herzog says Shermantine bragged of doing the same thing to
Chevelle Wheeler. Shermantine
was investigated but never charged after Wheeler was reported missing in 1985, authorities
said. Samples of blood
matching Wheeler's blood type were found at the time in a San Andreas hunting cabin
belonging to Shermantine's family.
Recent developments in DNA technology allowed investigators to prove the blood came from
Wheeler.
Shermantine says that Herzog had a key to the family cabin and was good friends with
Wheeler. According to Wheeler's
parents, however, Shermantine called the family's home the day Chevy disappeared to
confirm that the girl still planned to
go with him on a mountain excursion.
With Vanderheiden, Herzog says he and Shermantine met the woman in a cemetery near her
Clements home after the
three left the bar after midnight. While driving back to Linden, Shermantine pulled a
knife and ordered Vanderheiden to
perform oral sex, Herzog told detectives. Shermantine then stopped the car near Waverly
Road, raped Vanderheiden and
slashed her throat, Herzog said. Detectives found Vanderheiden's blood in the back of
Shermantine's car after it was
repossessed Jan 22.
Herzog also implicated Shermantine in the 1994 shooting of a hunter in northern Utah.
Shermantine allegedly shot a
hunter while he and Herzog were on vacation, authorities said. Local officials in Utah
confirmed they are investigating the
unsolved murder of a hunter from 1994.
FBI officials seized almost $40,000 worth of guns from the San Andreas home of
Shermantine's parents last week. The
San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office plans to call in a small army of evidence technicians
to thoroughly examine the guns in
an attempt to link them to weapons evidence from unsolved crimes, including the 1994
murder of a woman in Tuolumne
County whose dismembered body was found in a burned-out barrel.
Shermantine says that other victims may rest with the undiscovered bodies of Chevelle
Wheeler and Cyndi Vanderheiden.
Said Shermantine: "With everything Loren told the detectives, I'd bet my life there
were other bodies out there."
This page was last edited by WebMaster Pamela on 05/04/99
